You can always do fast footwork and add epicycles, but by the time any theory predicts the observed tree structure as strongly as evolution does, it effectively is evolution. If the tree structure is not strong evidence for evolution, nothing is strong evidence for anything.
Cars are not tree-structured. There are a bunch of orthogonal variation dimensions. cars share frame technologies, engine technologies, tire technologies, etc. different companies have highly similar designs.
Today's post, But There's Still A Chance, Right? was originally published on 06 January 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was A Failed Just-So Story, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.