Hey rock on. Seems we're on track to keep this thread "SMB Forum Friendly."
So....in the spirit of continuing this as an informative / non-political thread,
how's this for some wacky Tariff Trivia:
25% Tariffs on imported vehicles are nothing new in the U.S. --- we already have one!
It's called the "Chicken Tax".....and it's been levied on on all imported light trucks since 1963, courtesy of then-President Lyndon Johnson.
Wikipedia - Chicken tax
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
It's still in place, by the way......and that's why Toyota builds Tacomas/Tundras here in the US....and Honda builds the Ridgeline here in the US.......and Nissan builds the Titan/Frontier here in the US.....and it's why the new Ford Transit is made here in the US (even though it was designed in Europe and has been manufactured over there for decades....).....
......and it's why (most bizarrely), the Ford Transit Connect sold here (the little one) gets built in Turkey, but then in order to "duck the Tariff," it gets shipped to the USA with two rows of seats in place (which then legally classifies it as a passenger vehicle....) ....
and this is done even if its going to be sold as an empty cargo version here in the US....
(THIS IS WHERE IT GETS WEIRD: )
....Once it arrives here, the seats are stripped out of the vans at the Port of entry and are either junked or shipped back to Turkey. Presto! One foreign-built light truck, successfully shipped into the USA and cleverly dodging the 25% Chicken Tax.
If a tax gets passed, a loophole is quickly invented......
(Super interesting details on that Wikipedia page of how various manufacturers get around the Chicken Tax, by the way. Mahindra was going to ship their India-built pickup trucks here in "Kit Form" for some simple final assembly in the US. Fascinating.)