“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).
“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.
Nope, no way. The Japanese intention was always to make excellent products. It was a matter of national pride for them to be able to emulate American quality and business practices, which were at that point the standard of the world.
China has no similar intention. None. I’ve been writing for years here about seeing first-hand in an electronics lab in 2000 how they deliberately remove necessary components from electronics designs (stolen or legitimately obtained) in order to save a penny here and there. It is absolutely shocking and is the explanation for why Chinese electronics fail miserably and quickly.
That was ten years ago and there’s been no improvement whatsoever. Japan on the other hand was starting from rubble in 1945 and had Deming on their soil by 1950.
How many articles do we see about China importing quality control specialists vs articles about China exporting cadmium bracelets, fake pharmaceuticals, poisoned pet food, etc.
And I don’t want to hear about how those are “exceptions”. An “exception” every month is a strategy, and it’s a national one.
Remember that China is younger than the US right now, but in 20 years, this will reverse.
If it takes them 20 years to get it right, their labour costs will have skyrocketed anyways.
China is doomed, between the vise of population control and poverty.