Would You Buy A Chinese Car?

"Frosted" (frostedbuns) 05/01/2014 at 11:31 • Filed to: None

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China has come a long way from the days when Mao was in power. They've risen to be one of the biggest consumers of oil, producers of goods and seem to enjoy a fair bit of wealth now as well. As a result, the cars produced over in China have come a long way in a very short amount of time. In the olden days, owning a car was a dream for everyone who wasn't Mao and riding a bicycle or some kind of animal was the reality. Now though, we have cars like this:

Being mass produced and sold to the general public. Sure there are a lot of knockoffs of cars from other companies but that's not the point of this post. I'm curious, if Chinese cars ever reached a point where they could meet US/EU regulations and be sold world wide, would you buy one? I don't mean the long wheel base Audis that are sold in China either, I mean cars owned by, built in and sold in China. They often seem to be cheap cars that are decently well equipped and don't always have the worst styling ever seen. I would buy one as long as it met US crash test standards.

Alex B > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:32

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No.

JR1 > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:35

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No I wouldn't want to buy a car from a country run by communist that also hurts American capitalism, European capitalism, Japanese capitalism,and jobs.

KirkyV > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:36

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Right now? No. But, once they're making competitive cars that appeal to me - I'd say, ten years at the most - I'll be just as likely to buy them as any other.

jariten1781 > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:36

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If it was throw-away priced like the Yugos or old Hyundais were, I'd look at them. If they tried to compete with established brands, probably not.

carcrasher88 > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:41

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Right now, only if it was this:

...otherwise, absolutely not.

crowmolly > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:41

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Fuck no. Never. It's one thing to buy a Chinese ratchet and it's quite another to buy something big like a vehicle. Think about all the stuff you won't buy at Harbor Freight.

Their way of doing business is completely different than ours. For starters, you can forget about ever hearing about a recall or anything like that. Buyer beware. Some of the products are good but others are carefully engineered to only LOOK good.

Example- somewhere I have a box of ungraded bolts with grade 8 markings on them. They are critical fasteners for the front end of a first gen Camaro. A guy I know has the HF english wheel setup and even though it looks good and is cheap it's extremely poorly designed to the point of being useless.

There would have to be a lot of outside involvement in the auto company's dealings to make it happen and work out, and Big Red will never let that happen.

Bad Idea Hat > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:41

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The if regarding making crash standards is a massive if. We'll see. China has made too many products with too many flaws for me to not be permanently skittish.

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:51

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I'd rather (gasp) ride a bike.

MIATAAAA > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 11:55

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If they made an appealing car that drove well, sure! Right now I don't see anything in that market that's compelling, but I definitely see it happening in the near future. They're close.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 12:47

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If the price is right then yes most definitely I would buy a chinese car. I don't see what all the fuss is about, most of the components of our cars are already made in China anyway.

But Chinese cars would have to be priced lower by a fair margin than it's competitors.

EX: sub-compact $7000, compact $10000, midsized car $15000, full size car $20000. Essentially be priced one size class lower than what it is.

I would never buy a chinese car instead of a japanese/american car for the same money.

My only requirement is that it would have to pass the safety regulations.

wiffleballtony > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 13:02

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No. The reasons they're cheap are the reasons I wouldn't buy one. They don't meet safety regulations, they don't meet emissions standards, they are built with subpar materials, and they are just blatant copies only worse. If they had meet all of those standards are legitimately design their own car, it wouldn't be very cheap and would probably still suck.

Axial > Frosted 05/01/2014 at 16:55

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Not ever, no. They'd have to pay me, actually, and even then I'm slightly unsure because I don't want to be promoting any Chinese products. It bothers me enough that almost everything I want to use is made in China already.

Philbert/Phartnagle > Frosted 05/02/2014 at 14:52

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Nope! I make it a habit to avoid purchasing anything MIC as much as it is possible these days.