P.S “bigs4610: TAX THE FCUK OUTTA THESE PRICKS”

How about you tax the fcuk outta US companies who outsource your job to keep 75% of your paycheck for themselves in the first place buddy??? Globalization isn’t what it seems now, is it ??? lol

Good points, but the Chinese and Indian makers will have one major advantage that no automaker has ever had: A line-up of empty dealerships looking for something to sell. All of those scorned GM, Chrysler, and Saturn dealerships will be looking for something to sell, and any loyalty they may have had (a dealer saying “ain’t no way I’m putting that POS in my showroom”) will have withered dramatically, thanks to their treatment of their franchisers. Now that same dealer would say “I’ve got to sell something or go bankrupt” at the very least, and many would also be saying “and if it hurts GM/Chrysler/Saturn, all the better”.

Oh wait…they’d still be stuck trying to sell a $25k old truck verus a $15k old truck nevermind…

True today’s car market is not the same as when Honda and Toyota started in the US. But II think the Chinese and Indian will follow the footstep of Hyundai, which started in the late-80s, but really didn’t make a mark till the mid-90s. That’s only 15 years ago, and we still have roughly the same number of car brands today (after the French, Italian exited, as well as seeing Yugo, Daihatsu, Eagle and Geo folded).

Also, Hyundai was the laughing stock then, but its product has seen a quantum leap since 2000, a mere 9 years. Who is to say the Chinese and Indian can’t do the same in another 9 years? As to price point, even the Koreans are moving up market, leaving room for the Chinese and Indian to come in with a barebone model and lower price point. This means sacrificing luxury items like navigation, ipod hook up, Bose speakers, etc., but I don’t see it necessarily as sacrificing safety and quality.

I will add in too the fact that much of today’s cars parts are already being built in China, so costs there would be about the same, so I don’t see where these cars are going to be less expensive, except if they do use inferior quality.

As for quality: Honda, Toyota, VW, et al started off at the bottom of the heap too. More recently, Hyundai has gone from bottom of the barrel (you Americans didn’t get the dreadful 1984-87 Pony or Stellar, so you can’t appreciate how truly horrible Hyundai was) to top of the game. Anyone who thinks the Indian and Chinese automakers will not improve in quality very quickly has their head in the sand, and should consider getting a job at the “old” GM or Chrysler, where deluded thinking was the norm. It is with great peril that any manufacturer ignores these east Asian startups.

Same goes for Tata. The Nano is indeed laughable, but it is also a modern day VW Beetle (certainly moreso than that silly “New Beetle”. The Nano will succeed for the same reason the original Beetle did.