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I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy

I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buy

bookofjoe

Comments (278)

  • haunter
    I live in Europe: My only “concern” about chinese cars (and I don’t mean chinese as in Volvo) that I am not sure you will get parts and service in 10 or 15 years. More than 500 unique models were released in the first 6 months of 2026 alone [0]. It’s like the wild west of Android phones 10-15 years ago. Brands you never heared about, never updated Android versions etc0, https://www.carscoops.com/2026/08/chinese-automakers-lauchin...
  • whatever1
    I visited China 5 years ago. All the fancy cars of the upper middle class were German. Audis, vw, bmws and Mercedes everywhere.I visited this year again. Almost none of the new cars were German. I did not see most of their latest models on the streets. And I definitely did not see a single German electric car.They now have a dozen of brands some of them under the tech umbrella of Huawei that provides the info-entertainment and auto pilot and they are everywhere! And btw the assembly quality was now reaally nice.No idea about their safety or longevity, but it was nice being driven in them
  • rajman187
    The Chinese have certainly taken over far more than just the Mexican market. You'll hardly see a Tesla in London these days, and while Toyotas were selling like hot cakes in Pakistan the dealerships have gotten huge waitlists for the Chinese ones now. As others have mentioned, the jury is still out on reliability and longevity. I can confidently assume a Toyota from 1993 is still just being broken in at 150K miles, no clue if the same can be said about these with all the varieties and electronic components.If they do one day come the American shores, I assume that's the end of US car manufacturers.
  • Animats
    Worldwide, gasoline-only powered cars are now less than half of worldwide sales.[1][1] https://electrek.co/2026/10/05/gas-cars-fall-below-50-percen...
  • jcomp
    Mexico is more broadly a showroom for all sorts of vehicles you can't buy in the US, namely those that don't meet US safety or emissions requirements. The Hilux being the notable example, though not covered in the below link.https://www.jalopnik.com/the-coolest-non-us-cars-americans-c...
  • dabinat
    There’s a lot of focus on the price of Chinese cars but they’re also beating US cars on specs too. Many have fast charging in less than 10 mins - provided the charger is powerful enough. And China is building the charging infrastructure to support that too, with 480KW, 600KW and even 1MW chargers.I would like to see Chinese EVs allowed into the US market to compete if not on price, at least on specs.
  • krunck
    I'd love to be able to buy an affordable electric car in a free and open market. Unfortunately I live in the USA.Having said that, if the only choice is cars with screens and touch controls...no thanks.
  • Hugada
    Just to add a different perspective. As a mexican, I often wonder how the future will look like for those cars in terms of repairability. I don't think lots of people are really pondering wether the car company will be here long enough to provide a reasonable amount of support for the niche technical issues that will arise.Most here might assume I'm talking about BYD, and although they are the main brand as far as I can see, Google lists more than 25 chinese car brands currently available in Mexico. I believe the future of that will be a lot of e-waste and problems for the electrical grid.
  • UI_at_80x24
    I noticed that when I was there. I was pleasantly surprised to see as many BYD as I did.That infact made me consider BYD even more seriously. Being able to see the car in person is far more impressive the a YouTube video.
  • mzajc
  • motionlessveloc
    https://wallhop.io/https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-en... (for connoisseurs who prefer their paywall circumvention without malware)
  • petcat
    USA bans the onboard Chinese automotive software for national security reasons, effectively banning Chinese cars.For all the talk about data and technology sovereignty in Europe about USA tech, you would think they would take that more seriously too. Instead Europe is flooded with underpriced Chinese cars that they have no control over.
  • nxm
    It's fine - no need for American car industry to be decimated like the German one is at the moment thanks to a flood of Chinese government subsidized EVs.
  • Havoc
    I do wonder what the US game plan is here long term. This sort of protectionism can work temporarily but isn’t really sustainable.And it’s not like GM and friends are catching up. If anything the gap is widening rapidly.
  • xrd
    Does anyone know if you can buy one in Mexico and drive it across the border?I imagine it is very complicated to own it long term in the US. But if it were legally registered in Mexico, could you drive it in the US for a period of time?
  • danans
    I noticed the same in India not long ago. Unlike in the US, there is broad cultural aspiration toward electric vehicles.Even tuk-tuk/rickshaw drivers (who are largely lower income) have EV choices, while in the US lower income workers - like rideshare drivers - don't have many cheaper electric options, since EVs are mostly priced for upper income people.It doesn't hurt that India has to import the vast majority of the petroleum it uses, and has unlimited solar resources.
  • gourneau
    Is there any reasonable cost-effective way to import these into the USA? Or is that path blocked due to regulatory safety things?
  • gchamonlive
    I see these comments a about future repairability and I wonder if Americans had the same general wary feeling when adopting Tesla cars.
  • paxy
    People make a fuss about China unfairly subsidizing its auto industry but this is exactly how subsidies should work.USA meanwhile has spent over $120 billion to prop up its own auto companies over the last two decades and has nothing to show for it except some very rich executives, and that is considered rugged capitalism at work.
  • ur-whale
  • bookofjoe
  • pstuart
    This is a vexing issue. I don't want to prop up dinosaur domestic automakers, but a significant chunk of the economy is tied to that. If they are quickly destroyed by Chinese competition the ripple effects will be huge.They need their asses kicked and should not be allowed to coast on protections by the government. Maybe it's not possible but it would be valuable to try and force them to save themselves. Under the current administration that is likely impossible.
  • sashaverg
    I used to live in Belarus (Eastern Europe) where you can see a similar trend in the automotive market. I drove many Chinese EVs. Frankly speaking, some of them are very good. Unfortunately, some are very bad. My observation is that the difference coincides with the type of ownership. Hongqi (FAW -- a state-owned enterprise) is ugly, the dashboard and the central screen provides bad user experience. On the contrary, BYD, Zeekr, Lynk & Co (brands owned by private companies) -- an example of good design, user research for interior.Xiaomi YU7? Yes, please. I would love to have one.
  • unethical_ban
    It would be extraordinarily simple to remedy this: Require by law the technical ability to physically disable all remote communication to and from a vehicle, and prohibit any remote communication requirement from the core functions of a vehicle.An operator should be able to use their vehicle with zero remote software use. No smartphone requirement, no onboard radio requirement. This may mean that certain features like FSD or navigation tools are disabled for safety reasons, but there are plenty of useful safety features that do not require live updates.From a privacy and utility perspective, this is a no-brainer. Second, as a software security layperson, I think this would largely eliminate any "sleeper cyber sabotage" security concerns that are cited for prohibiting Chinese vehicles.---Given how obvious this seems to me, I'm confident that we're really banning Chinese EVs for economic reasons.
  • radley
    ...yet."EVs you can't buy in the US yet." Give it a couple of years.
  • yieldcrv
    BYD cars were my biggest tourist attraction on my last trip to Mexico, it was what I was looking forward to seeing the most, as soon as I got out the airport and saw taxis using them
  • j45
    It's hard to imagine some times, but a lot of places in their own ways outside of North America are in the future.
  • throw867
    Europe preaches about human rights but no problem doing business with China
  • pelagicAustral
    [flagged]
  • brcmthrowaway
    OT but I'm in the market for a hybrid compact SUV.. anything good? Kia?
  • lysace
    I was curious, so I looked it up: 75% of electricity generation in Mexico comes from fossil fuels, mostly methane/etc gas.https://www.iea.org/countries/mexico/electricity
  • chinesedriver
    Submarine. China desperate to find a market for these dubious vehicles because domestic economy and market in very bad shape right now and getting worse.
  • cosmic_cheese
    I just wish that I could buy something akin to a modern EV version of a Honda Fit, Honda Element, or Toyota Matrix. Something that's affordable, not huge, and is a great town car but also brings utility and versatility highly disproportionate to its size and cost. I don't even care if it looks dorky.This is the exact type of vehicle that manufacturers selling in the US seem to have an extreme allergy to. If it can't be badged as an SUV, isn't saddled with a needlessly space-inefficient interior, and can't carry an exorbitant price tag it won't be sold.