Curbside Classic: 1951 Austin A40 Devon

Ooo, what a cute little car. Yes it is, if the pygmy look is your thing, but this A40 carries the weight of some serious world financial history on its skinny little tires. Like as in our trillion dollar deficits. Seriously. This Austin was the first import car bought in significant numbers right after WWII, which at the time was a godsend to Great Britain, helping to bail them out of their horrible debt load, the price of winning the war. But in the process, the Austin was the forerunner of an overwhelming import boom that hasn’t ended yet, and which has significantly affected our own economy and its crushing debt load. Was the cute little Austin A40 an economic Trojan Horse?

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  • Alan As the established auto manufacturers become better at producing EVs I think Tesla will lay off more workers.In 2019 Tesla held 81% of the US EV market. 2023 it has dwindled to 54% of the US market. If this trend continues Tesla will definitely downsize more.There is one thing that the established auto manufacturers do better than Tesla. That is generate new models. Tesla seems unable to refresh its lineup quick enough against competition. Sort of like why did Sears go broke? Sears was the mail order king, one would think it would of been easier to transition to online sales. Sears couldn't adapt to on line shopping competitively, so Amazon killed it.
  • Alan I wonder if China has Great Wall condos?
  • Alan This is one Toyota that I thought was attractive and stylish since I was a teenager. I don't like how the muffler is positioned.
  • ToolGuy The only way this makes sense to me (still looking) is if it is tied to the realization that they have a capital issue (cash crunch) which is getting in the way of their plans.
  • Jeff I do think this is a good thing. Teaching salespeople how to interact with the customer and teaching them some of the features and technical stuff of the vehicles is important.