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Comment by HughParry | Hacker News Reader

The new Audi Q9 is absurd - https://www.topgear.com/car-news/suvs/gargantuan-new-audi-q9...

What’s even more absurd is the Chinese vehicles in the same class have better tech and prices. German auto manufacturing is cooked unless they manage to legally block the Chinese in their primary markets.

That could be tricky because I think one of those markets was China.

I'd happily drive a Chinese car but I've yet to see one which has physical buttons for controls. They all seem to have gigantic tablet displays. I categorically refuse to buy a car where I can't adjust the climate controls while keeping my eyes on the road.

Well of course they are cheaper because China has much lower labour costs and they prop up their own industry. The same way they did with solar panels which killed the local EU industry for those.

However we can get one back at China and help our own climate goals more by not buying cars at all

How do lower labor costs explain the better tech?

Engineers are also cheaper, and electronics are cheaper so you can throw more at the problem. You have much less pressure to design towards a price if your costs are lower.

Well, of course this does not check out. Apple trounces Chinese phone manufacturers at all levels and their costs are astronomical.

Sheesh!

> 5.31m long, 2.21m wide and 1.81m tall

vs. the Humvee, according to Wikipedia:

- 4.57m long, 2.15m wide and 1.83m tall

Eh. Old American sedans were often longer. A '77 Ford LTD was almost 5.5M in length, while this is only 5.3.

I guess I do agree those were insane monsters of vehicles. I couldn't imagine driving one of those today in urban areas.

Apparently my 2009 Crown Vic is slightly longer than this Audi. I get more annoyed at how tall modern cars are.

And yet still in the standard "Jeep Grand Cherokee melted in the sun" shape. I wouldn't mind so much if the popular land yachts of decades past like the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado were revived, but today's most common passenger vehicles are still being made in the same boring sad-beige-mom shapes.

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