I wish that there was a hybrid version with better mileage since the Flex is bad for the city on gas. I bought the smaller C-Max but a Flex would have made a nice cool covert camper for the beach.

My parents put a lot of miles on their Flex, no rattles. Yes there are some fit and finish issues, but both my parents love it.

I’ll say this. The Chinese can make quality products when they want to, the question is will they want to?

Chinese brands become successful by doing what the Japanese and the Koreans did...provide a commuter car that is inexpensive to run and inexpensive to buy that meets or exceeds current safety standards in the US (including the IIHS tests that are harder). Parts availability must be good enough that any competent can…

I know what you’re talking about...My mother’s 99' Odyssey had so many sliding door problems including opening randomly on the freeway (always fun to slide shut a sliding door @70mph when you’re 9 years old...it was fun at the time...scary now).

Sliding doors arent too heavy when they aren’t power ones. The utility of a sliding door especially when using a wagon/mpv as a camper is unparalleled. I essentially want a Grand C-Max (cmax with sliding doors) but Ford won’t make a hybrid version or bring it to America.

Put sliding doors on a Prius V and I’ll buy it (I have its rival, a C-Max)

Rural ND/SD might have a problem if all the small town guys go belly up...the nearest service center for your new car is 110 miles away.

Rural ND/SD and MT have to do weird combos of brands to stay around...like a dealer by me that does Ford/Kia or another that does Honda/Nissan/Volkswagen or another that does Chevy/Subaru.

Harder to go to independents with a hybrid or electric.

About the no-haggle...one could merely honor the internet price when I come in to the dealership. The dealer that did and rounded the price up including taxes got the sale. All parties happy, the sale including test drive took a little over an hour.

Personally I’d like to see a manufacturer owned dealership with the some sales people being sales engineers (eng. degree or eng. tech cert.). Some of the best engineers I knew in college went to become sales engineers for auto suppliers because they could build anything but also explain to a bean counter why the hell…

There should be a list of those dealerships that do that, that instills zero confidence in me when i need warranty work done.

It wouldn’t get rid of dealerships in the boonies...those will still be independent owners....allow both. Survival of the fittest because a manufacturer will not build a dealership in a town of 500 (independent dealer might).

I didn’t have to at at a Ford dealership outside Detroit that I went to but that is extremely rare.

Place Jude Law from A.I. in a self-driving car around Philadelphia.

Hey...the C-Max isn’t that bad...

My point in this case was that something made in the US doesn’t exactly mean it’s great. Small cars has never truly been our forte...maybe it was 90yrs ago.

Chevy Vegas were built in the US...

Too Texas for Minnesota, but Bismarck west it is barely Texas enough for North Dakota.