It is the latter and the Chicken Tax. The crash regs excuse is bullshit, otherwise you wouldn’t have vehicles like the Fiat 500, Chevy Spark, VW Golf, or Honda Fit for sale in the US either.

I would also like to add the very strange and contradictory view points of some local Republicans I have observed:

Hi, apparently you’re unfamiliar with the fact that the vast majority of retail workers in all industries don’t really like their customers, usually for very good reason.

Nah, don’t make excuses for Erik. He has almost universally shitty takes and a pretty blatant disdain for cars in general. I think a LOT of regular readers are tired of his takes, especially in a time where there isn’t much other content on Jalop.

We get it. You don’t like trucks. In a little over a month, you have posted three articles implying trucks are terrible. Don’t buy one.

In the midwest (which exists even though it’s not New York or Los Angeles), people drive trucks instead of SUVs and sedans. They can be just as luxurious as either of those, ride…

Nice to get your perspective on the people who put food on your table. Perhaps some people’s animus toward dealers should be directed at the employees as well.

Not driving it doesn’t change the fact that the lessor paid for it so that you could drive/not drive it.  They’re just looking for their money back.

“This will all probably get worse before it gets better.”

Apparently customers tried contacting Hyundai corporate about this and basically got a “well that sounds like it sucks, good luck” from them. After the media started reporting on it, corporate realized it was bad PR and reacted.

You don’t understand. He’s totally changed! He no longer supports those things that are unlikely to get him elected and supports those things that are likely to get him elected, whatever he’s told those are on a given day. He’s hip and cool now, daddio.

This was misappropriation of Mechanic’s Lien; they basically stole customers’ property and extorted them. They’re looking at civil cases, and maybe even criminal charges. Good.

Sue someone?

Sounds like a fairly typical Hyundai dealer to me. Hyundai (and Kia) really need to get a handle on their dealer network. They’ve brought the quality of their product up to an incredible standard (and it’s only getting better!) - but it’s all let down by the shoddy dealership experience. Execs should take some trips…

Did she also take out an enormous life insurance policy on you recently?

Harbor Freight may be the butt of many jokes, but they do have their place, if you’re doing a job you are only doing once, or are only likely to do once every for years, its probably not worth buying an expensive tool for it. If the HF version of that tool lasts through that job and maybe even the next one, but only…

I feel amazingly justified right now. I buy a lot of tools at Harbor Freight, and I’ve had to defend that practice on more than one occasion. My standard line is always “If the tool failing can kill me, I won’t buy it at Harbor Freight - Jackstands for instance.”

Never trust your life to any jack stand or jack. If you are going under the car, you slide a wheel & tire combo under there with you and place it so the car doesn’t tilt off of it and onto you if anything fails. A vehicle will NOT crush a wheel, and the odds that the wheel will punch through the floorboard and let the…

If it has a handle and hits things, Harbor Freight. If it stores things, Harbor Freight. If you plan on using it once a year and it is cheaper at Harbor Freight than at the rental place, Harbor Freight. If it has hydraulics, wheels, pistons, pulleys, any sort of mission critical circuitry, led readouts, any sort of…

I hope he’s taking it and I hope it kills him. I hope it takes out a bunch of his voters too.

Read the verrrry carefully worded letter; nowhere does it say he’s taking it.