JAC Do Brasil: The Chinese Really, Really Have Landed

Marcelo de Vasconcellos
by Marcelo de Vasconcellos

JAC do Brasil has officially announced the result of their first full week of sales. A surprising 1,139 Chinese cars changed hands! According to Brazilian car mag Quatro-Rodas, the company’s President in Brazil, Sérgio Habib, who had expected sales of 3,000 cars in April, is now saying, “Judging by our first week, we can now project more than 4,500 units.” Mr. Habib is well-known in Brazilian auto biz circles. He was responsible for Citroën’s successful launch in Brazil back in the 90s. So his opinion carries weight.

Differently from other Chinese companies that have taken a slow, but steady approach in Brazil, JAC (a.k.a. Jianghuai Automobile Co) has been very aggressive. Their launch was quite explosive and had multimillionaire flair. On March 18, which they smartly called J-Day, JAC inaugurated 50 dealerships across the country simultaneously. It also hired as its face the well-known TV variety show presenter Fausto Silva. Rumor has it he won’t get out of bed if you don’t feed him a fee in excess of a few million. The fact was that this week you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing said presenter’s mug hawking on and on about these spectacular cars.

Being the curious enthusiast I am, I bit the bait. I headed on down to my friendly local dealer. It was Wednesday afternoon. Surprisingly, there were other customers there. Unsurprisingly, most, I thought, were just curious, too and were just checking the cars out. I saw no one haggling final price. Granted, it was a weekday, but I spent about half an hour there and did not see a single car sold.

How about the cars? Well, for now JAC is selling a J3 in two variations. One simply called J3 in sedan form and a hatch called J3 Turin (as both were designed there). As I approached the car a salesman came running, all toothy smiley. The first word out of his mouth was quality. Humm, they really are trying to address Brazilians main concern about cars with a Chinese provenance. The design seemed good enough. Not terribly sophisticated, but not behind the times either. Inside there were some touches of originality.

As the salesman blabbered on and on, quality, quality, quality, I took a closer look. The bumpers were misaligned, as were the passenger doors and back hatch (I know these are notoriously difficult to mount and I was looking for trouble, but still). Slightly but undeniably sloppy workmanship. Inside though it was worse. Plastics had some unfinished surfaces. There were huge gaps were the steering wheel disappears into the dash. Smaller gaps around the side ventilation slots. Now, the clincher. The stitching on the seats was really, really bad. Not sloppy, but bad. As in zig-zaguingly bad. I pulled on the mouse fur covering the wheel well; it almost came out in my hand.

I got out of the car. The salesman was still blabbering his happy mantra. I said nothing. I just started pointing out the defects with my finger. Poor man, his face got redder and redder. Obviously he had not been trained as how to deal with a “difficult” customer. He had been trained to talk like a parrot and that’s what he did. He had no arguments. JAC either needs to train its guys better. Or simply make better cars. Though most Brazilian consumers are not very demanding, there are those who are.

And those who are will take a pass for now. For those other fooled by the parrots on TV and at the dealer, good luck to you. I sincerely hope you’ll be happy. God knows our market needs a shake-up. Hyundai has been doing it at the higher end. Could JAC be doing it at the lower end?

Marcelo de Vasconcellos
Marcelo de Vasconcellos

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  • Kwik_Shift Hyunkia'sis doing what they do best...subverting expectations of quality.
  • MaintenanceCosts People who don't use the parking brake when they walk away from the car deserve to have the car roll into a river.
  • 3-On-The-Tree I’m sure they are good vehicles but you can’t base that on who is buying them. Land Rovers, Bentley’ are bought by Robin Leaches’s “The Rich and Famous” but they have terrible reliability.
  • SCE to AUX The fix sounds like a bandaid. Kia's not going to address the defective shaft assemblies because it's hard and expensive - not cool.
  • Analoggrotto I am sick and tired of every little Hyundai Kia Genesis flaw being blown out of proportion. Why doesn't TTAC talk about the Tundra iForce Max problems, Toyota V35A engine problems or the Lexus 500H Hybrid problems? Here's why: education. Most of America is illiterate, as are the people who bash Hyundai Kia Genesis. Surveys conducted by credible sources have observed a high concentration of Hyundai Kia Genesis models at elite ivy league universities, you know those places where students earn degrees which earn more than $100K per year? Get with the program TTAC.
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