I love how the South Korean elite is basically all descended from the Japanese colonial elite, and that they are in their current positions because their ancestors collaborated with the Japanese, but most Koreans are stupid enough to fall for the same old Japanese boogeyman act every single time people begin to question the rising social inequality and rising corruption. It’s all just an act to distract them and they take the bait every single damn time.

I encourage anyone to read about the killing of Vincent Chin. He was a Chinese man who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a Chrysler plant supervisor and his laid-off stepson after they assumed he was Japanese. The killers didn’t get any prison time and the local judge noted that they “weren’t the kind of men you send to jail”.

Not sure how things work in Detroit but where I’m from, we lock people up after they beat someone else to death with a baseball bat in what is ultimately a racially motivated attack. Those two former Chrysler employees were losers of the highest caliber.

My uncle was an early adopter of Japanese cars and lived in Oshawa, Ontario during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Oshawa has a big GM plant and obviously people there are very invested in GM, and I imagine there were a few people who were salty about Honda and Toyota in the 1980s. Nobody torched his cars but he did get a lot of comments like “why do you drive that piece of Jap Scrap?” and he once came out to find his Civic had been keyed.

The comments basically stopped completely after he moved to Peterborough (small city about 45 minutes northeast of Oshawa) and nobody gave a shit.

I think Saturn would work great as an EV brand. Especially if you also brought back their famous no-haggle pricing model.

While there are all kinds of theoretical cool Saturn EVs you could have (Sky EV, anyone?) imagine a small, cheap Saturn with 2 doors, dent resistant side panels and a range of 400km. We will call it the Saturn EV2.

My dad was a huge Saab guy. Over the years he had a Saab 99, Saab 900, Saab 9000, and two 9-5s. The first 9-5 was totaled in a huge winter highway accident, the occupants of the other cars all had various injuries, some very serious, but my dad walked away without a scratch. After that experience he just immediately turned around, took his insurance payout and bought another 9-5. When Saab declared bankruptcy my parents both had 9-5s; one a sedan, one a wagon. That wagon looked legitimately good, better than the sedan IMO. And of course they were all very safe and very comfortable.

However, even a Saab fan like him would be hard pressed to revive the brand. He’s since switched allegiance to Volvo because, in his words, “Volvos aren’t totally boring anymore”, and Volvo also continued to innovate while GM slowly strangled Saab.

A resurrected Saab would be some kind of Chinese mockery rather than the real deal. Sometimes it’s best to let dead Vikings lie.

how would this change affect the more bourgeois areas like gta or vancouver is discussion worthy, everyone drives a flawless lexus or european luxury.

I think you use the term “everyone” very loosely. I would say mainstream Japanese and Korean brands are overwhelmingly dominant in Toronto.

My friend lives in Montréal and I can assure you that the parking situation there is identical. All the cars have scratched up bumpers, multiple dents, and often rust as well. People there generally don’t have super fancy cars; in Canada, we even have a term that refers to super base model compact cars: “Le Québec Special”

I was just trying to compare the Twingo to some of the least expensive cars still on sale in North America. I actually forgot they still sold the Mirage here. My friend bought a 2017 model used back in 2019 for damn well near nothing, so you think this car would be on my radar, but it ain’t. And apparently a facelifted version exists, but so far I haven’t seen it in the wild. You are right, and I stand corrected! The cheap electric Twingo can’t beat the Mitsubishi Mirage for pure low cost transport even over a 15 or 20 year time horizon. The Mirage is just too good at being cheap.

But I really don’t know how long it is for this world. People seem to hate it, and honestly I don’t understand the hate. My friend’s 2017 Mirage is good, honest transport, it’s reliable, sips gas, and is easy to park. It’s like a dollar store Mini Cooper.

Ah yes, yet another small fun and cheap electric car we won’t get in North America.

At $22k USD or $30k CAD, I can assure you this thing makes more financial sense than any new ICE car. Not only is the upfront cost only marginally higher, but assuming you drive more than 10k miles a year, it will pay for itself in fuel savings after only a few years when compared to another new compact car like a Civic or a Corolla.

And we’re back to the original cute Twingo styling! Magnifique!

Renault, I implore you, take revenge on Nissan and sell this chic little car in their most important market.