THINKING ALOUD

Chinese cars are loaded with dazzling features. That could spell trouble

Content is king, until it isn’t

    • With a brutally competitive home market and largely unknown names abroad, Chinese brands have used lavish content as the quickest way for their products to earn a second look.
    • With a brutally competitive home market and largely unknown names abroad, Chinese brands have used lavish content as the quickest way for their products to earn a second look. PHOTO: NYTIMES
    Published Wed, Jul 22, 2026 · 07:00 AM

    THE car industry has a gift for language, though at times that language is gobbledygook. In this business, a car’s body has a “beltline” and a “shoulderline” but for some reason, the belt sits higher than the shoulder.

    Either car designers’ grasp of anatomy is akin to Picasso’s, or the trade sees fit to play fast and loose with words.

    What, then, to make of a word like “decontenting”? The term refers to the practice of taking things out of a car to save money, hoping that no one will notice.