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China To Build Cars in North America

Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
This is an interesting new wrinkle in the global automobile market. China plans not merely to import their own automobiles, but to build them in Mexico.

Do you think that if this venture is successful, we will see Chinese cars built in the US in the near future?

Would you buy a Chinese car made in Mexico and imported into the US?

What's interesting about all this is that China has become prosperous in the past by making components for other global manufacturers, but hasn't yet make the jump to producing their own complex electronics, machinery, etc. They make their wealth on components.

One wonders if this type of operation represents the next shift int he Chinese economy, where they compete head to head with other manufacturers of big ticket consumer items.

Full Story Here:

http://www.bendweekly.com/Worldwide-News/7766.html

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Comments

  • andys120andys120 Member Posts: 23,369
    I'd think twice before I bought a Chinese car, or any product where safe design was important. China's productive capabilities are stupendous but sound design and oversight is clearly lacking, if they can't make simple things like pet food and tires properly, how are they going to make a good car?

    [Ironically I'm typing this on a Chinese-made computer, perhaps I should be concerned about voltage leaks
    and shocks :blush: :sick: ]

    2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93

  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Yes but it's not a Chinese BRAND of computer, right? It's only made of Chinese components but branded by a better known manufacturer outside of China I would bet.
  • joe97joe97 Member Posts: 2,248
    Good luck, and I do mean that in the most sincerest form.

    The progress of the Japanese and Korean automakers would be a good place to study from, initially. They can learn a lot and have a lot to learn from automakers such as Toyota, Hyundai, etc...
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    The Chinese have a HUGE expanding market to test their cars on. They have come a long ways in the tractor business. I think their offerings are equal to my Kubota tractor after a few years in the market. The biggest obstacle will be a dealer network. It is very expensive to get into the retail auto business. No one wants to get burned with a poor product. They may be offered through WalMart. Stranger things have happened.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    The dealer lobby isn't likely to let Wal-Mart sell cars any time soon. :shades:
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Why not? Walmart will just buy all the dealers in America if it wants to. Maybe it could buy China....nah, probably not. :P

    Geez, service is bad enough at Wal-Mart LOL!

    Sears Roebuck used to sell cars (real ones).

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  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    From what I understand, the auto franchise laws put a lot of limitations on how you can sell cars.

    Sears used to sell the garage (and attached house) to put their cars in also. :)

    I wouldn't mind separating sales from service - buy the car at Wally World and let Chery service it at the (former) Ford dealer ten miles away.
  • fezofezo Member Posts: 10,384
    Darn it. Now I'm trying to remember what an Allstate was underneath it all... Kaiser or some such thing?

    Wonder what Wal Mart will call their new cars....
    2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,132
    Are Chinese parts as good as some of the others made in the Far East? A lot of the quality in a computer is the company knowing which parts to purchase. I can recall one large group purchase of computers several years ago and the power supplies turned out to fail, one-by-one, and they were nonstandard so they couldn't be replaced easily. The supplier of the hundreds of computers was rebuilding the power supplies themselves under their warranty. I also recall reading in a listserve of another person who bought a couple hundred desktop models of a well-known brand (not fair to point them out) and thought he'd have uniformity for boneyarding and salvaging the parts from the ones that failed. He found out he had two different types of boards in the computers--all same model purchased at the same time. He was aggravated but the idea of saving a few cents on parts by the manufacturer cost him the planning he had done. It probably left him with poor-performing computers.

    Expect the same with cars no matter what name or how it's marketed. But did we say the same thing about Korean cars in the past?

    2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,

  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Chinese BRAND of computer

    IBM Thinkpads are now made by and branded Levono, a Chinese company. They bought the whole IBM-PC division. I thought I read that the "Thinkpad" brand license was going to expire but can't find a link.

    Maybe some Chinese company awash in cash will find an established brand of auto company to buy to gain instant "respect" and market share in North America or European markets.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    I would think Chrysler would be a target for Chinese take-over. Or bits and pieces as they are sold off.
  • im_brentwoodim_brentwood Member Posts: 4,883
    GO to youtube, search for the crash tests of the "Brilliance BS6"......
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    has anyone caught an update on Chery and Cerberus and the new Dodge Hornet? The one that is poised to take the BMW Mini-Cooper head on?

    I know that Chery officials were leary of Cerberus taking over the company they were gonna build the little car for and once they read up on Cerberus they were going to meet with Cerberus heads and get talking about the Hornet.

    That was about a month ago and I've seen nothing else about it.

    Yes, China will build cars that American consumers will buy. Somehow WalMart and their $4 generic drug prescriptions should be involved somehow. GM, Ford and Chrysler think they're in trouble now, look out.

    This is not so hard for a guy like me, a iluvmysephia1 type of a guy, to imagine. I thought my Sephia was a fun little rig to buzz around in. Build was decent and the little 5-speed(no stereo, no A/C)was had for only $7,995. After a $2,000 Kia rebate. Once I bought some Yokohama 70,000 mile radials and Konig Diva wheels the little Sephia behaved in a much livelier manner on the road. Fun-fun-fun!

    Point is, since Chinese and Japanese people are buying our skyscrapers up and have been for many moon, and the Koreans and Japanese have us buying rigs out of their hands left and right(for decades)I see no reason to start excluding nations making themselves available to our dollars.

    Quality must be there, and it's funny, that guy that was gonna partner with Chery and bring us Chinese rigs(the same guy who brought us Subaru), his name escapes me...Bricklin!

    Mr.Bricklin acknowledged that the quality must be there from the start or don't even bring 'em in here.

    Bring 'em on. Funny thing is, I am all a part of Mitsubishi now and I'm so enamored with my Lancer GTS that the Chinese can build till the cows come home and I'll look but they've got some serious competition to overcome before those of us who used to buy Ford's part with our hard-earned pesos and pony up for a Chery. Gonna take something big. Big and large, shiny and exciting. Low cost is important but like Bricklin says, it's gonna need to offer something more and stay tacked together for the long run.

    Anybody think the Chinese Warranties can touch Finbarr O'Neill's Mitsubishi(and, of course Hyundai and Kia's Long-Haul)Warranty. Yikes, them are awesome Warranty's. :shades:

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,095
    I am not willing to risk a motorcycle with Chinese input...an entire car? No way.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    But lemko, you may be old enough to remember how we used to laugh at anything "made in Japan"?
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    Do you remember getting tin cars with Lucky Lager on the inside? I do. In fact I think my first Toyota had that on the inside of some parts :)
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    No but I remember laughing my head off when I saw my first "Toyopet". I mean, for a young kid, compare and contrast with a '57 Chevy!

    I do remember that in elementary school we would stick "Made in Japan" stickers on anything we thought was cheap and shoddy. Probably my Dad's stories of fighting in Burma didn't help my attitude towards Japanese products, I have to admit.

    But I got over it and now one of my cars is Japanese of course.

    Since the Chinese were my Dad's allies, I have no problem with any of the one billion of them, except that their open end wrenches expand too much and you can scrape your knuckles. I wish they'd fix that.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    If you buy tools at the 99 cent store they are probably not up to SK or Bone-con standards. :shades:
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    Oh "Made in Japan" was a joke even used on television. I remember seeing an episode of "The Flintstones" where Fred and Barney won a boat on a game show. Fred buys a captain's hat and tries to assert his authority over Barney, "Do you see what it says on my cap?" Barney replies, "Made in Japan."
  • fezofezo Member Posts: 10,384
    I remember when they released a Japanese single on the charts - Sukiyaki by Kyu Sackamoto (sp?). Was actually a pretty big hit. I got a free copy off a jukebox. A friend of mine saw "Recorded in Japan" on it and was yelling "Cheap! Cheap!"
    2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Nah I won't buy those crappy tools either...just grabbed something out of a friend's tool box and that's what happened. The tools LOOKED good, though, but the metallurgy simply wasn't there.
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    They look good enough for the price till you torque down on them. Hard on knuckles.
  • nn8bnn8b Member Posts: 1
    First, to the person who forgot what brand of car Sears sold, it was the Henry J by Kaiser.

    Second, I worked in China for 2 years. Even the Chinese engineers said they would not buy a Chery. The main reason was, they only produced it for Chinese consumption, therefore there were no "Foreign Experts" to show or tell them how to make the car. The Chinese are fully capable of making quality products and they will. They just need the "Foreign Experts" to show them how to do it. Since China entered the WTO and opened up to the west, their domestic products have had an enormous increase in quality. the factories see how to make quality products for the western countries and the technology filters down. Shanghai GM, Chrysler/Jeep, BMW and others have plants there producing quality cars made to the "Foreign Experts" specifications and they are learning extremely fast about quality. If it's a government funded venture the expertiese is readily available to all. I saw a great many items in China that I wish I could buy here in the US. One of which was the electric bicycle. In China I could have bought one for about $100 to $200, here they are $1500. China is an amazing place, an land of contrasts, where you can see a 3 wheeled bicycle truck carrying a load of computers to market. The computer stores selling the absolute latest technology while in the market fresh meat hangs on a hook all day without refridgeration. It's truly an interesting place to work and live. They will succeed. Their system dictates they will and they will not want to be one called a failure.
  • fezofezo Member Posts: 10,384
    Thank you. I THOUGHT it was a Henry J.

    I was only in China for a little under two weeks adopting a daughter but I know exactly what you mean with the contracts. One of the first things I saw that constantly amazed me was how you would see a new, modern apartment building and then next to it would be an ancient one with the top part already knocked down in anticipation of being next on the replace list while there are still people living in the lower floors hanging laundry out the windows.
    2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    Their system dictates they will and they will not want to be one called a failure.

    That may very well spell future success for Chinese automakers, right there. Ya know how we're taught about the Japanese work ethic and saving face up against all odds?

    Well, if the Chinese can become anything near the artisans the Japanese have become at carmaking, they are coming here with cars and we will buy them.

    Why would we buy a Daewoo, Toshiba, Sony, etc. computer or computer part and exclude a Chinese-built computer part. We want them cheap but we want them to hold up for a long time as well.

    It's the partnerships where the Chinese benefit from existing companies' engineering and manufacturing groups that is the missing link coming in to place now at Chinese carmaking factories.

    The Chinese building plants here in NA is a new concept though, indeed. Have not caught any word of that happening as of yet.

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    But they aren't going to be built in NA, just exported to here and Europe.

    CNN
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    America vision continues to pant on. We'll be getting some different choices in a couple more years, it looks like.

    Where is Malcomb Bricklin during all of this? Strangely silent as of late, eh?

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • rockyleerockylee Member Posts: 14,014
    Well it still has been silent as of September 24th 2007. I'm just glad it hasn't happened yet. :)

    -Rocky
  • gagricegagrice Member Posts: 31,450
    The Xebra is made in China and sold in the USA. Not technically a car. It is an enclosed vehicle that is all electric. I would say the first wave of cars from China will be Electric Vehicles. They are ahead of us building them in a price point that will sell.
  • harrycheztharrychezt Member Posts: 405
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20749191/
    NHSTA/Chinese work together for safer cars.

    http://news.windingroad.com/countriesmarkets/china/ford-could-produce-verve-in-c- - hina-for-worldwide-sale/
    Ford to(?) build Verve, in China, for worldwide distribution.
    Hope this is not too many links in 1 post.

    take care/not offense.
    Something to ponder:
    despite companies producing vehicles in countries with cheaper labor... we hardly see lower MSRP's(correct?).
This discussion has been closed.