Are Chinese Cars Catching Up With The World? Cast Your Vote
Of course Chinese cars are all craptastic patent violations on wobbly wheels. But then, the same had been said about Japanese and later Korean cars. Can Chinese carmakers repeat what Japan and Korea have done? J.D. Power thinks they are rapidly improving.
“Chinese domestic brands have substantially narrowed the gap with international brands in overall vehicle appeal,” J.D. Power found in its 2012 China APEAL study.
However, if you look at the ranking supplied by J.D. Power, all you see is foreign joint ventures. China’s indigenous brands have an average APEAL score of 781 points, which is “an historic high for brands of Chinese automakers,” but not good enough to be listed. The industry average stands at 822 ;points, and all Chinese brands were found to be way below average. To spare the Chinese the embarrassment (and possibly to entice the Chinese brands to finally pay for the study,) the identities of the folks below average are not being disclosed by J.D. Power.
What’s above the line is vintage J.D Power: #1 Audi is a mere 6.2 percent better than #21 placed FAW-Mazda. If we are lucky, both are within the margin of error of the survey, especially of one conducted in China.
If J.D. Power tells us nothing, let’s consult the experts: You.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I'd like to say not in my lifetime, but I am only 20, and as much as I don't want to see this happen, it probably will one day. The success of those cars is another thing entirely.... To me, looking at these Chinese cars and their blatant hackneyed styling rip-offs reminds me of someone buying a Dolex instead of a Rolex in Chinatown. Or a Miphone instead of an iphone. I'd like to think the American public aren't that stupid, at least yet. We already have "Made in China" written all over 95% of the things we own. Why include our cars in that category? I can't imagine a Chinese (and therefore probably corrupt) car company building anything of quality.
I think they simply don't want. I've been in a FAW Hongqi HQ3 and it has nothing to envy to a BMW 5 series. Maybe the problem is to find somebody willing to spend $35k in a chinese car And here in Perú there are very common and very cheap. But you get what you pay for. Most of them are coffins with wheels