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Here come Chinese cars (Detroit alert!)
Business Week ^ | 09 june 2005 | Business week

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: automakers; china; turass
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To: Jibaholic

"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!!


41 posted on 06/11/2005 7:59:52 AM PDT by 1FASTGLOCK45 (FreeRepublic: More fun than watching Dem'Rats drown like Turkeys in the rain! ! !)
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To: Last Dakotan

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.


42 posted on 06/11/2005 7:59:58 AM PDT by wrathof59 ("to the Everlasting Glory of the Infantry".........Robert A Heinlein)
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To: Cronos

China abandoned communism a long time ago.


43 posted on 06/11/2005 8:00:28 AM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: staytrue
Staytrue said:

"Further, if the Chinese steal IP on cars, they will steal from Toyota, not ford or gm."

That's redundant. Toyota obtained its tech foundation from GM, Ford, etc. In the 80s Toyota was to GM as Datsun was to Mercedes, etc. Open the hood of an old 280 Z and a six cylinder Mercedes of the same years. The similarity is amazing. If you worked on one brand you could work on the other brand with relatively minor variances.

The federal manufacturing standards for motor vehicle's pretty much limit how much variance the different brands are allowed between each other for a particular category. It comes down to consumer perceived quality and looks - both of which, (with a few exceptions) GM and Ford currently lack.
44 posted on 06/11/2005 8:00:44 AM PDT by Abogado (Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt)
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To: voletti

Power grows out of the barrel of a carburetor.


45 posted on 06/11/2005 8:01:04 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: AlaskaErik

"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.


46 posted on 06/11/2005 8:03:21 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: nyconse
...unions exist because of past injustices towards workers by business owners...

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.

47 posted on 06/11/2005 8:06:42 AM PDT by FreePaul
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To: mad_as_he$$

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.


48 posted on 06/11/2005 8:09:23 AM PDT by goron
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To: Mad Mammoth
Mad Mammoth said:

I can imagine how they'll handle warranty problems:

a.) You bring in car.

b.) Manager tells you nothing wrong with car.

c.) You insist something IS wrong with car.

d.) Manager flags tank which quickly rolls over you.

e.) Your former car is sold to another sucker.

Uncanny: substitute the word "tank" with "the manufacturer's legal department" and its pretty much what is happening now.
49 posted on 06/11/2005 8:12:59 AM PDT by Abogado (Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt)
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To: nairBResal
I used to feel guilty buying a Japanese car, not anymore.

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.

50 posted on 06/11/2005 8:13:35 AM PDT by Major_Risktaker
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To: WilliamofCarmichael; A. Pole; Aliska
With some encouragement maybe the Minutemen Project will become a political party. They don't have to put candidates up against the legacy parties for every office, just when the legacy parties run candidates who favor migrant (legal or not) labor over citizens and laugh at our sovereignty.

Well, I do agree with you there. I was hoping H. Ross Perot's Reform party would have offered some hope. I'm even looking at the Populist, Constitution and other parties, would be nice if the Minuteman would start one.

If we don't get a handle on illegal immigration and our lax trade policies, as they say on "Futurama," "We're boned."
51 posted on 06/11/2005 8:15:38 AM PDT by Nowhere Man (Lutheran, Conservative, Neo-Victorian/Edwardian, Michael Savage in '08! - DeCAFTA-nate CAFTA!)
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To: Jibaholic

Most union members in the U.S. run the Federal government. Do your homework.


52 posted on 06/11/2005 8:18:09 AM PDT by warchild9 (If the Witch Queen runs, she wins, unless things improve in the real world.)
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To: 1FASTGLOCK45
no one assembling cars should make that much

Why not? Making cars sounds so boring, you'd have to pay me more than that to get me to do it.

53 posted on 06/11/2005 8:18:52 AM PDT by krb (ad hominem arguments are for stupid people)
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To: TRY ONE

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...


54 posted on 06/11/2005 8:19:38 AM PDT by aspiring.hillbilly (!.....ripped from the headlines.....!)
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To: voletti

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.


55 posted on 06/11/2005 8:20:06 AM PDT by Fishing-guy
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To: television is just wrong

It's "Xeno" phobic. Zeno has been dead for more than 2,000 years.


56 posted on 06/11/2005 8:20:24 AM PDT by warchild9 (If the Witch Queen runs, she wins, unless things improve in the real world.)
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To: FreePaul
I agree, unions are self-perpetuating organisations which exist for existence's sake. I don't know about the US, but here in Australia, less than 18% of the private-sector workforce is unionised.

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.)

57 posted on 06/11/2005 8:23:08 AM PDT by music is math
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To: wrathof59

"...alcoholics/addicts..." building cars. You read Rivethead, too?


58 posted on 06/11/2005 8:23:29 AM PDT by warchild9 (If the Witch Queen runs, she wins, unless things improve in the real world.)
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To: krb


--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!


59 posted on 06/11/2005 8:24:26 AM PDT by 1FASTGLOCK45 (FreeRepublic: More fun than watching Dem'Rats drown like Turkeys in the rain! ! !)
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To: Fishing-guy

Chery M14

60 posted on 06/11/2005 8:24:41 AM PDT by Dog Gone
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