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 ...
Can you imagine dealing with the Chinese about warranty issues? But then maybe they will build cars that have no problems.
The engine in the Chevy Equinox SUV is made in china.
Further, if the Chinese steal IP on cars, they will steal from Toyota, not ford or gm.
....more donations to China's military machine....
"warranty issues"
I suspect the Chinese cars will be so cheap as to be nearly disposable.
Noise? Car make no noise. You crazy. You think Chou sucker. Take car now! Go home. No come back.
Yikes I've got 4 jokes already. None in too good of taste but let your mind wander.
And with their labor costs, they'll murder General Motors and Ford.
Quality doesn't seem to be an issue with Chinese made goods. Scrap all you want. We'll make more.
Sometimes I walk through a Wal-Mart shaking my head at their really stupid display signs. How can Americans buy all that crap made in China and India? It ought to be a federal felony to shop at Wal-Mart.
Our govt won't stop importing, til every American is out of work and on welfare.
from the article:
Honda says in-house quality tests show that the China-made Accord is actually superior to the one made in the U.S.
If you think about it "out of work and on welfare" equals under control.
I am sick of all the GM basing (and American car company)I have seen on this forum. Let me tell you...America is forced to take cars made by people who work for a bowl of rice or in China's case slave/prisoner labor. However, they don't reciprocate and take our cars...there is no such thing as the free market. We open our markets and the other countries don't. If American companies complain to the WTC...they don't do anything because this organization hates America. American companies are forced to morve their operations to foreign countries where they can manufacture cheaply and compete. The cars are probably not going to be better...certainly the foreign made parts flooding this country are not better. This economy is fueled by debt right now...it won't last. When you see car companies in trouble look out...they are usually the first to feel a recession and the last to see a return to profitablility. GM is moving jobs to China-who can blame them? Those of you who bash Unions and car companies don't get it. The global economy will not-in the long run help American workers. A number of great American industries have been destroyed-steel industry, electronic industry and garment industry to name a few. A country that sells hamburgers to each other and manufactures nothing will not be a great economic power for longnor will its workers prosper. If there was a real free market between peer countries it might work...but there is too much of a difference between wages, work conditions etc. for this to ever work; however, it will be devastating to all American workers in the long run.
The Chi-coms stole your car and are selling it for about half you intended to charge, GM. Now they are going to sell it here in the U.S. I bet the Chinese pronounce Chery as Chevy -- they do that, ya know. Steal intellectual property and then market it using the victim's reputation.
BOHICA, GM!
Not to worry, the U.S. taxpayer-backed World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the Ex-Im Bank, or any number of taxpayer-backed government programs will likely pay your losses, GM. That's what American "capitalists" call, good government interference!
It's not the cheap labor abroad, it's the unions in America. The ultimate fate of any unionized industry is to be driven out of business by their non-unionized competitors.
I used to feel guilty buying a Japanese car, not anymore.
Even as crappy as the quality on the usual rank and file vehicles coming from Detroit is these days, I hardly suspect any Chicom vehicles would pose any major threat.
They'll shrug it off like they did the Yugo and are doing to the Kia brand. You can't battle poor quality, fit and finish with pure crap.
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