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Chinese automaker/auto market discussion thread

Discussion in 'Other Cars' started by cwerdna, Apr 25, 2012.

  1. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Discuss anything have to do w/Chinese automakers or their auto market here.

    I was inspired partly by http://priuschat.com/forums/environmental-discussion/108004-china-big-suvs.html which I'd seen the other day.

    I'll start. I listened to Carmakers In China Rev Up As Industry Shifts East : NPR thanks to the NPR app. It didn't have a lot of depth but was somewhat interesting and amusing.

    The piece mentions that the Chinese bought 18.5 million cars last year (I presume these are "light" vehicles). In contrast, from what I've read (like at Strong Finish for 2011 U.S. Auto Sales - WSJ.com, may need to Google for U.S. Auto Sales Finish Year Strong site:wsj.com), 12.8 million light vehicles were sold in the US last year.
     
    #1 cwerdna, Apr 25, 2012
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    my son just got back from ethiopia and said it was mostly chinese cars in addis ababa. he heard the chinese were making large investments in the country and there was no surcharge on their vehicles.
     
    #2 bisco, Apr 25, 2012
  3. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #3 cwerdna, Apr 26, 2012
  4. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    It's the world's biggest car market by a considerable margin. And there's the occasional bit of good innovation: BYD's electric cars are interesting, for example. But most domestic-brand cars are still pretty clunky, and there's a worrying - and arguably illegal - lack of imagination when it comes to design.

    If you want the simplest-possible overview of the market at the moment, you could do worse than the recent Top Gear China Special, which was far less silly than I'd expected. It's Season 18, Episode 2 - the China bit starts at about 40 minutes.
     
    #4 hkmb, May 16, 2012
  5. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    This was interesting...

    CNBC/NY Times: Chinese Cars Make Valuable Gains in Emerging Markets:
    News Headlines


    Not surprised about the quality result survey.

    This quote below might explain why we've seen Chinese cars do so badly in crash tests. Consumers there didn't have it at the top of their priority list, so there was no reason for their automakers to have it up there either.
     
    #5 cwerdna, Jul 6, 2012
  6. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #6 cwerdna, Feb 24, 2013
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