4 ms·

Read up on the "chicken tax" for how long the auto industry has navigated weird assemvly games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax https://en.wikipedia.o

• walrus01 3mo ago
  I think my favorite part would be where they were unbolting entire seats and feeding them directly into industrial shredders. "Ford imported all of its first-generation Ford Transit Connect models as "passenger vehicles" by including rear windows, rear seats, and rear seat belts.[1] The vehicles were exported from Turkey on ships owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), arrived in Baltimore, and were converted back into light trucks at WWL's Vehicle Services Americas, Inc. facility by replacing rear windows with metal panels and removing the rear seats and seat belts.[1] The removed parts were not shipped back to Turkey for reuse, but shredded and recycled in Ohio.[1] The process exploited the loophole in the customs definition of a light truck; as cargo does not need seats with seat belts or rear windows, presence of those items automatically qualified the vehicle as a "passenger vehicle" and exempted the vehicle from "light truck" status. The process cost Ford hundreds of dollars per van, but saved thousands in taxes.[1]"
  • bagels 3mo ago
    I wonder if manufacturers are using LLMs to find all the dumb loopholes in the laws that they can.
    • sublinear 3mo ago
      If the law was that simple, we wouldn't need the rest of the judicial system.
  • khuey 3mo ago
    Ford ended up paying $365 million (roughly $2200 per van) to settle a lawsuit from the government over that.