QOTD: How Can I Get You Into a Chinese Car Today?
It’s no use continuing with the idealistic notion that North America will reject advances from Chinese-made cars on our shores. The Buick Envision is Fabrique en Chine, as well as the long-wheelbase Volvo S60, and more recently the Volvo S90. Yesterday, Steph Willems reported on a patent filing from the Guangzhou Automobile Company for its largest SUV offering, the GS8.
You don’t have to like the upcoming Chinese onslaught, but it’s necessary to accept it as reality. So, today we’re asking you to twist your mind and wring from it your thoughts on what it would take for a Chinese auto manufacturer to be successful in North America on a large scale.
It’s perhaps easy enough for an American company like Buick to foist a Chinese-made product here when it’s wearing an American badge. And Volvo (owned by Chinese company Geely) markets its Chinese Volvos with a regular Volvo badge on the front — hardly an indication of the country of manufacture. What we’re talking about here, however, is a new brand entry.
Whether GAC uses its Trumpchi name in North America (probably not advisable), or comes up with something more palatable to English-speaking tongues, the result is the same: A brand new line of cars from China, foregoing the benefit of a familiar-to-locals badge at the front.
GAC indicated it would not rule out distributing vehicles through FCA dealers. Let’s assume Sergio is not prepared to reject Chinese funds outright, and agrees to such a distribution arrangement. In every major city, Trumpchi or similar-branded vehicles start appearing on lots, sitting next to Durangos, 300s, and the Fiat 124.
What will these vehicles need to be to interest the average consumer, to get them to overcome an inherent bias of purchasing a whole car from a country that supplies probably 70 percent of their household appliances? Price, styling, reliability, economy, service, luxury? We want you to make the case for the success of a full-line Chinese brand offering in North America.
It happened with Japan, it happened with Korea, and it’s about to happen again. The payout is 25:1, so enter your bets.
[Images: GAC]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Reading through the thread it is apparent that maybe the Chinese do have a chance of producing exportable quality vehicles. This appears to create fear and angst among some of the B&B. I would like to point out some observations; 1. There are those who just make statements along the lines of "Chinese only produce crap". My answer is maybe the "crap" they produce represents good enough value for the consumer. Also, many countries produce "crap". Do you want to pay more for homegrown "crap"? 2. The Chinese produce inferior vehicles. Well, I wouldn't say the US has produce the best and finest vehicles historically. Even the current crop of Chinese vehicles are more reliable than what the US has produced in the past. I would dare to add that FCA, GM and Ford do produce cars on par with the Chinese. 3. The Chinese are taking our jobs. I don't think the Chinese have taken as many jobs as some would like to believe. The Chinese have done what the US could not of done for the price. That is create a market of disposable products that need replacing every so often. An example of disposable consumerism is the auto market and the US tries to lead the way with discarding "out of date" motor vehicles to upgrade. But, it seems okay by the B&B for the US to have a disposable auto market. The reality is the Chinese will be around exporting vehicles for years to come. They will become the worlds largest exporters of EVs, EVs most can afford without handouts. Here's some food for thought to the pickup frat. The Chinese, even Thailand export more pickups than the US. So, how can the US pickup frat make those ridiculous comments regarding pickups? The Chinese are learning. I do believe that the very fact they are Chinese vehicles will have the Chinese exporting relatively good vehicles early on. Here is a notable Chinese vehicle we'll be getting this year. The "scary" part is it has a higher safety rating than many of it's competitors. Here is a link about the new Chinese LDV D90 we'll be getting in Australia; http://www.caradvice.com.au/587441/2018-ldv-d90-australian-details/ Here's a link for the LDV T60 pickup. It will be the largest midsize sold in Australia. It comes with a VM diesel, similar to the Colorado, but down rated. http://www.caradvice.com.au/598929/2018-ldv-t60-review/
Americans love cheap crap, witness the ascent of Walmart. Patriotism won't stop them from scooping these up and it will be just another nail in the coffin of American manufacturing.