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Chinese Auto Market

steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
If you've been to China, or you live there now, or if you are just following the growth of the Chinese auto market, please post your impressions in here.

Comments

  • realno6realno6 Member Posts: 5
    edited May 2010
    Hello everybody,I am a auto-fan from China interested in auto shows and the cars made in America.I think the culture of auto in American is amazing to me,while I cannot understand the expertise of auto,or the idiom of your speaking about cars,could somebody tell me the way i can get my knowlege enough for reading your articles or comments.Thanks a lot.
    By the way,i am employed by a national car trading company in China,to my knowledge,Buick Enclave sold in China for 87,753.5USD,How do you Americans think about it. This model sold bloody good in China,some dealers even charge for 5,000USD more than the official price,and waited for 3month,it really happened in China.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    “We’ve been given a second chance,” says Federico, the chief engineer on the new Regal, which rolls into showrooms over the coming summer. The success, or failure, of the new sedan will likely prove whether GM officials, working with the White House auto task force, made the right decision. "

    Buick may owe its survival to China (MSNBC)
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "Beijing's municipal government Thursday unveiled sweeping measures to curtail the number of cars sold in the city next year, in a bid to ease traffic chaos that could prompt similar moves in other Chinese cities and deepen an expected slowdown for the auto industry.

    China last year overtook the U.S. as the world's largest auto market, as the nation's rising middle class shuns bicycles and public transport and embraces cars instead. But Chinese cities have been unable to adapt quickly enough to the rapid rise in car usage, and increasingly face paralyzing traffic conditions."

    Beijing Cracks Down on Car Buyers (Wall St. Journal - may be a registration only link)
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "Troubled Chinese battery producer and automaker BYD Co. will launch its North American operations on Monday with the grand opening of its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles. The company said the facility will bring an estimated 150 green-collar engineering and management jobs to the city.

    Warren Buffett-backed BYD has seen its net profits crash from 3.79 billion yuan ($595 million) in 2009 to 2.52 billion yuan ($395 million) in 2010 and to 275 million yuan ($43 million) for the first half of this year."

    BYD To Open U.S. Headquarters Monday (AutoObserver)

    image
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "The draft regulation contains stringent guidelines that would require carmakers to offer warranties of least two years or 40,000 km for vehicles, and three years or 60,000 km on vehicle powertrain and steering systems.

    But the most contentitious clause would permit customers to return a vehicle free of charge if serious safety problems due to quality defects arise within 30 days of purchase.

    In addition, customers can return vehicles that are not safe or seriously flawed if two repairs fail to solve the problem, according to the draft."

    Wrangle over auto warranty regulation (China Daily)
  • vchiuvchiu Member Posts: 564
    edited November 2011
    EURO NCAP, the European Crash-test programme, tested 2 chinese-brand cars :
    the MG 6 and the Geely EMGRAND

    http://www.euroncap.com/results/mg/6/2011/467.aspx
    http://www.euroncap.com/results/geely_emgrand/ec7/2011/462.aspx

    Both got 4 out of 5 stars.

    To put things in perspective, the Brilliance BS4 was tested with the same protocol in 2009 by ADAC, and got no (Zero) Stars.
    http://www.autoblog.com/photos/brilliance-bs4-adac-crash-test/
    Chinese manufacturers were condescendingly dismissed at that time.

    Today is a very different story.
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    Just wait until Geely implements the Volvo safety technology they now own into the Geely brand cars...
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    Condescendingly dismissed? BS. They were dismissed because they were making garbage.

    Buy and steal enough IP and eventually you will become stable.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited December 2011
    This may be more applicable to the Buying American Cars What Does It Mean? discussion but it gives a little insight into the Chinese domestic market.

    "This month, Honda Canada began receiving its smallest model, the Fit, from China instead of Japan, as part of a strategy to produce more vehicles outside its home country.

    “There’s been much talk about Chinese cars being sold in North America, but we hadn’t seen that yet,” said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst with Edmunds.com, an automotive research Web site. “These are from a well-known, major global automaker, so that eliminates some of the challenges that face Chinese automakers.”

    In Canada, a Car Built in China (NY Times)
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    Honda has an excellent recent track record of good decision making, this couldn't be anything but smart.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "An Australian recall by China’s two biggest car exporters for potential cancer-producing asbestos parts may threaten plans by Chinese automakers to expand into the U.S. and Europe amid intensifying competition at home.

    “It’s a significant setback for the individual companies and development of the industry,” said Michael Dunne, head of industry researcher Dunne & Co., in a telephone interview yesterday. “Chinese car companies will continue to push overseas, but you can bet that other countries that they are moving into, or are exporting to, are going to take a closer look on what’s on offer.”

    Asbestos Recall in Australia Clouds China Automaker Plans (Bloomberg)
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    Shocking!

    I'd start using a motorcycle or bicycle before I'd buy a Chinese car. Sadly, we already have Chinese motorcycles (known to be awful) and loads of Chinese bikes here.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Time to turn out the lights.

    "The Chinese auto industry has grown tenfold in the last decade to become the world’s largest, looking like a formidable challenger to Detroit. But now, the Chinese industry is starting to look more like Detroit in its dark days in the 1980s.

    Inventories of unsold cars are soaring at dealerships across the nation, and the Chinese industry’s problems show every sign of growing worse, not better. So many auto factories have opened in China in the last two years that the industry is operating at only about 65 percent of capacity — far below the 80 percent usually needed for profitability."

    China Confronts Mounting Piles of Unsold Goods (NY Times)
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    Doesn't surprise me. China has a built a bunch on uninhabited cities in anticipation of people moving there. Wonder if they're looking at the U.S. as a place to dump all this garbage?
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Talk about a housing glut. Crazy. (Realty Biz News)
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    If those ghost cities aren't maintained, they will quickly fall apart. Any neglected property will quickly fall into disrepair. I'm sure if Chinese construction methods and quality are as suspect as their manufacturing quality, the decay will occur much more rapidly. China might find itself with a bunch of massive rapidly decaying slums. I'm sure there are PLENTY of poor Chinese living in primitive conditions. Why not tlet them live in these places to maintain them instead of letting these properties rot empty and exposed to the elements?
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited August 2012
    They can't afford to buy cars, much less afford to maintain those new housing units. But you're right, may as well let people live there instead of letting the elements wear them out. Most are probably too far from jobs for the poor people though.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    Looking to? They have been for some time.

    I like the original article, "challenger to Detroit". Ha. I know the big 2.5 have been at their knees for awhile, but they aren't quite that dead yet. An economy built on glorified slave labor and a wildly corrupt embezzlement based public sector with shoddy dealings everywhere can only last for so long. The smart ones have been buying their way out for years.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited September 2012
    "Swedish car maker Volvo Car Corp. on Wednesday warned that the auto boom in China appears over, as the company reported a sharp decline in operating profit for the first six months.

    "The outlook for the second half of the year is difficult and it will be a challenge to maintain investments," Chief Executive Stefan Jacoby said in an interview.

    Separately, General Motors Co. and its Chinese joint ventures said their auto sales rose 7.3% last month in a sign that larger car makers are still expanding."

    Volvo Pares Output on China Slowdown (WSJ)
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Ford and GM did well, but not the Japanese brands.

    "A Chinese industry group says auto sales in September declined as customers avoided Japanese brands amid a dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over a group of uninhabited islands."

    China auto sales fall as Japanese brands shunned (Detroit News)
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    Watch out for those airbags Fun video, too.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "GM will likely see an immediate increase in sales as Japanese automakers face a tough sell due to the current political dispute between China and Japan," Namrita Chow, a Shanghai-based analyst at IHS Automotive, said in an email.

    "GM and (Volkswagen AG) are the best placed to ramp up models in dealerships and push further promotions to win customers who are cash-ready but reluctant to buy Japanese."

    China-Japan dispute could give Big 3 boost (Detroit News)
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "The dispute between Japan and China over island territory continued last month to benefit U.S. automakers.

    Ford Motor Co. sales jumped 48 percent in October, and General Motors Co. sales increased 14 percent in China, the automakers said Monday.

    Toyota's China sales in September and October were nearly sliced in half; Nissan Motor Co. sales dropped 41 percent last month."

    U.S. automakers' sales up in China for October (Detroit News)
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    is Ford having the quality problem in China with it's newly-produced cars, too?

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    I don't think Ford has much of a presence there, compared to GM and VW
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited November 2012
    "General Motors' sales in China rose 14.3% in October, and Ford reported a 48% increase even as the country's rate of economic growth slowed.

    Ford is a much smaller player, but the 60,518 vehicles sold in October were up 48% from a year ago, and sales are up 14% through 10 months.

    The Focus, which Ford now builds in Chongqing, is driving sales as the automaker expands its manufacturing and dealer base in China. Focus racked up a record 33,614 wholesale vehicles sold in October and more than 221,000 year-to-date.

    "Together with our partners, we are delighted the Ford Focus has been the best-selling nameplate in China," said Dave Schoch, CEO of Ford China."

    GM, Ford sales in China rise despite slowdown in economic growth (Detroit Free Press)
  • hpmctorquehpmctorque Member Posts: 4,600
    edited November 2012
    From the New York Times...

    By MICHAEL WINES
    Published: November 16, 2012

    "IN 1994, China’s Communist rulers decided that the gluttony of party officials with unfettered access to money and privilege was soiling their brand. Indeed, the rulers’ own penchant for black Mercedes stretch limousines sparked no small amount of comment in what was then mostly a nation of bicyclists.

    So to set an example, they gave them up. And switched to being chauffeured about town in black Audis, the windows tinted a dusty gray..."
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    And "big shot" there means cronyism, dependence on sweatshop labor/blood money, towing the political party line, and embezzlement. Maybe not an image Audi wants in the rest of the world.
  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    The Mercedes 600 Pullman is the conveyance of any good dictator in a third world kleptocracy though the 1976 Lincoln Continental runs a close second.
  • hpmctorquehpmctorque Member Posts: 4,600
    I agree with your first sentence. However, despicable people and bad images don't seem to tarnish the image of the cars they choose, historically. I can't think of one example to the contrary.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,096
    Good point. If anything, evil sells.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    "Ford Motor Co. set a sales record in China for the third consecutive month in November and bolstering its effort was sales of its Focus compact car.

    Ford China registered 67,505 sales in November, up 56 percent compared to the same month last year. Ford China sales are now up 18 percent through the first 11 months of 2012."

    Ford sets sales record in China for third consecutive month (Detroit News)
  • iluvmysephia1iluvmysephia1 Member Posts: 7,704
    edited December 2012
    Ford is set to prosper big-time in China, if they're not already. The Fiesta ought ta do well there, too, though I'm not certain Ford's Chinese counterpart in production, Changan, makes the Fiesta for Chinese consumption. Though I'd be shocked if they didn't. It should be an absolute natural for China, the Ford Fiesta.

    They do.

    2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick

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