Reliability: Obviously if u copy the best yours will look and feel allright. That’s that. But in the long run, how long will it take before something starts to go wrong AND how well will the 4S staff be prepared? How well will they treat you?will it be fixable for a long term or will it be a recurrent design flaw? In the end, will it be worth dealing with all this annoyance against paying simply more for a better more reliable car and earning peace of mind?

Performance: buying a Chinese engine? Gulp…. Why would I take that risk? Who in their right mind would?

Case closed

What are you talking about? Reports about the cars from other people. Not first hand experience.

There we go.

Hey about that comment on jap cars in amsterdam in the 60s, was it just that one model or a larger range?

> Why is it all the dumb Americans that bad mouth Chinese cars?

Don’t blame them. It’s just an objective opinion formed after looking at all the clone cars and Chinese car crash tests posted on youtube.

> So how on Earth can he say they are bad?

Well, we have US auto magazines reviewing Japanese and Korean market cars even before they hit the US.

> Countless times I’ve seen reviews of American vehicles in which the writer said they were absolute crap.

And Chinese are worse, a lot worse, than American cars.

> American cars have always been renowned for crap quality.

Yet GM sells its crap cars more in China than they do in the US.

> Now, Chinese cars are much the same

Not the same, but worse.

> the Chinese will get better.

Extreme price competition in Chinese domestic market prevents quality improvements.

Quality improvements don’t come free, they cost money. But with never ending price wars and the dominating foreign brand cars in higher price bracket, all self-owned Chinese auto companies look corners to cut cost at the expense of quality.

> At least Made in China is a whole lot better than Made in the U.S.

Not at all. “Made In USA” actually commands a premium pricing(with the exception of US autos) and many are willing to pay more for this tag, “Made In China” means dirt cheap bargain pricing.

> and the Chinese will surpass the Japs and Koreans in terms of quality

Chinese historically never cared for quality, and this isn’t about to change.

> That’s how long Japan took to get their reputation about their vihicles up.

When will you understand that Japanese cars never had poor quality reputation in the US? Heck, Japan was a country with 20 aircraft carriers, submarine aircraft carriers I-400, and rocket fighters before 1945. What do you think those Japanese scientists building Japanese nuclear bombs did after the war? They founded companies like Sony and Honda after war.

Now, Chinese cars are much the same, but unlike American vehicles, the Chinese will get better. Since Great Wall’s entry into the markets of Australia and New Zealand, they have sold over 1000 vehicles in 4 months. One review said the quality was better than expected.
By the way, Head Honcho, all of the above was directed at you.

Ed, I’m sorry you have to put up with these people. They really need to get an open mind. The views held by some people towards the Chinese auto industry are antiquated they really need to move on. I see a bright future for Chinese vehicles.

> If you haven’t had experience during the time when Japanese cars first got here, then don’t comment.

I have read through old Car&Driver and Motor Trend magazine collection from the 70s at my school’s library, so I know how Americans felt about Japanese cars in the 70s.

And Americans felt very positive about Japanese cars, easily three times as reliable as American cars and twice as fuel efficient. Heck, Chrysler was using “High Performance” written in Kanji in its US market ads for rebadged Mitsubishi that it was selling, and GM was stressing that its cars were cheaper than comparable Nissans in its comparative ads. Yes, GM was actually underpricing Japanese cars back in the 70s!!! Why? Because public loved Japanese cars so much.

If Japanese ever had the perception of quality problems, then they would be like Hyundai today, where Consumer Reports scream they are now as reliable as Lexus but consumers remain skeptical and require a leap of faith to switch brand(Which they may get with forthcoming YF Sonata).

The US public perception of China’s poor quality is far far worse than that of Hyundai, and I don’t think Chinese brands would ever get over their poor quality perception, because it takes just one bad apple to destroy the public perception of all Chinese cars.

> Why don’t you give China 3 to 4 decades like Japan and I dare you to call them trash.

No need to wait out 4 decades to find out.