That was the first car ever to get 0 stars in the ADAC tests. But they started doing better:
That car got 1 star! Do you really want to drive one? Much smaller cars, like the Toyota Yaris, are far safer.
Posted on 01/13/2010 6:43:49 AM PST by blam
Warren Buffett's Chinese Cars Will Start Killing The US Auto Industry As Soon As This Year
Vincent Fernando
Jan. 13, 2010, 7:12 AM
BYD, the upstart Chinese electric car maker Warren Buffett famously has an investment in, is planning enter the U.S. market as soon as the second half of this year.
Considering the U.S. market entrance by multiple new auto players (from Chinese firms BYD and Geely, to India's Tata and even U.S. upstart Tesla Motors) expect auto industry competition to get far more intense than it already is.
BYD just showed off their latest e6 model and while BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu was short on details, he hinted that BYD first target could be both U.S. companies' and the U.S. government's vehicle fleets:
WSJ: In China, where the e6 will first go on sale, BYD—which stands for Build Your Dreams—expects to sell vehicles for city use by the government, utility companies or fleets of taxis, according to Mr. Wang. BYD expects it could be used similarly in the U.S., while a later, plug-in hybrid vehicle may be more appropriate for individual American consumers.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Pretty much. They’ve been importing tractors for some time now. If they’re any indicator I can’t see Chinese cars taking anything but a TINY segment of the market. Mostly their stuff is total crap w/o spares, readable instructions/repair manuals or a reasonable dealer net.
Just as liberals consider conservatives to be more dangerous than our real enemies.
So also many on our side, seem to consider American workers to be the enemy.
Ronald Reagan, one of the greatest presidents and conservatives in history - was a union member. And autoworkers loved him.
Working Americans are not the enemy.
The foolishness of this hatred, is mind boggling.
Electric cars are a pipe dream and guilt is not a sales approach.
FWIW.
hell no. You’d have to be nuts to willingly buy a car that was made in China. Everything they make falls apart or doesn’t work. Their tolerances are crappy, their iron is weak, and their quality control is non-existent. We’re running out of room in our landfills trying to bury all their garbage.
So a Chinese made plug in hybrid is going to kill the already mostly dead by their own hand US auto market? Makes sense.
Unfortunately Chinese manufacturers are also infamous for profit enhancing techniques such as ‘quality fade’ and the substitutions using cheaper (albeit toxic) materials.
Yeah, they’re funny videos, but the Chinese will learn from them and fix their problems, just as the Japanese did before them.
Learning is something that the US manufacturers have traditionally had a problem with.
That was the first car ever to get 0 stars in the ADAC tests. But they started doing better:
That car got 1 star! Do you really want to drive one? Much smaller cars, like the Toyota Yaris, are far safer.
bump.
Oh, my mistake then... I was under the impression they were Chinese. Well guess we’ll see then.
Dan Malone, construction manager for Garneau Manufacturing, based in Morinville, Alberta, Canada, an energy service company that works with many imports, said tests on a lot of 80 tons of Chinese steel tube products found "the welds failed horribly." Malone said there was no question that if the steel had been fabricated into a finished product and installed it would have failed and "would have killed somebody."
http://kipbiz.us/businessresource/forecast/archive/New_Threat_from_China_Steel_070907.html
Warren Buffet is a Chicom general? I wouldn’t have guessed.
“Safety, reliability, longevity, quality, even usability are not factors”.
As another poster pointed out, this is exactly what was said about everything made in Japan, back in the 1950’s.
Then the Japanese imported AMERICAN EXPERTS to introduce Total Quality Management methods (in order to better sell to the American market) and the rest, as they say, is history.
Considering the number of Chinese young people attending universitites here in the U.S., I suspect the transformation of Chinese vehicles to meet the demands of the American marketplace will be remarkably fast.
As a business owner I can add; the simple calculation of the Chinese labor rate versus the American labor rate will be such a factor in the pricing of vehicles that this will potentially be a death blow to American car manufacturing.
The U.S. will probably remain the leader in technological innovation, however, but find a market for that innovation...in China.
Perhaps driving a “U.S. Government/Union Made” car will be a status symbol for some; sort of like folks driving a great big full-sized sedan back when compact cars first were introduced (people laughed at the small Ford car they introduced...can’t even remember the name anymore) and when Toyota introduced the Corolla into the U.S. everyone thought it was a joke (yes, I owned one; paid $56 a month for it for three years).
The Chevy Equinox has a Chinese built engine for its base model ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/business/worldbusiness/25iht-chevy.4.11415496.html?pagewanted=2 ).
The Equinox is selling well.
free trade is killing America, Perot had it right and both parties had it wrong.
The giant sucking sound is getting louder.
Comparing the Japanese to the Chinese is not a good parallel. The chinese do not have a culture of quality or of respect for other peoples intellectual property. All of those will become vital as they enter different markets.
now that they own 2/3 of the US auto industry, I suspect the government is going to suddenly decide someday soon that protectionism in the auto sector is actually a wonderful idea.
“Considering the number of Chinese young people attending universitites here in the U.S., “
They are certainly working hard to acquire knowledge at a fast rate.
“I suspect the transformation of Chinese vehicles to meet the demands of the American marketplace will be remarkably fast”
China is very good at destroying a culture and bringing those people into China. Over the last 4000-5000 years there really isn’t much precedent for other cultures rewriting the Chinese culture.
The US car industry is more than GM. Non-union and even some union (Ford) companies do a pretty darn good job.
“DAEWOO “
This is a korean company, not Chinese. They are a very very large company which is successful in many areas. They certainly weren’t successful in the US car market.
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