Comments on: China to take Detroit auto show by storm

By: sukamo

sukamo — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 16:47:45 +0000

I would consider buying a Chinese car AFTER they are completely reviewed by the major agencies, as well as some “independent” agencies. I am sure to keep costs low the chinese auto makers will compy to the bare minimum safety standards. You cannot have it both ways. If you want to sell a cheap car, you have to cut something out somewhere. I can imagine that the safety track record for the Chinese manafacturers will not be stellar. Reliability might be decent, unless they botch all the cut rate electronics they use. Their cheap junk on Ebay doesnt last very long, nor is it quality, but it is cheap. In the end they might not even be able to sell in the US becuase they will have to invest too much for safety revamps and re-engineering. Time will tell.

By: mao tse tung

mao tse tung — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 16:14:15 +0000

chinese junk.

By: Piablo

Piablo — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 14:08:10 +0000

“Thing2″, I somewhat agree with your statement about shortages in 50 years… but I am not sure how that pertains. Either way, it’s plenty of time to get a team on the drawing board and start developing some viable solutions..

#33, politics and nationalism have everything to do with this discussion. Will a vehicle from a communist nation that employs sweat shops and teaches their kids that the western world is evil, ever sell in this country? You don’t think politics and nationalism has anything to do with it? Politics has everything to do with cars in this country. Did you pay attention at all to the Firestone Tires debacle?

By: TritonVTEC

TritonVTEC — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:48:44 +0000

#23, Don’t you find it ironic that the V6 in the Chevy Equinox is from China?

By: v2

v2 — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:22:43 +0000

“If they can make cars under $5000 and last for 5 years, there will definitely be alot of interest in these cars.”

You can already get a $5K car that lasts 5 years, it’s called a quality used car. You’d be buying the same age technology anyways considering they can’t be on cutting edge of design at that cheap of a price point for a new ride. Although I am financially handicapped I can not imagine the day I buy a new retail vehicle even if it was feasable.
Even at a low-low purchase price…most people are still going to finance it(if they have the cash, they’d put $5k towards a better car downpayment and not buy one of these outright)…thus paying interest, thus paying higher insurance rates, thus paying higher taxes on the purchase, thus losing more on depreciation….thus costing more than a used car that just needs routine maintenance and repairs.
On a used vehicle the major depreciation whack is already taken and on good brands there is a floor at which resale does not go beyond. Not so when it comes to cheap new cars.

Maybe I read the attached article incorrectly but that maker had prices of high teens up to 30K. Doesn’t sound like any pricing advantage over the existing market offerings.

By: Toy Yoda

Toy Yoda — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 03:58:47 +0000

If they can make cars under $5000 and last for 5 years, there will definitely be alot of interest in these cars.

By: chi dell

chi dell — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 23:05:17 +0000

THATS RIGHT…….JAP CARS IS FAR BETTER THEN YOUR U.S JUNK PILE FORD DODGE CHEVY..

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 22:20:24 +0000

Thing2: that’s easy to solve. Invent a lame excuse to go to war, drop a few nukes here and there, and voilà! No more shortages.

By: VDub

VDub — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 22:16:46 +0000

its the same people like you guys who back in the 60′s and 70′s were making fun of jap cars and saying they “run on rice alcohol”. (where the term “ricer” originated from) and now jap cars will soon dominate the US market.

By: Saabaru

Saabaru — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:25:47 +0000

I thought this forum is about cars(regardless of who made them), period. You don’t like them, don’t buy them. Why the political and racist bullshit?

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:15:22 +0000

Thing2 I have one solution for you: Hydrogen.

Jon.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:14:45 +0000

For al those apposed to this, whatever happened to free markets? You can’t open the floodgates and close them when you feel like it and completely undermine the rest of the world. Its the US car industry’s fault why they aren’t doing well, period.

I’m sorry if you can’t understand why people don’t want to buy SUV’s to drive in Rome or why people purchase get crap-tacular Cadillac’s in Bangalore. The US auto industry has no one to blame but themselves.

Jon.

By: Thing2

Thing2 — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:03:46 +0000

Piablo, today’s projections only give us 50 years or so of more oil to last what we use(40% of the world’s consumption is US), now add the billions upon billions of Chinese using fossil fuels, not to even count the growing Indian middle class, and we have ourselves a serious problem with shortages for everything.

By: joeb

joeb — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 19:09:41 +0000

I wouldn’t be so quick to discount the Chinese impact on the US auto market. Seems to me that people were saying exactly the same negative things about Japanese cars when they first came out too and now look who’s laughing all the way to the bank…’eh?

By: JCwhitless

JCwhitless — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 19:05:50 +0000

http://www.chinacarforums.com/chinese_car_manufacturers.html has links to all of the chinese mfg.

It is a great read, with some pretty cool cars.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 18:15:04 +0000

Sigh…anonymous do you even read what you write? If a product is well built and looks good, how can it be garbage? How can they be ‘shit products’?

Jon.

By: Niels

Niels — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:52:31 +0000

WhatEVER, China. I’d rather buy GM.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:42:34 +0000

Yeah, the chinese are definatly not taking the detroit show by storm. Nobody cares about these vehicles and i can guarantee something like the production Challenger or something of that tune alone would eclipse these poorly built heaps of scrapmetal.

By: VDub

VDub — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:39:18 +0000

i’ve read a past article in LLN about BMW engineers actually helping out the chinese. german engineers + chinese labor makes for a good cheap car

By: Kinno

Kinno — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:12:17 +0000

Nobody in their right mind would want any of this Chinese junk.

I’ve read so many articles about China stealing technology, third-shifting products and reverse engineering products from every developed country in the world that I’ve seriously lost count. Not to mention I’ve actually taken a look at some of these chinese products, and even bought a camera, built off of this ripped off and stolen knowledge. Guess how well that camera works? It takes worse pictures than my cellphone. That’s not a joke. The screen is so shit I can’t even see what I’m shooting half the time.

That and the fact that, out of principal, I find it hard to buy products loaded with stolen tech. And in many cases, of course, stealing and copying tech doesn’t lend proper understanding of such said technology, and leads to horrible reliability and malfunctions, etc.

And while having my chinese camera work like shit and just altogether stop working on day is just an annoyance, it’d be a whole other matter in a car where such problems could lead to having one’s head end up in their windshield.

By: Piablo

Piablo — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:00:07 +0000

#11, just speculating. That is roughly the tariff the US charges for Japanese imports. The actual amount all depends on what piece of the market their cars will compete in and what US brands are pricing at. The main point in a tariff is to make Detroit competitive with countries who have much cheaper labor.

By: 190e

190e — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:33:47 +0000

hahaa chery sells the old seat toledo from the early nineties

By: Whipcrackaway

Whipcrackaway — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:14:52 +0000

I refuse to shop walmart because the Walton family is greedy and has a lousy track record on employee rights. The Chery QQ is so close to the Chevrolet Matiz that GM is suing Chery, as some parts appear to be interchangeable between the Chery and The Chevrolet. The Chinese are no respectors of human rights or intellectual property rights, why should I buy their products?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:03:26 +0000

All you China haters can’t seem to wait to make your weekly trips to Walmart – China’s retail representative to the World.

j i m

By: Toy Yoda

Toy Yoda — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:53:14 +0000

Hehe…. thanks for the link. The yellow QQ car looks like a Pokemon Pica Chu.

By: snodgrass

snodgrass — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:51:13 +0000

This is the end of the world as we know it.

By: Toy Yoda

Toy Yoda — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:25:33 +0000

is that an established tariff or are you speculating a 5-10k tariff?

If I can buy a car for as much as a highend mountain bike, I will, I don’t care if the quality is bad. If the car can last 2 years, and cost less than $4000, that would be fantastic. I saw an article on edmunds.com/insideline about a china SUV which cost $7k. If that could last 5 years it would make for a good disposable car. if it can last longer, that would be sweet indeed.

By: Dago Wop Wop

Dago Wop Wop — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:24:11 +0000

The Geely range seems confused and overlapping. Anyone who cares about cars will probably not want a Chinese car for at least 30 years. Yugo couldn’t sell cheap cars in the US and I doubt the chinese will be able to either

By: Piablo

Piablo — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:12:25 +0000

#5, that’s a pretty positive outlook! I suppose you would be correct if there were in fact an oil shortage. Someday there will be, but not in our lifetime. The shortage here in the ‘states’ is a manufactured shortage caused by not allowing new drilling or new refineries in this country. Well, and of course corruption. But aside from that, China will be able to manufacture goods very cheaply for the forseeable future, as long as they continue to artificially hold the value of their currency as low as they do. They could sell a car here as cheap as a high end mountain bike if it wouldn’t be for the $5000 to $10,000 per vehicle tariff the US will charge.

By: DaveO

DaveO — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:01:32 +0000

Shame the new Sebring isn’t going to look as good as this rendering.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 14:58:15 +0000

if you wanna trade your life for cheap cars. chinese cars will be a fine choice

By: 190e

190e — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 14:48:19 +0000

http://www.geely-global.com/

By: Thing2

Thing2 — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 14:22:41 +0000

#3, I’m not so sure that China will be able to produce goods cheaply as they once did since their economy has grown enough that they will become a purchasing power and drive up the costs of labor and the demand (and therefore the price) of goods made in China. Because the overpopulated China will begin using more oil, we will hit a recession as gas will become too expensive, and then we’ll be forced to finally switch over to hybrids, electric, biodiesel, and hyrdrogen.

By: Veda

Veda — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 14:18:42 +0000

Toyota Vios back with A4 sides and what clone front?

By: Veda

Veda — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 14:17:34 +0000

#2 who gives a damn about your opinion… when it comes down to $, the cheapest is always a popular choice. They’ll be successful here in US especially in this economy.

By: Chinky Jap

Chinky Jap — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 13:55:57 +0000

It will be a cold day in hell before I buy a car made by those slitty eyed bastards

By: ss

ss — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 13:35:46 +0000

i am interested to see what brands style these companys are going to copy or if they will try to do there own thing.