Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of our local schools closing and sending everyone home. Hindsight being 20/20, we probably should have kept the schools open and closed the bars. For car buyers, there was a brief moment of lower car prices and lower interest rates. This was followed by a quick ascent in car prices as manufacturers couldn’t build more cars. The market has never really recovered if you’re a consumer.
The Morning Dump has been a little bleak lately and that’s solely a reflection of the actual world, so I’ve tried to counter the rest of the day with more upbeat stories about people racing RC cars. It’s the season of Lent and, for me at least, it’s a time of honest reflection. If I’m being honest, the automotive world and economy are in a strange place right now. Hopefully, this is just the bit of adjustment that leads to great days ahead.
As car prices have gone up, sales have gone down. Overall car sales in the United States are lower than before the pandemic, though it seemed like we were heading in the right direction in December. Unfortunately, all this Ross-and-Rachel/will-they-wont-they tariff nonsense and other government disturbance has stalled the market for an undetermined amount of time. Few automakers have been hurt as hard as Tesla, and we’re now getting our first look at Tesla sales data in the United States. The data isn’t good.
I am committed to not ending on a bleak note so… all of this appears to be leading to Germany, and in particular Volkswagen, remilitarizing. Now Volkswagen can make a little money in a new market to replace China. Remember nothing bad ever happens when Germany prioritizes military spending.
Car Sales Are Down 9%, Incentives Are Down 14%, ATP Is Up 25% Since February 2020
I think a lot of how you remember the pandemic is going to be based on your geography. Living just outside New York City and, specifically, living near one of the first “Containment Zones,” I remember the National Guard trucks. I remember having to wrestle with whether or not we should cancel the kiddo’s birthday party (we did, thankfully). Then I remember the stream of “In Memorium” emails as more and more people we knew perished. I remember the hassle and ultimate pointlessness of wiping down bags of tortilla chips. I try not to remember having to shield my kiddo from seeing the paramedics in a biohazard suit removing a neighbor from her house, certain that she, too, was going to end up in one of those terrible emails. It could have been worse, one of my daughter’s friends lived on the street where the refrigerated “morgue trucks” lined up. Others we knew were doctors or nurses and had to face every day what we merely feared we’d have to confront.
If you lived somewhere remote or in a warmer, perhaps more southern climate, the memory of the hassle might outweigh any terror you felt. But the terror was real for many of us and I think it’s important we don’t forget it, lest we foolishly repeat it. I say this not to darken the mood, but to acknowledge two key things:
- An increase in car prices, weighed against all this human suffering and lost potential, doesn’t mean much.
- Carmakers shouldn’t be judged too harshly for immediately freaking out and cancelling the supplies needed to make cars, most critically semiconductors.
The semiconductor shortages have faded, and now most automakers are capable of building as many cars as they want. Car prices, however, remain stubbornly high. Cox Automotive/KBB report that the Average Transaction Price rose 1.0% year-over-year to $48,03 in February, which is a bit lower than January. Sales incentives are up, at least, increasing by 18.6% over February 2024.
“February marks the five-year anniversary of the last ‘clean month’ of data prior to the global COVID pandemic that shifted the automotive landscape,” said Cox Automotive Executive Analyst Erin Keaing. “Compared to February 2020, ATP is up 25% while incentives are down 13% and monthly sales are down 9%. Auto loan rates are higher now as well, making new-vehicle affordability a real challenge for most households.”
“While affordability is a challenge for many households, six-figure vehicles continue to sell well and have experienced a four-fold increase in sales volume since early 2020,” she added. “The income divide remains a key issue for new-vehicle sales momentum, as the industry continues to count on high income households with prime and super prime credit scores to drive sales.”
There are some bright spots here, as the major Stellantis brands are showing decreases in prices. Tesla, too, saw Cybertruck prices decline by more than 10% from January to February as sales have cooled off for the new vehicle. There are still deals to be had if you’re flexible.
Why are prices still high? Trimflation and supply shortages have waned, but everything is still more expensive. New union contracts have made labor-related costs rise, material costs have gone up with inflation, and interest rates are still elevated from pandemic levels.
Of course, over this same period of time wages did go up, meaning that consumers had more money to buy cars. Wage growth, as shown in the most recent update from the Atlanta Fed, seems to be retreating.
The hope going into this year was that some good news on inflation and a strong economy would help lift car sales and regular prices. It’s still early, but it hasn’t happened yet. The stock market is down for the year, and inflation, while not as bad as predicted, hasn’t cooled entirely. The fact that the inflation report was a little better could boost markets today as it might mean rates will get lowered.
The ‘Suicide Mission’ Of Tariffs
In abstraction, tariffs can be a completely reasonable policy to balance trade between nations. If you’re a free trade maximalist, you might disagree and, also, if you’re a free trade maximalist you’re absolutely pulling your hair out about now. There’s no denying it now, we’re in a trade war. Individual industries and smart market participants can win trade wars, but nations rarely prosper due to the unpredictable effects of reciprocal escalations.
The above video from CNBC yesterday is quite striking, with economist and strategist Michael Darda of Roth Capital saying that pursuing a strategy of McKinely- or Smoot-Hawley-like tariffs is a “suicide mission,” pointing out the latter sent us into a period of time we now remember as the Great Depression.
“You have to ask yourself what the mission is here. And we’ve heard, you know, different goals. And it’s been a very chaotic period in terms of what the end game is,” said Darda.
It’s been hard to follow, but in the last day there’s been a back-and-forth over electricity rates and other reciprocal tariffs.
Later in the same segment, CNBC reporter Steve Liseman added “It is about the eighth reason we’ve had for the tariffs. And now he’s saying he’s putting 50% tariffs on Canada unless they agree to become the 51st state. That is insane. There is just no other way of describing it.”
To his credit, President Trump backed off that 50% tariff on aluminum and steel, dropping it back to 25%. Although that does put us in the awkward situation where the current policy makes tariffs lower on importing a whole car from Canada than on importing the materials necessary to make a car in America.
The President also tried this in his first term and, per this Automotive News report, most countries were granted an exemption, though it did likely impact prices:
A 2023 report by the U.S. International Trade Commission found that the original 2018 tariffs reduced imports of affected steel by 24 percent while increasing the price of steel products in the U.S. by 2.4 percent. Aluminum imports fell 31 percent, while prices rose 1.6 percent.
The report also found that the tariffs led to “decreased supplies of automotive steel products and increased input costs for automotive manufacturers,” in addition to longer lead times.
The auto industry is one of the largest consumers of steel and aluminum worldwide.
The ultimate goal of all of this, it seems, is to bring more steel and aluminum production back to the United States, though in the short term the impacts seem to mostly be increased uncertainty and increased prices for manufacturers. Also, the EU is planning to hit Kansas and Nebraska with increased tariffs on beef and chickens.
US Tesla Registrations Were Down 11% In January, Up 44% For Everyone Else
???? President Trump on Cybertruck:
"Look! I think I have a great imagination. Who else but this guy would design this? And everybody on the road is looking at it. It's amazing actually. That is the coolest design." pic.twitter.com/Za7tHgP3IL
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) March 11, 2025
Yesterday, President Trump gave what amounted to a sales pitch for Tesla on The White House lawn. This particular version of it was a bit strange, but President Biden also test drove a Hummer EV during his first term and this seems to have helped sales, so it’s not entirely unprecedented. Of course, GM hadn’t just given President Biden hundreds of millions of dollars.
Tesla needs the help. In addition to sales dropping in China and Europe, we finally have data from this year on the automaker’s registrations and they’re not great according to S&P Global Mobility via Automotive News:
Tesla’s new U.S. registrations fell 11 percent in January while rival electric vehicle makers enjoyed a 44 percent surge, led by Ford, Chevrolet and Volkswagen, S&P Global Mobility data showed.
Tesla generated 43,411 registrations in January, good for the No. 1 spot among EV brands and a 42.5 percent market share. But Tesla’s share fell 12 percentage points compared with the same month last year, the data showed.
Non-Tesla EVs delivered 58,777 new registrations in January, with double-digit and triple-digit percentage gains from a variety of Tesla competitors, according to the data, which does not include hybrids or used vehicles.
Musk, at the same event, said that the company would double production in the United States thanks to “[T’]he great policies of President Trump and his administration.” I should probably mention that, a close look at the math shows Musk probably already made this same promise during the Biden administration.
Building more cars while sales are expected to decline is quite the act of faith.
Volkswagen Sees A New Market: Europe’s Militaries
We’re coming up on the 80th anniversary of the US Army liberating the Volkswagen plant in the city of Mittellandkanal, where Kübelwagens (better known to us as predecessor of the VW Thing) were being built for the German army.
In addition to tariffs, the current administration has threatened a pull-back from the defense of Europe and, in particular, briefly stopped arms shipments to Ukraine. Where this goes is anyone’s guess, but European nations aren’t waiting to find out if the United States government would step up in the event of an attack so those countries are planning to ramp up their own production.
One company in Europe with a lot of excess capacity at the moment is Volkswagen. According to Bloomberg, they’re ready to jump into military production:
No concrete discussions have so far taken place, but the German carmaker is ready to advise other manufacturers on the development and production of armed vehicles, Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume said Tuesday during the company’s annual media conference in Wolfsburg.
“We have automotive expertise and are also available to provide advice, but at the moment everything is completely open,” Blume said.
European leaders have pledged to boost defense spending to shore up support for Ukraine after Trump halted military aid and stopped sharing some intelligence with Kyiv’s forces.
Germany has, since WWII, continued to build arms and Volkswagen subsidiary MAN Trucks has a joint-venture with military defense contractor Rheinmetall AG. What I’m saying here is that I’d love to see an ID.Buzz-based technical.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
While we continue our path through the naughty aughties, why not The Shins with “New Slang” to start the day?
Gold teeth and a curse for this townWere all in my mouthOnly I don’t know how they got out, dearTurn me back into the petI was when we metI was happier then with no mindset
Nostalgia is a helluva drug.
The Big Question
Which Volkswagen Group product would make the coolest military machine?
If you go whole Volkswagen group something from Scania or MAN for sure. The Scout vehicles seems like they would do decently and they are way bigger then they look. Amarok would probably do well.
I don’t know which VAG product would make the best military machine, but given our past experience with letting the German military loose on the world, I sincerely hope those German engineers stick with their current instincts and bury their triggers and launch buttons 3 layers deep in a screen menu.
And don’t forget the whole thing about being completely incapacitated by a plastic oil line that requires complete vehicle disassembly to replace!
Probably Seat or Skoda, but only because VW made it first with glaring obvious bad choices.
Edit: …I can’t read, but the sentiment still stands.
It’ll be a Ford based Amarok, that gets licensed out like crazy and we’ll end up with a (resurrected) Datsun for the India market. It’ll be the Mitsubishi CJ-3 Willy’s all over again
Which Volkswagen Group product would make the coolest military machine?
ID.buzz as ied….a buzz bomb
Now that Jello was ousted from the Dead Kennedys, VW might even be able to license the perfect song for commercials! Buzzbomb.
Geriatric Nostalgia Assault Vehicle…
President Joe Isuzu at it again after the resounding success with Lordstown Motors.
2012 Median Household Income: $65,740
2012 ATP for a vehicle: ~$30,200
2012 price of a loaf of bread: $1.43
2023 Median Household Income: $80,610
2023 ATP for a vehicle: ~$48,000
2023 price of a loaf of bread: $1.96
~22% increase in household income
~60% increase in ATP for a vehicle
~37% increase in price for a loaf of bread
The sound you hear is the sound of my balls being squeezed.
Is there not 2024 data yet? I imagine the numbers are even worse there. Especially if we can do it to now with eggs instead of bread! I know that’s a theoretically temporary, and explainable price hike, but still.
No, not in the charts I had access to.
https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-average-price-data.htm
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N
…and Matt’s chart
Yes, don’t you worry – the price of bread increase will catch up with the ATP increase. Have no fear.
What about the price of cake?
The poor have eaten all the cake.
That is why we can’t have nice things.
This is like a JRPG where the enemy stats climb at the same rate as the player character. Only we can’t backtrack to the 2012 region and grind for loot.
This also doesn’t reflect the billions that funneled upwards to the 1% during the pandemic and massive layoffs in certain industries post COVID hiring spree. The figures could and should be way better. If the median income was 160k, those eggs wouldn’t feel as pricey.
“This is like a JRPG where the enemy stats climb at the same rate as the player character. Only we can’t backtrack to the 2012 region and grind for loot.”
Perfect analogy
Speak for yourself. Now, where did I park that DeLorean I got for pre-purchasing the latest expansion…
Great call on The Shins, Matt!
Saw my first ID.Buzz over the weekend.
Anyone else get hit with the mud rain late last week? I didn’t go to Cars&Coffee because my Roadster is silver and it looked like absolute crap Sat morning.
that’s all I got as I’m keeping political rants out of this space at least today.
I did – I had been parked under some trees when the rain came and assumed it was dirt or sap that sprinkled down, until I saw articles about it.
Yeah, I figured it was something local at first, then I went downtown to a museum Sunday and saw it was widespread.
My sister said they had mud sleet one morning
I am sure MAN could build something militaristic.
I am very curious and would love someone to explain to me why Toyotas are still so damn hard to get. If car manufacturers are all back to normal, why is there a 12-18 month wait to get most Toyota models? My mom wants a highlander hybrid (or a grand), and she was told 16-18 months and that she could have no input as to what options it would come with. I looked briefly at getting a Prius PHEV, and was told minimum 15 months, and again I would get whatever they were sent and no guarantees they could get me a yellow one. Is Toyota purposely limiting production? Or is the demand just really that high for them that they can’t meet it even several years post COVID?
The cynical part of me says that Toyota would rather sell 1 car with $15k net profit (plus maybe some dealer markup) than to have 15 cars sitting on the lot with $1k net profit each.
It’s a messed up world, at least by US standards, where a “lot full of cars” is both an advertisement and a sign that your dealer is doing well. I think Toyota just doesn’t care about that. Our Honda lots are also really thin these days. Most of the rest seem to have normal inventory levels. Carmax is bursting at the seams because they’re thinking “Hey, I can sell a 3yo Toyota for brand new prices…since Toyota makes you wait a year!”
Right, but I would think that they would lose more than they gain from that at this point. I know 3 people who bought Kias because they couldn’t get the Toyota they wanted. Others who have gone to Honda or wherever else. Toyota is missing out on a lot of likely sales because so many people don’t really have the option of waiting a year or more for a car. I can’t imagine the loss of 10 sales is made up for by selling the 3 at a higher amount.
Yup. it’s an incredibly stupid move by Toyota.
Which is why I feel like there has to be more to the story. I can’t imagine they are intentionally throttling their production to that degree, but I also do not understand why there would be any other reason for their production to not be able to meet demand. Were so many people waiting to buy their Toyotas when production was limited that they have yet to be able to meet that demand? But even if that is the case, surely they could up production for a year or so to get there. I don’t know. It’s weird.
They contracted Fordvid during the pandemic and got slaughtered with recalls and quality issues.
Absolutely. Toyota has been a dream deferred for me post-pandemic. Numbers were always $100 a month higher than the competition. It also doesn’t help that their dealers really are some of the worst out there. It’s a low bar but, around here, they always clear it.
Oh really? I have quite liked most Toyota dealers I’ve dealt with, but I rarely go in for more than an oil change so my experience is admittedly limited.
Completely. I would almost definitely buy a Sienna for the family and maybe a Prius Prime for commuting, but the shortages have been going on so long, I’ve basically written them off as “not wanting my business.”
A few years ago I was looking for a PHEV to buy before the rebates changed. Once I found myself looking at one-way flights to Denver, followed by a 20-hour drive home, all to buy a Santa Fe PHEV, I took a hard look in the mirror and said “Nobody flies halfway across the country for a Hyundai” and that was that. Plus dealer markup on top of that, partly because they knew that a limited vehicle (only being sold in 5 states) would command a premium.
Make that a 4th Kia buyer because Toyota’s are unobtanium. 4 anecdotes – that must mean it’s data now?
Might be worth giving Tom McP (automatch consulting) a call/email. The car sites are showing a bunch of Grand Highlander Hybrids in my neighborhood.
If you can get her to go upmarket a little the X5 PHEV had some decent incentives on it before the end of the year which might cut the cost difference significantly. There are X5 PHEVs on dealer lots in my neighborhood, and if you need to order you are probably about 8 weeks out (maybe less).
Meh. She has a perfectly good highlander for now, and just decided that she doesn’t need to upgrade right now. The dealers local here also claim to have the cars, but when you call or go in they say they are presold and they would be happy to add you to the ever growing waiting list. No thanks for now.
My take is that many Toyota hybrids/PHEVs are built in only one or two plants in Japan. Although I can’t find any definitive data, I do know all Prii are. I was able to wait 2 years for mine, and understand many people don’t have that luxury. However, I knew what I really wanted and didn’t want to settle for a Camry hybrid or Corolla hybrid. YMMV, of course.
The Camry is hybrid only now and made in Kentucky alongside the Lexus 300 hybrid and RAV4 hybrid.
Same with the Sienna and Highlander hybrids, built in Princeton IN; the Corolla Cross hybrid, built in Huntsville AL; RAV4 hybrid built in Kentucky; Sequoia and Tundra hybrids built in Texas. Looks like they’re going to (eventually) go all hybrid before they really get into BEVs, but that’s just my SWAG.
Yeah the first couple months of the pandemic were kind of tense. But knowing that they reopened the bars a minimum of six months before they reopened the schools tells you how messed up our priorities are.
Were the strip clubs open?
Yes, but the strippers were in full PPE.
There’s a Rule 34 and/or fetish joke in there somewhere.
Yep
Ah yes. The latex fad.
Agreed, im no tee-totaler but it was ridiculous how NY (unfortunately my home state) spent so much more time and money trying to figure out home liquor deliveries than trying to keep our children from becoming brain dead at school. It was like they were trying to keep us drunk and “happy.”
It had more to do with people with serious alcohol problems. They didn’t need extra bodies clogging up the morgues and hospitals due to withdrawl. Kept them drunk and on their couch until things calmed down.
That definitely seems more of a priority than educating our young people.
I’m not saying I agree with it, but I do see the logic.
Yeah. Sadly for the US, schooling our children doesn’t make anybody any money… Booze definitely does.
Everyone is going on about North Korea, Iran….they don’t keep me up at night. You know who does?
Germany.
Think about it…about 100 years ago, Germany said “Hey, we need to start a war” and who did they choose as their opponent? THE WORLD.
And I know what you’re thinking, one country against THE WORLD, but it was actually pretty close.
Then about 20 years later, that mustache guy comes along and decides to start another war for Germany. And who did he choose as his opponent? THE WORLD!
–Norm, loosely. RIP
I instantly started reading this in Norm’s voice.
“I don’t know if you guys are history buffs or not, but…”
That might be one of my single favorite setup lines in standup history. Kills me every time. Sad that I forgot it, but was going from memory.
“You know, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don’t care for him.”
Not quite. Germany was only one Axis power. Germany choose as their opponents some of Europe, some of North Africa and the US, not quite “The World”. The Japanese also had their own plans for “The World”.
I’m going to tread lightly around the politics as much as possible, but I’m not sure it’s an apples to apples comparison. Biden generally promoted US companies EVs (albeit glaringly omitting Tesla), also including the Lightning. Most importantly though, is that Biden does not have deep financial, political, and personal ties to any one of those companies CEOs. This smacks of Elon cashing in favors left and right, and further emphasized the blatant conflicts of interest plaguing this current administration and it’s leadership.
No previous administration has been completely free of issues, but the current one is showing that nothing is more important that Quid Pro Quo, and the almighty dollar. I’d also note that this sales pitch was conveniently done right after Tesla stock hit red on the 6-month timeline, and it’s noticeably up today. I know as writers here the aim is to not engage in identity politics and keep articles as neutral as possible, but I don’t think it is fair to try to normalize this sort of behavior.
Also, I’m pretty sure the Hummer and Lightning photo ops didn’t use the White House as the backdrop. Aren’t there laws against this sort of thing?
I honestly forget specifics, but I believe you’re correct and those were at a convention center and were staged as a press conference type event. Also let’s be honest, there’s countless laws being blatantly broken by this admin (and eespecially Musk) but if there isn’t enforcement of those, then any pertaining to this certainly wont be either. Let’s not even get into the Supreme Court basically allowing the president to call this “an official duty” to get around any laws. I’m tired, and it’s not just daylight savings fault this year.
If you need specifics, and have a half hour to listen, Chris does an EXCELLENT job going through all the corruption…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hycoCYenXls
I can’t begin to explain how incredibly happy I am with Chris Murphy, and I am proud to have voted for him, and will be proud to vote for him again.
Ditto
This whole article was fucking depressing, so let me focus on what’s really important here. I think Michael Darda should have worn a nicer shirt to be on CNBC.
Looks like he’s sitting in the back yard with burgers on the grill and a beer just off camera. A little too much “random suburbanite has opinions”.
Yes! When I first saw the image I thought, “Can we stop inviting random schmoes onto talk shows in a transparent attempt to seem like we care about the common man??”
Thanks Matt. You nailed it and a lot of people seem to forget the terror of the first half of the pandemic before people got vaccinated. Considering 1.2 MILLION people died of it in the USA alone, it’s a damn shame people still don’t recognize how incredibly fucked we were before we got vaccines. I’m one of those that is scarred from it and lost several very close family members to it.
In this case, hindsight is also 2020.
ID.Buzz troop transport, anyone?
ID.Buzz with a railgun?
If you put a minigun on an ID.Buzz, would that make it an ID.Brrrrttt?
Just think of the range drain of a rail gun on an electric car.
They need to go car crushing arena truck level here, and call it Monster of the ID.
(And may the late great Leslie Nielsen rest in peace.)
Yes! ID.Buzz Cargo, paint it black on bottom, grey on top, with a red stripe and rear spoiler! If you need trouble, and if you can contact, the B-team!
Let the Canadians do a lend-lease and you can support with the Eh Team.
Bugatti, very fast that the enemies will not see them coming but they will miss the target and hit another country lol
And like all German wunderwaffe, they break down in battle and end up being abandoned and destroyed by their own crew.
Good that Tesla sales were down. I just wish it was by a larger amount. Musk needs to be gone, the sooner the better. Being booted out of Tesla would be the best thing to happen to him, as far as those of us not living in ketamine-land are concerned.
Musk is probably not going to be booted out of Tesla, and if he is, it won’t negatively impact his life.
Him pushing so hard for the Cybertruck and not building something more commercially-viable was all the proof anyone should need that he’s completely checked out of that company.
Not to mention the sales numbers he projected. 250k a year is ridiculous, even if it sold at the originally advertised price, it’s just too divisive to ever be a true volume seller. I’ve been saying this since they first unveiled the damn thing.
Hell, he can keep Tesla! Boot him out of this unelected position of Shadow President.
He has to lose one to be booted from the other IMO.
Not sure they can outdo the Schwimmwagen https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1944-volkswagen-schwimmwagen/
“Yesterday, President Trump gave what amounted to a sales pitch for Tesla on The White House lawn. “
On a global basis, I have a feeling that sales pitch from Criminal Trump will hurt Tesla more than it will help.
“Which Volkswagen Group product would make the coolest military machine?”
Probably something from the upcoming Scout brand.
Hells yeah. I want a Scout technical with a rollbar-mounted pintle for a quad-mount M249 setup for safely transporting my priceless haul of a dozen eggs through the urban wasteland to come.
Or a multi-barrel pneumatic arrow launcher for full “Road Warrior” cred.
Just don’t put all your eggs in one Cabriolet.
Eggs? I exclusively use the cabrio for strawberries!
I prefer them with puffed gummies
Yeah.
But wait till Muskrat get his hands on all those “raw earth” things for his battery building…
After the Turd screws the hell out of Ukraine.
Teslas prices will drop bigly. Bigly I say.
And all will be right in the world once more…Right? LOL. /s
Which Volkswagen Group product would make the coolest military machine?
Phaetons with roof mounted miniguns. Duh.
The Phaeton strikes me as more of a spy car, with oil slicks and smoke screens and stuff. Maybe the headlights fold back and missiles shoot out or something like that.
Oh, so the oil slicks and smoke are intentional.
Is it too much to ask to get frickin’ Phaetons with frickin’ lasers on their heads??
VW’s reliability would make it a perfect fit as a Russian army supplier.
I was at IWM London and the Tank Museum in Bovington a couple weeks ago. We got to see some T34/85 up close and personal.
Those things were built like shithouses. They look like shit out of the factory, but could sure take a beating and dish out some on those Nazi fucks. Shermans look like Caddys in comparison.
Them Nazis could only wish they had the Soviet reliability… reliably shit, but got the job done.
No joke, but Russian arms are incredibly reliable – they actually make great stuff that is cheap, easy to maintain and deadly.
Yeah the joke is meant to be at VW’s expense, not Russia’s.
I only wish Russia’s equipment had the “reliability” of a Mk IV.
Which Volkswagen Group product would make the coolest military machine?
I recall in elementary school drawing a picture of what amounted to a Porsche 911 on tank tracks, so probably that.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh they kinda did that during a time that the current administration is goose stepping towards.
Uno reverse, baby!