I work for an OEM and one of the wildest things I learned on the job is that up until about 2017, Mexico effectively had no vehicle safety requirements. It was basically just seatbelts and headlights and you are good to go.
This made it easy to bring decontented European models to market. US safety laws (Canada uses a lightly modified version of US FMVSS) are a technical trade barrier designed to prevent foreign automakers from entering without significant cost.
Ford can’t afford to sell their own cars here because the cost of federalizing them would exceed projected sales (smaller models have historically been designed by Ford Europe).
And that doesn’t even go into Ford’s legal troubles with CBP over the chicken tax (for the transit van).
The US regulations don’t benefit anyone except the useless, overpaid bureaucrats at NHTSA.
Brands like Renault, Peugeot, & Seat have been sold in Mexico without ever touching the US market. This isn’t exactly groundbreaking.
Yea Mexico is full of cars not found in the US, including the helix
and the Jimny!
Suzuki if you’re reading this, please bring it to the rest of north America!
I work for an OEM and one of the wildest things I learned on the job is that up until about 2017, Mexico effectively had no vehicle safety requirements. It was basically just seatbelts and headlights and you are good to go.
This made it easy to bring decontented European models to market. US safety laws (Canada uses a lightly modified version of US FMVSS) are a technical trade barrier designed to prevent foreign automakers from entering without significant cost.
Not just foreign automakers.
Ford can’t afford to sell their own cars here because the cost of federalizing them would exceed projected sales (smaller models have historically been designed by Ford Europe).
And that doesn’t even go into Ford’s legal troubles with CBP over the chicken tax (for the transit van).
The US regulations don’t benefit anyone except the useless, overpaid bureaucrats at NHTSA.
Based