Posted on 06/11/2005 6:46:30 AM PDT by voletti
Korean cars gave Detroit fits in the late '90s by undercutting domestic small cars on price and outdoing them on quality -- then moving up into other segments. Autos from China could provide more lower-cost competition for the Big Three at a time when GM and Ford Motor Co. (F ) are already reeling. That could cost them, along with Chrysler (DCX ), more market share and prod them to move more of their own production offshore.
How fast can the Chinese gear up? The way things are going, it won't take 20 years to match Toyota Motor Corp. (TM ) quality levels, as it did for the Koreans. And with Chinese auto assembly workers earning $2 an hour -- vs. $22 in Korea and nearly $60 in the U.S. for wages and benefits -- it may not be long before China has the wherewithal to start selling competitively priced cars overseas. "The Chinese are probably five or six years away from being able to sell a competent low-end car," says auto analyst Maryann N. Keller.
The Chinese government is putting its heft behind the export push -- subsidizing the export drive of such local players as Chery and giving the likes of Honda big incentives. Beijing also is nudging foreign auto makers to divert investment into export production so local partners can become familiar with managing foreign-exchange risk and global supply chains. It's also pushing domestic companies such as Chery, Geely Auto, Brilliance China Automotive (CBA ), and Shanghai Automotive Industry to develop their own brands overseas.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
"And with Chinese auto assembly workers earning $2 an hour -- vs. $22 in Korea and nearly $60 in the U.S. "
--Hell, I don't even make 60$ an hour, i'd have to sell my body to make 60$ per hour, no one assembling cars should make that much!!
Tort reform and non-union shops would go a long way in re-industrializing the Great Lake States.
Having union protected alcoholics/addicts building cars and getting sued daily is not condusive to a productive environment.
China abandoned communism a long time ago.
Power grows out of the barrel of a carburetor.
"I just hit 20k miles without any problems whatsoever"
Screw them all, i'll just keep my Chevy PU with 1.2 million miles on it!
It's 40 years old but not really since I had it sidelined for 10 years.
When? A hundred years ago? Some labor unions may have been founded because of worker mistreatment. Most labor unions exist today to concentrate power in the hands of crooks and thugs. Their main goal is to keep membership up by restricting productivity. Any "benefits" they get for the workers ultimately cost union jobs. Those areas where workers are free of union interference are thriving while forced union membership is killing industries in this country. The "concessions" given by unions don't put the cost of union labor in the fair market range and are usually accompanied by some other benefit which increases the cost of doing business.
You all think this is kind of funny I think. I lost a manufacturing business to the Chinese. I had to pay worker's comp, and pay taxes on my employees. In China there is virtually no labor cost due to slave labor conditions.
Chinese will be mandatory in our public schools within a few years. Chinese will be the international language. The USA will be a 3rd world country. We are idiots for whoreing out our manufacturing wealth so we can shop at Walmart. We truly deserve this.
There was a time when buying an American car meant all of the part in the car were American made also.
Nafta changed all of that. So Amercian car components are imported from every place on the planet.
Just like illegal immigration American Cars have Illegal Immigration Parts making them not really American Cars anymore.
When that happened all bets were off on buy American and I also used to feel guilty buying a Japanese car, not anymore.
I will never buy anything from CHINA.
Most union members in the U.S. run the Federal government. Do your homework.
Why not? Making cars sounds so boring, you'd have to pay me more than that to get me to do it.
Its our fellow american robber barons fast buck artists doing the importing from china. And its all the USA citizens buying the crap from china. And its the govt letting this all happen.
They tax the crap out of us, let the chinese goods shoppers pay instead...
If Detroit actually made something worth buying, then we wouldn't have this problem, would we?
Concerning the Chinese cars, I would start worrying then they start partnering with a major car company, with all their distributors and supports.
BTW, has anyone seen a picture of the Chery M14 convertible. It's a beauty.
It's "Xeno" phobic. Zeno has been dead for more than 2,000 years.
It is capital that raised the value of labour’s marginal product, not unions.
(direct quote from this article: Unions, wages & the H R Nicholls Society... an Australia-centric article but it explains the economics of labour markets well.)
"...alcoholics/addicts..." building cars. You read Rivethead, too?
--no one assembling cars should make that much
krb wrote:
Why not? Making cars sounds so boring, you'd have to pay me more than that to get me to do it
-- Yea me too! You forgot your "/sarc". I wish i made 60 an hour, i'd love to be bored to death!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.