If the Chinese follow the Japanese, Koreans, Indians and Vietnamese, they will probably start selling there own brand of car in USA (or wherever you are). Would you feel comfortable driving a 100% Chinese car?

I worry about brake failure for some reason. The little things that tend to get you severely injured.

 

I just drove an MGB in traffic 15 minutes ago. So yes, I would be feeling safe driving a Chinese car. I mean as safe as I usually feel. I'm sure it'll be a lot safer than mowing my grass, and I do that every week.

 

The country of manufacturing has little to do with the safety of the car. The US auto market is highly regulated and there is tons of independent research on design, safety and overall quality. Traking the history of how foreign led companies entered the US market, they usually offer value over performance with a focus on quality. 10 years ago who would have suggested Hundai as a top quality leader? Read the ratings now...

The other point to be understood is parts sourcing is a global industry. No manufacturer makes all their own parts. Look at all the Bosch parts in VW, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo etc. Look at all the cars with Takata airbags (Ford? VW? Toyota? ) The likelyhood is a Chinese car would be designed in the US or Europe, parts would be sourced globally from top suppliers and assembled in China where they can lever their labor rates to create value (perhaps enough to offset the occasional import or export tariff...)

 

Volvo is Chinese-owned, and they're actively building plants in China, transferring the tooling and know-how there from Europe. Surely, sooner or later they'll shut down all Swedish manufacturing, probably even if the automation picks up and makes labor cost differences meaningless.

That said, there is lots more to it than safety. In the US all cars meet standards and are about equally safe. Even the difference between a 2-star and 5-star whatever rating is very very small. Things that come to play isn't whether I buy an American-made Toyota, a Mexican-made Ford or GM, or Chinese-made VW, but the quality, reliability, and perception of the brand. I bought XC60 because I was looking for a modest but entry-level "luxury" car, liked how it drove better than Lexus/Acura. Beamers and Benzes have most all of the same safety features and nicer interiors, but are not as reliable or modest.

Hyundai is different story altogether. Up till late '90's their philosophy was that it's cheap, it'll sell. And it did. Then the old CEO was replaced by his far younger son who decided to go for quality.

 

You are probably correct about the investments in robotics and given the number of chinese nationals studying engineering (particularly at US colleges, I doubt there will be an intellectual property drop off. Now if your arguement is that all things made in China are going to be inferior, there's no evidence to support that claim. Similar claims were made against Japan in the 60s and 70s, Korea in the 80s and 90s and China today. I really doubt the investors would allow management to take a safety first brand and replace it with a low cost provider strategy.

 

I wish I could be as confident as you. My experience in supply chain and engineering for a major manufacturer says otherwise. And there have been a host of Chinese products such as motorcycles and ATV's that have been disposable, and that's about it.

Also the parts houses are selling some inexpensive replacement parts from China that are defective out of the box. Counterfeit parts are rampant in China and corruption is SOP. On time delivery?

I hope the owners of a very large company would be motivated to build a quality product. I don't envy the challenge ahead of them.

 

Well, eventually everybody dies one way or the other. I suppose any reasonable person who was interested in this would just stand back and watch the accumulation of a few statistics on the car of interest, whatever its country of origin.

 

If you do a bit of research, you'll find out that Volvo being "safety first" brand is a load of crap. Pretty much every other car has same safety features either standard or optional. What's so special about Volvos? Seat belts? Air bags? Bumpers? "Driver assistance" software-hardware? They all have all that, from basic Chevy to Maserati.

 

Time for you to Google the meaning and importance of brand marketing when it comes to selling a product. By example, who's the best cell provider - Verizon or ATT or Sprint? To your point, they all use the same tower equipment, transmission standards and phone devices... So why do people buy Verizon vs Sprint (we know they do based on market share). Its the brand Verizon has built that leads people to the believe their product is better. So why do people even consider buying a Volvo? Most people would say Toyota is more reliable. Audis are prettier. GMs are cheaper. Going back to the days of the redblock "toaster on wheels" look, Volvo built a brand based on safety innovation. That remains the leading brand message and perception for Volvo even today. Not the same as saying they proven to be the safest. So what is the Volvo marketing team trying to do? They are looking to middle/upper class families who value safety, edgier styling, with driveable performance. They want to be in the conversation when people are shopping a BMW, Audi, Lexus or Infiniti etc. So returning to the original post, eflexer raised the question whether Chinese ownership and the potential for manufacturing or design flaws compromise the reliability, effectively damage the brand to the point people would go elsewhere.

 

I basically agree re the safety claims--pretty much all cars today are safe, especially the premium class like MBZ, BMW, Lexus, etc. Volvo, however, was the first to stress safety and make it their core value and image. Along with that, Volvo pioneered a lot of safety features quite revolutionary at the time...

 

Chinese can make eiser good or bad cars. I lived there and I know that they make exellent cars for themselves

 

Name ONE thing that Chinese excel in making (besides Chinese food)? One thing where if you had a choice to buy from various places of manufacture you'd choose the one that's Made in China? I can't think of any. May be better than Made in Somalia but I've never seen anything made there (except for pirates may be).

 

I dont think, yhat this is a good idea. I my point of view, buying such a car is a lottery. I have one friend ordered a Chinese car, and it was without a turbo, had troubles with a new car, had to find out all the details, and to finish instead of the Chinese

 

GreatWall is a good brand Chinese car

 

"GreatWall" is a terrible car name, for starters!

 

lol, kind of like the Chevy Nova, making the "no va" brand image strong in Mexico. Chinese cars are largely made from older parts designed by other companies like Mitsubishi. GWM has been in business for a while but is mostly all about producing low cost - meaning they don't own their own tech and they focus on manufacturing and assembly. Global brands like Volvo own their own technology, invest in research etc making the car less about where or who did the assembly and more about the design, styling and engineering.

 

I personally would never own a Volvo made after 1998, Red Blocks, i.e. front wheel drive ones--the whole thing changed! I tried a couple and really, what's the point? Most of the technology seems borrowed from VW (and my 1.8T Passat 5 spd. is better), the materials are bad, leather, trim, etc. don't wear well at all. The White Block engines are unreliable and delicate compared to the Red Blocks, the transmissions fail much more, the driving experience is mediocre at best, a Camry is a much better car. Being a Volvo "enthusiast" I tried a 1996 850R, and what a letdown that was! Couldn't get rid of it fast enough, and there were few takers, now even that is considered a classic, sadly.

 

Driving a chinese branded, chinese manufactured car wouldn't worry me one bit. Look how the know-nothings slated Japanese cars and motorbikes in the early days, and now they've taken over the world. The chinese are about to do the same to those two industries. Anyone that slates the thought of Chinese cars clearly has little grasp of history. Whether you're a buyer, seller, or domestic manufacturer, you need to take the prospect very seriously indeed.

PS, the leather jn my 145,000 mile XC90 looks immaculate, and drives like new. The only "breakdown" in all those miles has been a headlamp bulb. The idea that modern Volvos are, as an average, any less long lived or robust that earlier models is rubbish. Good for you if you drive a 400 year old model, but for every one that survives there are 500 in a landfill so you can't seriously suggest they are somehow any "better", and that'll be no different in another few decades when the current models become elderly. Who would want a VW anyway? Since WWII to present time they've been responsibly for atrocities, lies, and much like Ford with the Pinto they decided extra dead people was a price worth paying for not spending money on antipollution systems...yet fools still put money in their pockets.

 

I know that my mother has a Chinese car, she chose it and bought it herself, and thank God everything is fine for 10 years now, she really doesn't drive it that often, but I can definitely say that I would not buy it myself

 

I think Nio makes great cars. I would have no issue driving one