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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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Chinese cars, now? Yeah, the trade deficit with china isn't big enough yet, I guess.... Development costs are likely to be low since the chinese don't quite 'recognise' intellectual property rights the way we do. And dealership costs can be pared, by selling outta Wal-marts, I guess.
1 posted on 06/11/2005 6:46:30 AM PDT by voletti
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To: voletti

Can you imagine dealing with the Chinese about warranty issues? But then maybe they will build cars that have no problems.


2 posted on 06/11/2005 6:49:56 AM PDT by FreePaul
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To: voletti

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.


3 posted on 06/11/2005 6:50:43 AM PDT by staytrue
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To: FreePaul

....more donations to China's military machine....


4 posted on 06/11/2005 6:51:54 AM PDT by Loud Mime (Murderous Tyrants are NOT the Answer)
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To: FreePaul

"warranty issues"

I suspect the Chinese cars will be so cheap as to be nearly disposable.


5 posted on 06/11/2005 6:51:56 AM PDT by staytrue
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To: FreePaul
Can you imagine dealing with the Chinese about warranty issues? But then maybe they will build cars that have no problems

Noise? Car make no noise. You crazy. You think Chou sucker. Take car now! Go home. No come back.

6 posted on 06/11/2005 6:53:33 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (In God We Trust. All Others We Monitor.)
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To: voletti

Yikes I've got 4 jokes already. None in too good of taste but let your mind wander.


7 posted on 06/11/2005 6:53:38 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Never corner anything meaner than you. NSDQ)
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To: voletti
Well, you had better get used to it. The Chinese will build a quality car just like all the other name brand electronics and appliances on our shelves that is made there.

And with their labor costs, they'll murder General Motors and Ford.

8 posted on 06/11/2005 6:54:10 AM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: staytrue

Quality doesn't seem to be an issue with Chinese made goods. Scrap all you want. We'll make more.


9 posted on 06/11/2005 6:54:31 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Anyone who thinks we believe Hillary on any issue is truly a moron.)
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To: voletti
I'll never buy a car made by the Chi-coms with slave labor. They claim they pay the workers as much as $ 2 per hour. But how many of the workers are forced to work in these factories? Never again! Do not buy a product made in China.

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.

10 posted on 06/11/2005 6:58:51 AM PDT by ex-Texan (Mathew 7:1 through 6)
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To: voletti

Our govt won't stop importing, til every American is out of work and on welfare.


11 posted on 06/11/2005 6:59:47 AM PDT by television is just wrong (http://hehttp://print.google.com/print/doc?articleidisblogs.blogspot.com/ (visit blogs, visit ads).)
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To: cripplecreek

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.


12 posted on 06/11/2005 7:02:09 AM PDT by staytrue
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To: television is just wrong
"Our govt won't stop importing, til every American is out of work and on welfare."


So, it's the US Dept. of Transportation that's buying the Chinese cars....and all along I thought it was John Doe in NYC and Fred Funk in Alabama.
13 posted on 06/11/2005 7:05:31 AM PDT by TRY ONE (NUKE the unborn gay whales!)
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To: television is just wrong

If you think about it "out of work and on welfare" equals under control.


14 posted on 06/11/2005 7:05:45 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Anyone who thinks we believe Hillary on any issue is truly a moron.)
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To: FreePaul

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.


15 posted on 06/11/2005 7:08:17 AM PDT by nyconse
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To: All
This has been in the news for awhile: "US auto giant General Motors (GM) filed a lawsuit against China's [state owned] Chery Automobile Co for alleged piracy of a mini car developed by its South Korean affiliate Daewoo."

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!

16 posted on 06/11/2005 7:08:48 AM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (Hillary is the she in shenanigans.)
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To: voletti

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.


17 posted on 06/11/2005 7:08:53 AM PDT by Jibaholic (The facts of life are conservative - Margaret Thatcher)
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: voletti

I used to feel guilty buying a Japanese car, not anymore.


19 posted on 06/11/2005 7:11:00 AM PDT by nairBResal
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To: voletti

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.


20 posted on 06/11/2005 7:12:55 AM PDT by Buckeye Battle Cry (Life is too short to go through it clenched of sphincter and void of humor - it's okay to laugh.)
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