Malcolm's Chery

[HarleyEarl]

November 27, 2005
Chery cars introduction delayed
by Mathieu St-Pierre , Auto123.com


Chery, China's largest automaker was set to arrive in the United States by the 2007 model year. With the help of Malcolm Bricklin's Visionary Vehicles, the company projected that it was to sell 250,000 new cars in 2007 alone.

Chery has just announced that their plans to take over the US will be delayed for a few months amidst concerns that it might have more difficulties convincing Americans to buy their product. Bricklin argues that the when the Japanese arrived, no one thought that they were going to stick around. At the time, the only advantages to the Japanese cars were that they were cheaper to buy and that they consumed less fuel. Chery cars will offer similar luxury and refinement as BMWs and Lexus but cost 30 to 40% less. The US is the World's largest market with 17 million new cars sales out of 70 million worldwide.

In China, where GM is also flourishing, Chery's share of the market has grown from 3-4% to 6-7% in only a year. At the moment, only 10% of Chery cars are exported. There are plans in the near future to open plants in Europe, the Middle East and South America.

Chery began its operations in early 1997.

[Flybrian]

Hey, look, Chery opened their first factory...


Its hard for me to believe anything this guy says because these cars that exist in China are total garbage. Look at the off-center grille badging on that random sedan with its thick black plastic backing. What refinement!

[Cremazie]

Holy hell, here we go again. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. Is there going to be enough to go around? There is no doubt that these cars are below par in reliability and build quality but in time they will be the next Toyota. Will they be in Canada, or just the US?

[mustang84]

Looks like a bastardized Maxima clone with a badly done Infinti grille. Can't the Chinese do ANYTHING original?

Edited November 27, 2005 by mustang84

[siegen]

Chery has just announced that their plans to take over the US will be delayed for a few months

Sounds like the Military might get involved if they're that serious. :blink:

it might have more difficulties convincing Americans to buy their product

Ah yes! Because we are just a huge herd of sheep who mindlessly listen to the media. It's too bad the chinese are having difficulties convincing us to buy their product (notice how he doesn't call it a vehicle, but a "product"). It sounds to me like this guy is a bit over zealous.

[HarleyEarl]

The Chinese can't do anything original....but they will copy until they get it right and they will have an impact.

[Cremazie]

The Chinese can't do anything original....but they will copy until they get it right and they will have an impact.

[post="49174"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

That's really how Toyota started. Didn't they start off by reverse engineering a chevy?

[Flybrian]

Things are very different today than when the Japanese and Koreans started dumping their cars over here. In the 1970s, the market wasn't as saturated as it was today, fuel economy became important, and Detroit still couldn't make a decent, non-embarassing compact.

Today, the market is oversaturated to the point of ridiculousness. Mitsubishi is fighting to stay here, VW maybe be iffy if major changes aren't made, Isuzu is all but finished in the U.S. and Daewoo was here as an independent for, what, three years? Plus, with dozens of new models between $9,999-14,999 being sold by reputable manufacturers and the used car market growing fatter by the day with low-mileage late-model cars for under $10,000, I can't see a compelling reason to even consider a car that can be at most a few grand less than a competitor, especially one from a new manufacturer.

[HarleyEarl]

Brian your point is well taken...but if you look historically have often been many brands competing at any given time. Of course that might explain why many no longer exist lol...

[Hudson]

...Its hard for me to believe anything this guy says because these cars that exist in China are total garbage. Look at the off-center grille badging on that random sedan with its thick black plastic backing. What refinement!

You're looking at a prototype of their newest sedan. And the badging is actually centered.

[Flybrian]

You're looking at a prototype of their newest sedan. And the badging is actually centered.

[post="49323"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

I meant vertically-centered.

[greengiant]

Another point to add is that Chevrolet accused Chery of stealing designs for the Chevy Spark(I think thats what it was). Many of the parts could be interchanged between the Chevy version and the Chery version, the QQ(Yet a again I think that was its name).

[Satty]

I wonder if they're even going to meet safety regulations. Hyundai proved that with a long enough warratny, you cen sell a car with iffy reliability, although now they are much improved in that respect. The market is saturated, but people are cheap, if they can get a decent car with a bunch of normally optional equipment standard, they will do it. People are stupid, all they need to see is "Air conditioning and a CD player standard for only $8,995 with a 7 year/70,000 mile warranty" and they'll be hooked. I hope I'm wrong about that, I hope Chery comes here, sells 4 cars in the first year and then leaves, but Kia stuck around on the strength of the Sportage and Sephia, so American's track records for making smart decisions isn't very good.

[regfootball]

chery must have had to add 200pounds more steel to each of its cars so it could get one star in crash test ratings.

[Hudson]

The only reason people stopped buying Yugos was because the country fell into war and stopped making them. Keep in mind he also brought Subaru to the US. He sounds like a crackpot but you don't make that kind of money by being an idiot [i]all[i] the time.

What kind of money? Subaru hadn't become a hit until AFTER he left. His own brand failed after less than three years and took New Brunswick's money with it. I doubt he made much money importing the Fiat X1/9 and the Spider (since they were in such small volumes) and, outside of the first year, Yugo sales never really soared...and he did sell out of Yugo America (formerly IAI) just before it went bankrupt.

[Sal Collaziano]

The cars can be a lot less expensive since the company doesn't have to worry about decades of pension requirements and exorbitant health care costs.

[PurdueGuy]

The cars can be a lot less expensive since the company doesn't have to worry about decades of pension requirements and exorbitant health care costs.

[post="59736"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Don't forget the army* of cheap workers. It's the same basic cost savings: labor costs. Of course, US workers are more educated. I know an engineer that works for a company that makes electric motors. He was involved with (much to his own dismay) the opening of a plant in China, closely followed by the closing of a plant in the US. The first products they got from China would catch fire (these were motors for ceiling fans - I suggested they just call it a heating feature :P). Then they couldn't get the Chinese workers to put the proper amount of oil in the motors. One batch would be bone dry. They would contact the Chinese plant management so they could correct the procedure. The next batch would have oil dripping off the pallet, and they would literally dump oil out of the motors, and again, the motors were junk. Too many companies underestimate the value of an educated (even if it's just high school!) work force.


*(the "army" of cheap workers is kind of a scary descriptive word, considering a) China can forcibly recruit anyone at any time to be in the military, and B) the huge amounts of Chinese exports into the US is comparible to an economic war in some senses...)