PDA

View Full Version : How Do You Like Your Chinese Cars ?



Hamico
17-06-2008, 07:06 PM
Ever seen a "pirated" car, check this out, a Holden Rodeo rear and interior, with a Nissan Navara front.....:shock:

Isn't there a copy right law for this ? there should be !

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/9D707249BC9733B7CA25746B001CB5E6

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
By JOHN MELLOR and MARTON PETTENDY 17 June 2008


AUSTRALIA’S first Chinese vehicle brand will be launched earlier than expected in October, beating Chery on sale here by almost six months.

GoAuto can exclusively confirm the surprise news that Great Wall Motors, likely to be known in Australia as GWM, will go on sale via a separate dealer network to Chery, which will also be imported and distributed by Ateco Automotive.

GWM’s first model will be Australia’s most affordable dual-cab utility, based on Great Wall’s Sailor, powered by a 2.3-litre petrol engine and priced “well under $20,000”, and will be followed by a full range of commercial and passenger vehicles.

Like Chery - which as previously reported will be introduced here by March next year, via the light-sized A1 hatch, the small A5 sedan and the compact Tiggo SUV - the GWM models will swap their Chinese-market names for alpha-numeric nameplates that are yet to be revealed.

The Great Wall initiative will give Ateco two Chinese franchises, which will be sold by two separate national distribution and dealer networks.

Ateco Automotive managing director Ric Hull told GoAuto: “We have been talking to Great Wall probably for as long as we have been talking to Chery.

Top to bottom: Australian-spec GWM "Sailor", Chinese Peri and Hover.

“We met with many auto-makers but really liked dealing with Great Wall. They have excellent facilities and are really excellent people to deal with. So we chose to develop that relationship with them.”

He said while the agreement was not quite signed “both sides are comfortable to the point where we are prepared to go public”.

The first vehicle through the approvals process will be a highly-specified two-wheel drive four-door pick-up, powered by a 78kW/190Nm 2.3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine.

Mr Hull said the Sailor will make ute ownership more affordable for trades people in the same way the Pregio achieved significant penetration of the van market for Kia.

He said that Ateco saw how successful the Pregio was for Kia “and we would like to think the pick-up can emulate some of that.

“Great Wall does not have a van in the line-up today but I would be very surprised if they don’t develop one.”

He added that the crew-cab, at under $20,000, would prove attractive to first-time buyers because it was a genuine five-seater.

GWM’s first model will significantly undercut SsangYong’s newest version of its Sports Dual Cab utility, the entry-level “Tradie” workhorse, which is available only in white, priced at $24,990 in 2WD guise.

On sale from earlier this month, the 2.0-litre turbo-diesel Tradie replaced Mahindra’s 2.3-litre turbo-diesel Pik-Up (priced from $25,990) as Australia’s cheapest twin-cab ute, matching or bettering many Japanese diesel single-cab and four-cylinder petrol twin-cab models.

The bargain-basement GWM ute will be followed “quickly” by a single-cab version, shortly before a 73kW/225Nm 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine choice comes on line.

It’s believed the latter will come in the form of a heavily facelifted version of the Sailor, called the Wingle in China, which could be sold alongside the Sailor.

The GWM pick-ups will be followed in the first quarter of 2009 by a light-sized five-door hatch known in China as the Peri, which will come with a 65kW/115Nm 1.3-litre 16-valve four-cylinder petrol engine mated to both five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transmissions.

Interestingly, at 3548mm long, 1581mm high and 1580mm wide, and riding on a 2299mm wheelbase, the 1015kg Peri should compete directly with the Chery A1, due to emerge here around the same time.

Soon after that, also in the first quarter, there will be a small five-door SUV called the Hover in China, where it is available in both two and four-wheel drive configurations.

Powered by a Mitsubishi-sourced 16-valve 2.4-litre engine coupled to both five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transmissions, the compact GWM crossover will sell in the same segment as Chery’s Tiggo SUV.

Mr Hull said the Great Wall range included mid-sized cars and people-movers and that Ateco would like so see a full range of vehicles from its new partner.

He said that Ateco would most likely sell the cars under the brand GWM (standing for Great Wall Motors) instead of Great Wall.

“In China the pick-up sells under the name of sailor, but we are not bound in any way to use the Chinese names nor will we. We will probably use alpha-numeric names.

“It has been on sale in South Africa for a while, where it is known as the GWM Pick-up, but there are replacement pick-ups coming so we will have to think our way through that and most likely go to alpha-numeric nomenclature.”

Mr Hull said that the styling was contemporary and that versions being driven around in Australia we being accepted by the public as conventional vehicles. It is being seen “as just a regular pick-up.”

Asked if he saw any potential for cars under $10,000 in Australia, Mr Hull said: “As I have said all along I don’t expect to be super-cheap. I don’t think there will be any $9990 cars on our horizon but I think they will be very well priced.”

But Mr Hull said that he thought Chinese cars would provide a price-to-equipment advantage over other car-makers in Australia, which would continue for some time. “We will be pricing pretty much on the Koreans but better specced,” he said.

He said that while it was true that Chinese workers in the east were starting to attract higher wages, car-makers were moving to open new car plants further west, where wage pressures were at a minimum as workers were being recruited “off the land”.

“So labour will be plentiful and not extravagant in the foreseeable future.

“The investment levels are just amazing. There seems to be no shortage of capital to buy the latest equipment and this is certainly a very pronounced feature of the producers that we have talked to in China.

“They have magnificent plants. We went to the opening of a new Great Wall plant in October that will make 200,000 cars a year and it was absolutely breathtaking.”


Wanted: Instant dealer network
ATECO Automotive has embarked on an ambitious plan to create a new national dealer network for Great Wall Motors (to be known here as GWM) by October and a second separately administered network with different dealers for Chery by early 2009.

Both brands are going to need about 60 dealers each at launch, with plans for each network to grow to 120 dealers.

On current projections the company is looking to get sales for each brand into “the 20,000s within three to four years.”

Ateco managing director Ric Hull said that while both Chery and GWM were comfortable that Ateco was dealing with both companies, both brands will be sold out of separate showrooms.

“We will have a policy that no one dealer will have both brands,” he said, adding that finding dealers to set up two separate networks nationally will not be a problem.

“We are holding 200 applications which have been flowing in once dealers knew we were looking at Chinese brands. They are very good quality dealers in the main and some of the big groups have expressed interest. Applications are still flowing in at about one a day.

Mr Hull said the short lead time to set up a Great Wall network by October was something he had done before.

“When we first set up Daewoo we had less time and not as much of a head start, so we are confident we can do it. We will be on the road very shortly, visiting everyone who has expressed an interest.”

There will be a need for regional management in each state and Ateco is now gearing up to create new regional offices in each state, separate from existing Ateco regional offices.

Ateco will also be recruiting state management for Chery in the lead-up to next year’s launch as Chery will have to become separate as well.

Vehicle distribution will be put out to a logistics company.

“We (Ateco) already put any of the competitive elements of our business in the hands of dedicated people, but we will have to go even further where we have brands competing here that compete with each other in their home market. That is very important.”

Mr Hull said the model ranges would be kept “extremely simple”.

“We learned with the Korean brands that it is better that there is only one version of each model that comes reasonably well equipped. Dealers prefer it as well. It just makes life 10 times more sensible.

“Having GLs and GLXs and all of that stuff is a complexity you can well do without. I don’t think it sells any more cars and it just makes the running of the business that much more costly.

“You wind up with stock you don’t necessarily want in the place you don’t want it.

“If you are drop shipping at seven ports around the country, every time you make your range more complex you increase exponentially the chance of getting it wrong.

“And then you have to spend money to solve it by transferring to someone who wants it or bonusing a dealer to take something he doesn’t want.”

.

Brandonsdad
17-06-2008, 07:32 PM
That link takes you to the same boring quote you posted.

Competition is good.

Wonky
17-06-2008, 07:34 PM
Is Hamico really Goggles reincarted? :confused:

Hamico
17-06-2008, 07:36 PM
Competition is good.

Copying other car designs is NOT !

seedyrom
17-06-2008, 07:37 PM
Well if no one is going to answer I will:

How Do You Like Your Chinese Cars ? .... I like them about 10,000kms away from me :)

Hamico
17-06-2008, 07:40 PM
Is Hamico really Goggles reincarted? :confused:

reincarted :confused:

Jimmy_
17-06-2008, 07:50 PM
sure looks strange

FlatfootV8
17-06-2008, 08:02 PM
78kw?
Gee thats gutless for a 2.3 litre 4.

Wonky
17-06-2008, 08:04 PM
reincarted :confused:

Goggles used to be the one who always quoted articles like this. Looks like you taken over the mantle. :D

RAWKUS
17-06-2008, 08:05 PM
78kw?
Gee thats gutless for a 2.3 litre 4.

and something that would weigh 2 tonne

Hamico
17-06-2008, 08:09 PM
Goggles used to be the one who always quoted articles like this. Looks like you taken over the mantle. :D

Cheers, thanks for that......

Big_Valven
17-06-2008, 08:21 PM
I heard many copycat chinese brands like this had nonexistant safety features. Yay for european companies spending millions getting 5 star safety ratings then people go out and buy a copied car made from mashed together sardine tins because its cheap. :nutkick:

Brandonsdad
17-06-2008, 08:30 PM
Goggles used to be the one who always quoted articles like this. Looks like you taken over the mantle. :D

How dare you make a spelling error in his thread!:bash:

Hamico
17-06-2008, 08:38 PM
How dare you make a spelling error in his thread!:bash:

:lmao:

:kneel:

V-Car
17-06-2008, 08:38 PM
Isn't there a copy right law for this ? .

There is, but it doesnt apply in China.

Some manufacturers have tried sueing, but the Chinese courts just laugh at them, saying if they dont like it, they can get out.
They figure there is too much money to be made there, so begrudging accept that thats the price they have to pay to do business in China.

Hamico
17-06-2008, 08:42 PM
There is, but it doesnt apply in China.

Some manufacturers have tried sueing, but the Chinese courts just laugh at them, saying if they dont like it, they can get out.
They figure there is too much money to be made there, so begrudging accept that thats the price they have to pay to do business in China.

But then whats the case for GM, Nissan, Ford etc. taking them to court in another country as soon as they start selling them in that country, like Australia for example ?

Might be worth GM, Nissan, Ford etc. to check their legal rights on this one.....

Party Pete
17-06-2008, 08:48 PM
Apparently GM even pulled apart one of their cars and one of the copies and rebuilt the 2 mixing the parts. The Chinese courts still didn't enforce any copyright. This is where competition is bad. It discourages companies spending billions on engineering better cars because someone else just copies it and sells it cheaper. Would Holden have spent 1 billion on the new Commodore if Ford could just buy one, pull it apart and copy it, and then sell it for half the cost because they don't have to amortise the cost of designing it? I doubt it.

VL Executive
17-06-2008, 08:54 PM
Well if no one is going to answer I will:

How Do You Like Your Chinese Cars ? .... I like them about 10,000kms away from me :)

I certainly hope people dont buy these unsafe pieces of rubbish.

I cant believe this is actually going to happen. :(

Bloody hell - Its an Navardeo!

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/9D707249BC9733B7CA25746B001CB5E6/$file/great_wall_main.jpg?OpenElement

GPT
17-06-2008, 08:54 PM
See alot of Chinese copies in my hobby (rc planes). Copyright in chinese means right to copy.

Will be interested to see the crash test results when ANCAP tests one.

Wonky
17-06-2008, 11:31 PM
How dare you make a spelling error in his thread!:bash:

Actually it was a grammatical error because I was meant to already be doing something else so rushed it ..... :doh: :doh:

CSP
17-06-2008, 11:46 PM
If they meet all ADRs and are safe enough and reliable enough what's wrong with competition?

CharlieDontSurf
18-06-2008, 02:15 PM
The consumers will see through these cars. In the last 5 years the market has changes. These cars will provide the quality, reliability safety and performance of the first Hyundai excells bondy bought out. If this car was released 10 years ago it would do OK.

It will take them 3 generations of cars to get the export markets right. Hyundai are only now finding their feet and starting to kick a few goals

Their residual values will be worth nothing after 3 years

Road Warrior
18-06-2008, 02:40 PM
If they meet all ADRs and are safe enough and reliable enough what's wrong with competition?

Ever seen the 'Landwind' crash testing clips on YouTube?

China can take it's poxy back-engineered unsafe piles of shite and sell them to their commie mates for all I care.

Party Pete
18-06-2008, 11:06 PM
Back to CSP's point though, safe or not, the only way cars get safer from the huge investment required by a company in designing a safer car. This costs money and the expense is amortised over each vehicle sold. If another manufacturer can just steal your work, they can of course undercut the you. But this hardly encourages anyone to spend the money in the first place. This is the whole reason we have a system of patents and copyright. Long term the consumer loses too if there is no copyright protection.

SV346
18-06-2008, 11:33 PM
Ever seen the 'Landwind' crash testing clips on YouTube?

China can take it's poxy back-engineered unsafe piles of shite and sell them to their commie mates for all I care.


China can take ALL of its crap back... b ast ards, least then its only the ones who made it getting killed in 2km/h accidents with bannana peels.

the big fist
19-06-2008, 01:28 AM
Wow, it's funny reading this from the people who have no experience with Chinese products or their manufacturing. Hate for you guys to find out where a lot of your car components are coming from nowadays.
I believe all the same hype was created when the first lot of Japanese cars came into the market here in the 80's ?? I was too young to witness it at the time.

Unfortunately chaps China's the place of a huge amount of manufacturing with already a lot of overseas companies starting Chinese joint ventures.

http://www.faw.com/international/Others.jsp
toyota,mazda,volkswagon

Just do a search for bmw china and see where the new 5 series is getting made.

Not having a go at anyone, just a bit of info!

muzza
19-06-2008, 09:18 AM
the big fist is right - many car parts are being made in China now. As long as corporations are demanding good quality there is not a problem. The Chinese are masters of making a knock off at 1/10th the price - things that look identical in every way.

Trouble is that there is way more to safety engineering than pieces of metal that look the same.

Check out some You-tube clips of crash testing the Chinese cars - they are frightening - they wont be selling many here (or anywhere outside China) in any case as their domestic demand is going to keep most of their cars on home soil.

VX-300
19-06-2008, 10:02 AM
Don't let your kids eat the paint chips.


:vpo:

CharlieDontSurf
19-06-2008, 02:35 PM
Chinese made and branded cars are are very different proposition to a joint venture made car. We had the VW polo sedan here in Oz a few years back and its quality was vastly different to the european made staff. VW Australia will not be doing that again in a hurry

You cant compare electrical goods to a car.China will be a motor manufacturing force there's no doubt about it. However, they are along way from it yet on an international scale and readily admit it.

the big fist
19-06-2008, 02:37 PM
Chinese made and branded cars are are very different proposition to a joint venture made car. We had the VW polo sedan here in Oz a few years back and its quality was vastly different to the european made staff. VW Australia will not be doing that again in a hurry

You cant compare electrical goods to a car.China will be a motor manufacturing force there's no doubt about it. However, they are along way from it yet on an international scale and readily admit it.

100% agree, so why is everybody having a wah about it ?
No one is forced to buy one ? If I needed a cheap ute I would get one.

VNV8
19-06-2008, 10:10 PM
why, oh why do they make em so damn ugly!?! do they even have designers, or just some kid sticking magazine cut-outs together? and i have to say, these ssangyongg (spelling) pieces of shit littering the roads are the ugliest cars i have ever seen. all of them. absolutely shocking.

dont forget that china has copied just about everything, proving itself to be quite useless. they even copied the AK-47 and made a bloody chinese version!

seedyrom
19-06-2008, 10:18 PM
dont forget that china has copied just about everything, proving itself to be quite useless. they even copied the AK-47 and made a bloody chinese version!
Bloody disgusting that. And they only made it semi-automatic, as theres no way the Chinese could replicate the quality of a real AK.

Here's a real one in action
YouTube - Burning AK47 - 300 Rounds & on Fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNAohtjG14c)

Wonky
19-06-2008, 10:32 PM
Here's a real one in action

Bloody clever multi purpose article! With these things you can have a sausage sizzle while you are killing people!! :lol: