This is my first thread.

Confusing about logo of them. Why Tiger Truck from USA can using logo looks like ChangAn's logo??? (no copyright or not?! no licensed or not?!)

http://www.itp-agency.org/public/logo_changan.gif

http://www.dnmstrategies.com/image/logo/sponsor/changan-logo.gif

http://www.tigertruck.com/images/logo-tigertruck.gif
(www.tigertruck.com)

http://cardatabase.net/photos/small/1/5/7/00021751.jpg
(http://cardatabase.net/search/search.php?manufacturer=Tiger%20Truck)

wow this is quite interesting, does anyone know anything about this? apparently i have never heard of tiger truck

Interesting, perhaps those are ChangAn vehicles?

They ARE Chang'an vehicles

Very interesting, I haven't heard about this company before


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Chang'an Expands Overseas with Own-brand Cars Chang'an Motor Corp, the Chinese partner of Ford Motor Co, yesterday announced it will expand in the overseas market with its own-brand vehicles.

The nation's No 4 automotive group expects sales abroad will account for 15 to 20 percent of its overall vehicle sales including those from joint ventures with foreign partners annually by 2010, Chang'an chief executive officer Xu Liuping told China Daily.

The ratio is up from less than 3 percent last year, according to data provided by the company.

At an international business conference yesterday in Chongqing, attended by dealers from 28 countries and regions, Xu said the overseas market is expected to contribute 25 to 30 percent of the firm's own-brand sales by 2010.

He said Chang'an aims to raise overall sales from 630,000 vehicles last year to 1.5 million units a year by 2010, with more than half under its own brands.

The company's overseas sales rocketed by 143 percent to 15,000 vehicles last year. Other Chang'an executives said it aims to sell 25,000 vehicles overseas this year.

"We will use global resources to make high-quality own-brand vehicles and provide them to customers at home and abroad at reasonable prices," Xu said.

Besides the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa, Chang'an is also exploring the US and European markets, he said.

The company said in a statement that it plans to launch three to eight new own-brand models at home and abroad every year by 2010. Its overseas line-up will include mini vehicles, light-duty trucks, pick-ups, sport utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and cars with an engine capacity of between 1.0 and 2.0 liters.

Xu said Chang'an is planning to build assembly plants in Pakistan and Malaysia to speed up overseas sales.

And foreign distributors like Michael Ward, president of Tiger Truck LLC, Chang'an's sole distributor in the United States, have confidence in Chang'an products.

Ward told China Daily: "The United States has the most difficult auto standards in the world. But I believe Chang'an can meet those standards if it wants to do so. We will increase its sales in the United States step by step."

Ward said 1,000 Chang'an vehicles were sold in the United States last year.

Many other Chinese vehicle producers are also looking to the overseas market.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, partner of Volkswagen and General Motors, aims to sell 45,000 own-brand cars a year in the overseas market by 2010. It will begin exports next year.

Geely Automobile, the independent carmaker in Zhejiang Province, aims to sell two-thirds of its vehicles abroad by 2015. It plans to lift its overall sales to 2 million units annually by then from 150,000 units last year. It will kick off car production later this year in Malaysia.

Chang'an executives said it plans to spend more than 5 billion yuan (US$625 million) in new own-brand vehicle development from 2006 to 2010, up from 3.9 billion yuan (US$487.5 million) in the past five years.

(China Daily June 30, 2006

Interestingly the website omits the name of the source of these tough little machines and their engines.

But the maker's logo is prominently displayed as kkrit aptly revealed to us.

http://www.tigertruck.com/4x4/index.html

Keep an eye on this enigmatic player from the west. It's not likely to be swallowed up soon in the coming wave of consolidation.

The same as for Tiger Trucks goes for Turkish OZMAKTAS OZALTIN. They are also producing Changan trucks under license but selling them under their own name. Trucks bear Changan badge and OZALTIN sticker.

695696

697698

Xu said Chang'an is planning to build assembly plants in Pakistan and Malaysia to speed up overseas sales.

And foreign distributors like Michael Ward, president of Tiger Truck LLC, Chang'an's sole distributor in the United States, have confidence in Chang'an products.

Ward told China Daily: "The United States has the most difficult auto standards in the world. But I believe Chang'an can meet those standards if it wants to do so. We will increase its sales in the United States step by step."

Ward said 1,000 Chang'an vehicles were sold in the United States last year.


The above is quite misleading -

Ask how many of these have been certified for on-road use. It is an easy guess - zero - because these are sold in the US strictly for golf courses, off road.

We might as well be talking golf carts, go carts, bicycles.....

Tiger Truck Building First U.S. Assembly Plant In Texas For Chinese Trucks
By Anita LaFond, News Editor, Manufacturing.net
Manufacturing.Net - March 13, 2007
Tiger Truck announced Tuesday that it will build the first U.S. assembly plant in Jasper, Texas, for vehicles based on designs by China's third largest car manufacturer, ChangAn Automobile Group.

The Jasper facility, with a capacity of 7,500 vehicles annually, will employ 100 workers and the first "Made in U.S." vehicles are expected to leave the production line in early 2008.

Tiger Truck, a privately-held company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is the exclusive importer, distributor and now U.S. manufacturer for ChangAn, which in China has manufacturing agreements with Suzuki, Ford and Mazda.

ADVERTISEMENT

Mike Ward, founder and CEO of Tiger Truck, said, "with so many U.S. manufacturers investing in China, I am particularly pleased to be investing in the U.S., hiring skilled U.S. workers and delivering superior products made here for our markets in the Americas. While others are trying to buy cheap parts from China, we are seeking important OEM and sourcing agreements with key U.S. suppliers."

At the outset, approximately 80 percent of the trucks manufactured in Texas will be for export.

The Jasper facility will produce two new truck platforms. The Champ, a full-size pick-up truck will be sold to the U.S. and Canadian off-road market. Another version of this platform, the Leopard, has a diesel engine, and will be sold for export only for on-road use.

The second platform, a medium-duty truck, will be sold globally for on-road use, including in the U.S. This truck will be delivered with an EPA/C.A.R.B. certified diesel engine.

Got pics? Where's the cost advantage if made in USA?

This is great news :thumb: I hope it'll sell well. Here's a link to Tiger Trucks website:

http://www.tigertruck.com/index.html

And couple of pics of the "Tiger Star" truck.

http://s2.mojalbum.com/avto1-foto_4219952_17422454_18411048.jpg
http://s2.mojalbum.com/avto1-foto_4219952_17422454_18411049.jpg
http://s2.mojalbum.com/avto1-foto_4219952_17422454_18411050.jpg

LOL when you think of a truck you think of Semis (Lorries) etc but not this shrimp :D

they have these trucks at the casino to haul you to your car. they get run like a dog 24-7 . got to be tuff !

Fresh off of turning away from Jasper, Tiger Truck has landed in Poteau, Oklahoma.

In a telephone interview with Tiger executive Michael S. Ward on July 3, he stated there was no decision made on a future site for the plant.

"There are plenty other locations that we could start in tomorrow without any risks," Ward said.

Ward didn't say when a final decision would be made on a new plant location.

But by Friday, July 6, Tiger Truck announced that the plant would open in Poteau, OK.

According to The



Morning News in Oklahoma, the hiring has begun for some positions and the first round of employment will range from 75 to 100 people.

According to the article published Friday, July 6, "Tiger Truck has been looking in Oklahoma for a plant site and needed one fairly quickly, Davie Spindle, economic development director for the city of Poteau said.

According to Bruce, when Ward visited with Jasper officials in late June the deal for the Jasper site was still on.

"When he left, he said everything was a go," Bruce said. "He said there were no problems at all. Then we received the email from China. Something definitely happened in China to change his mind.

"As far as I knew, our deal was still going on as planned," Bruce said. "All of a sudden, they just pulled out."

But in the Friday, July 6 edition of The Morning News, Spindle was quoted as saying "the deal had been in the works since May. In early June, executives from the company visited the city and a month later announced its intent to set up shop."

"I have suspected for the last six weeks that there was something wrong with the equity on his part," Bruce said. "It looks like he is using the environmental issues to get out of coming to Jasper."

Ward still pointed to the environmental issues at the former LP plant site on Hwy. 63 as the main reason Tiger Truck didn't open its plant in Jasper.

Even though Mike Bruce, owner of the property had offered to financially take care of the environmental issues, Ward said time was becoming a crucial factor.

Tiger Truck officials formally announced the Poteau location during a Monday press event.

"The forces in Oklahoma were not to be denied," Ward said during the announcement. "They quickly mobilized to meet our needs in such a way that little time has been lost from our original aggressive schedule. We anticipate making initial production deliveries from this site by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

"In an effort to emulate the remarkable responsiveness that you and your Oklahoma colleagues have demonstrated to us, you will see action in this facility this month as we begin to organize it for production of our newest line of Champ trucks."

The facility will be located in the 112,000-squarefoot facility at Poteau Industrial Park.

Short Line Railroad will build a rail spur in conjunction with the city to meet the needs of the facility. Tiger will also receive accelerated depreciation benefits on the building and equipment because it sits on former Indian land.

If plan details are met, the company is also eligible to participate in a $300,000 economic development incentive offered by the city, which city officials said played a major part in Tiger's decision to locate in Poteau.

China-designed light trucks to be "made in U.S."

07:59, July 24, 2007

Light trucks designed by ChangAn Automobile Group, China's third largest automaker, will be made in the United States, according to the Shanghai Securities Journal.

The journal reports Monday that Tiger Truck LLC, a privately held U.S.truck manufacturer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, plans to open an assembly plant in Poteau City, Oklahoma to produce the China-designed trucks. The company has announced the manufacturing agreements on its official website.

Chongqing ChangAn Kuayue Automobile Co., Ltd. one of ChangAn Group's subsidiary companies, is actually the one that works with Tiger Truck, according to sources from the department of publicity, ChangAn Group.

"ChangAn Kuayue is to carry out the agreement with Tiger Truck by ways of techniques and auto parts export, " local magazine China Auto Review quoted manager of the marketing department of ChangAn Kuayue who is surnamed Zhuo.

"The plant will start with ChangAn's 1021 series of light trucks equipped either with gasoline or diesel engines." Zhuo said.

The Poteau plant will assemble two series of trucks, including a full-size pickup truck named Champ and a medium duty truck named Leopard.

Initially, 20 percent of the products, all of which certified by U.S.Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board, will be put on the U.S. market, while the rest will be sold to the North American market, according to Tiger Truck's official site.

The 112,000-square-foot plant is located in the Poteau Industrial Park. Tiger Truck plans to hire 100 employees this year to have the single-shift capacity of producing 7,500 vehicles per year in 2008. The company expects the number of employees to approach 300 by the end of 2009.

Tiger Truck has been the exclusive importer and distributor of ChangAn products since 1999. The manufacturing agreement is seen as a way to fill the need of low speed vehicles, as well as to solve the problem of unbalanced trade between the U.S. and China and create more job opportunities in the U.S.

"Tiger is particularly pleased to counter that trend by bringing jobs and business to the U.S. Our long-standing partnership with ChangAn has been exemplary and has led to this historic first," Mike Ward, founder and CEO of Tiger Truck, was quoted as saying.

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/6222354.html

"ChangAn Automobile Group, China’s third largest automaker, has forged new cooperative ground for the vehicular industry by signing a deal that will see its light trucks be made in the US, according to the Shanghai Securities Journal.

The journal reported Monday that Tiger Truck LLC, a private US truck manufacturer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, plans to open a new assembly plant in Poteau City, Oklahoma to welcome ChangAn’s trucks. The company has announced the manufacturing agreements on its official website. Chongqing ChangAn Kuayue Automobile Co., Ltd. one of ChangAn Group’s subsidiary companies, will actually partner up directly with Tiger Truck, according to ChangAn’s publicity department.

"ChangAn Kuayue is to carry out the agreement with Tiger Truck by ways of techniques and auto parts export,” local magazine China Auto Review wrote, quoting Zhou, the manager of ChangAn Kuayue’s marketing department. "The plant will start with ChangAn’s 1021 series of light trucks equipped either with gasoline or diesel engines," Zhuo said.

The Poteau plant will in total cater for two series of trucks, including the full-sized ‘Champ’ pickup truck and the medium duty ‘Leopard’ truck. Initially, 20 percent of the products will be sold in the US, with the rest to be shipped to the rest of the North American market such as Canada and Mexico, said Tiger Truck’s website, adding that all products will be certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Californi a Air Resources Board.

The 112,000-square-foot plant lies in the Poteau Industrial Park and Tiger Truck is ready to hire 100 employees this year to man the facility and produce 7,500 vehicles per year in 2008. The staff roster is thought likely to expand to around 300 by the end of 2009. Since 1999, Tiger Truck has enjoyed being ChangAn’s sole exclusive importer and distributor. This agreement will meet the need to produce low speed vehicles, while bolstering US job opportunities and addressing the trade imbalance between the two powers.

"Tiger is particularly pleased to counter that trend by bringing jobs and business to the US. Our long-standing partnership with ChangAn has been exemplary and has led to this historic first," Mike Ward, founder and CEO of Tiger Truck, was quoted as saying."


- Shanghai Daily -

Tiger Truck added Champ 4500 to their lineup. This is their largest pickup.

Delivering the biggest payload, yet, the Champ 4500 is a full-size off-road truck, available in a 2-door standard cab or 4-door crew cab. Driver and crew fit comfortably in the roomy interior with all expected creature comforts. The Champ comes standard with a 5-speed manual transmission or the optional 3-speed automatic transmission is available. All Tiger’s engines, including the Champ’s electronic fuel injected (EFI) engine have been certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Champ 4500Unlike a regular full-size truck, the Champ’s truck bed is not encumbered by wheel wells, so there is additional useable floor space. The Champ’s standard truck bed is 103” x 62” … that’s longer than the long beds of most full size trucks from other manufacturers. Look how easy it is to load an oversized pallet of 8’ long 2”x4”s.

Champ 4500Plus, the Champ has a bigger payload: it’s rated at 3,850 lbs (including passengers)...over 50% more than comparable trucks! Here is the Champ comfortably carrying two pallets of bricks weighing over 3,100lbs, plus there is still room for rakes, hoes, and shovels.

This tough truck gets greater gas mileage than the other full-size trucks with an impressive 32 mpg. That is twice the industry average of only 16 mpg for comparable vehicles. To further help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, the Champ is also available with the E85 Flex-Fuel option. Operating on E85 not only saves gas, but with a higher octane rating, it boosts engine horsepower.

Tiger Star X CabPlus, Tiger has the only vehicles in its class, including the Champ, to have passed the stringent frontal crash test.

The Champ 4500 is the perfect workhorse for a construction site, nursery, golf course, college and corporate campus, military compound, amusement park, private development, etc. This full-size truck starts at the small price of $12,995.

http://s2.mojalbum.com/kitajci-4-foto_4219952_11803055_12581668.jpghttp://s2.mojalbum.com/kitajci-4-foto_4219952_11803055_12581665.jpg

The same as for Tiger Trucks goes for Turkish OZMAKTAS OZALTIN. They are also producing Changan trucks under license but selling them under their own name. Trucks bear Changan badge and OZALTIN sticker.

Ozmaktas Ozaltin Automotive was also selling Chinese pickup of unknown origin but with their (or better said ChangAn's logo)! Though I'm pretty sure ChangAn was never producing such van:
http://www.admoto.pl/pub/art.asp?g=gs&n=858&f=wd_117.xml

It seems one distributor imported the car to Poland.


http://s2.mojalbum.com/kitajci-4-foto_4219952_11803055_12581725.jpg
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Hello Martin, the Polish article was 5 years old. (23-12-2003). The Turkish website from Ozmaktas has been removed, and we never have heart anymore about this project. The car is one of the older Zhongxing types.
I remember you showed the Ozmaktas models at the avtomobilizem forum in Jan. 2007; http://www.avtomobilizem.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=767211&sid=5313ab43bec39db8262463efbfa16d18
You can clearly recognize here the Foton vehicles. Greetings!

Thanks Erik for providing extra information!

By the way, could you also answer our newest member Joie, to his question about Foton C2?
http://www.chinacarforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=25230#post25230

Done, Martin!
greetings,

Tiger Trucks are stablished in Costa Rica since a couple of years and the've sold many lightweight trucks, and also those motorbikes at a very low price.

Michael Ward, president of Texas Tiger Truck, has quietly been importing Chang'an vehicles since 1999. Some are sold for off road use to institutions and some are routed to Costa Rica, and other destinations outside the U.S.. These vehicles are mainly of the minitruck and minivan type. Some have been fitted as EVs.
Chang'an has now invested its confidence in Mr. Ward's enterprise enough to
establish an assembly plant in Poteau Oklahoma. Yes, the same state that regretfully never became an assembly site for NAC MGs.
The grand opening of the factory will be at the end of this month. About 20%of the output will be for sale in the U.S. and the rest will go to export destinations like Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. The first year's production capacity target is just under 8,000 units.
The question we might ask is: Will this enterprise of Mr. Ward's evolve into a full scale importer and distributor for Chang'an? If so perhaps it might be the channel for the new Jiexun hybrid to find its way into the American market.
In any event, building them in Oklahoma is a lot easier than sailing them down the Yangzi River to Shanghai and beyond.

didnt MG want to make a plant in OKLAHOMA?

is this a coincidence

U.S. Tiger Truck opens facility for Chinese trucks.

Changan Auto Group vice president Wu Xuesong and general manager Yang Qing of Changan's global sales company flew to the U.S. yesterday to attend the inauguration ceremony of Tiger Truck's assembly plant in Poteau city, Oklahoma for making Changan-designed trucks, reported China Youth Daily today.

The plant is reportedly the first U.S.-based assembly facility to turn out vehicles with a Chinese heritage. A series of commercial vehicles carrying the Changan Auto badge will be manufactured in this newly-built American plant, and the privately-held Tiger Truck company will become the first "American manufacturer of Chinese vehicles."

At an industry event earlier this week, Yang Qing said that Changan Auto has cooperated for two years with Tiger Truck, the exclusive importer and distributor in the U.S. for Changan vehicles. The initial form of their partnership included the transfer of Changan Auto's brand and technology to Tiger Truck for assembling the CKD (completed knocked down). And now they have started to speed up the local production of Changan trucks in the U.S.

Changan Auto, also a Chinese partner of Suzuki, Ford, and Mazda, are expected to get its proceeds from this assembly plant (with a yearly capacity of 7,500 units) located in Poteau city, Oklahoma by providing auto parts and technical know-how for making Changan's re-designed commercial vehicles, mostly of crossover models. These U.S.-made Chinese trucks will be sold for off-road use in college campuses, construction sites, industrial parks and on farms.

"I couldn't be more pleased with our long-standing partnership with Changan (Auto) that leads to this historic first (U.S. maker of Chinese vehicles)," said Mike Ward, founder and chief executive officer of the US company. Tiger Truck is believed to be learning from its Chinese partner how to make quality mini vehicles at low costs.

http://www.tigertruck.com/index.html

First US-Built Chinese Vehicle Now On-Sale (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-parker/first-us-built-chinese-ve_b_116249.html)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-parker/first-us-built-chinese-ve_b_116249.html

It's an automotive first, but with the kind of vehicle "below the radar" of most people. It should make headlines, but it won't. The news: the first major captive import vehicle-maker from China has opened its Oklahoma doors and started-up its assembly line.
The Tiger Champ is the first Chinese-designed and engineered vehicle assembled in America meant for US and overseas sales. No doubt it's just the first of many China-sourced cars and trucks made in and for North America.
Today's happenings were reported via a press release suffering from some badly-fractured English, the kind we used to see from what were once, to Americans, exotic companies with names like Toyota, Subaru and Mitsubishi. (The Tiger Champ is the first Chinese vehicle to be built in the US).
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2008-08-01-tigerchampchina-thumb.jpg (http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2008-08-01-tigerchampchina.jpg)
On July 31, a Chinese car-maker celebrated with some very American civic officials the first of its vehicles rolling-off an Oklahoma assembly line near the town of Poteau. Tiger Champ is manufactured by Chongqing ChangAn Automobile Co., Ltd. (marketed under the "Chana" brand internationally), China's third largest vehicle-maker. The Oklahoma plant assembles the truck from parts and kits shipped from China; they also say about 50% of the parts used in final assembly will be US-sourced. About 100 employees are working at the company's first US facility.
Tiger Truck, the company's name in the US (www.tigertruck.com (http://www.tigertruck.com)) says they hope to eventually offer a wide-range of products available with gas, diesel or electric-drive powertrains. All Tiger vehicles, says the company, meet the stringent CARB/EPA standards and are available powered by 48V or 72V electric motor, EFI gasoline, Caterpillar Diesel or E-85 flex-fuel. 4WD, automatic transmission and A/C are some of the options available.
This first effort is a small utility truck suitable, the company says, for military bases, golf courses, college campuses, industrial complexes, private residential communities and in and by municipalities. Champ is legal to drive on-road in Oklahoma only, off-road everywhere else and not on any roads with a speed limit of 55 and above. It's priced at $12,995 and has an "even more attractive operating rate of 37 mpg." (Sometimes, slightly-tortured English as a result of bad translations can be fun). (Champ will be available in several different utility styles and will eventually be available with gasoline, diesel or electric drivetrains).

But Tiger Champ takes the title of first "Chinese-sourced vehicle sold in the US" almost by default.
In 2006, Nanjing Automobile Group, a 62-year old Chinese car-maker, announced a plan to build a new version of the MG, one of the most-venerable and memorable of British sports cars, and to assemble the cars at a planned plant in Ardmore, OK. The company planned to take advantage of government-offered tax rebates and the like, and were also said to be considering building the plant on Indian reservation land, which might have offered even more incentives.
Nanjing had purchased the MG name and the assets of the MG Rover Group for £53 million, now about $105 million US dollars. They made that purchase from BMW, which had acquired the brands in 1994, after being a part of British Aerospace. Its new Chinese owners stated that the brand would stand for something new in China, as MG general manager Zhang Xin said: "We want Chinese consumers to know this brand as 'Modern Gentleman'. To see that this brand represents grace and style."
Modern Gentleman? I liked Morris Garages better, the name the company used since its first cars were built in 1924. And as the ex-owner of a 1971 Triumph Spitfire, I know from where I speak when the talk turns to "British cars." (Volkswagen's 2009 Scirocco is being produced by VW and SAIC in China).

By March, 2007, speculation over the Nanjing project's future was answered by a report on National Public Radio which quoted a Nanjing/MG official saying the company's Oklahoma plans had been shelved. If you're an Oklahoman, that's not the best way to find out about the death of a project which was going to pour many millions into the economy.
Tiger will have the capacity to produce 35 vehicles per day before moving to multiple shifts. Vehicles will be delivered from Poteau in early 2008 and will be "Made in U.S." Privately held Tiger Truck is the exclusive importer, distributor and now U.S. manufacturer for ChangAn, which in China has manufacturing agreements with Suzuki, Ford and Mazda. Initially, nearly 80% of the trucks manufactured here will be for export.
The captive imports, overseas-based car-makers which have been building "green field" plants, literally, factories built in "green fields" where there is no competing industry nearby, have been well-represented by the Europeans, Japanese and now the South Koreans. (This Chinese poster encourages people to "Be a Good Comrade").
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2008-08-01-beagoodcomradechinaposter-thumb.jpg (http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2008-08-01-beagoodcomradechinaposter.jpg)
One of the main reasons these import companies don't want any local competition from similar firms is so local workers aren't too familiar with the UAW and other unions which might represent them. Not one of these green field plants has been unionized. These factories pay salaries and offer benefits similar to what union workers can claim, but missing one important aspect of unionization: when jobs are cut, when plants are closed and when demand slackens for your plant's product, the workers have no control over their own fates, there is no one trying to protect their hard-earned jobs and benefits.
Just this week Nissan announced it will offer voluntary buyouts to workers at its two Tennessee factories to counter slow sales of full-sized pickups and SUVs. Technicians and salaried employees at the Smyrna assembly and Decherd powertrain plants will be eligible for lump-sum payments of between $100,000 and $125,000, depending on tenure, plus medical and car purchase benefits. And
you can guess what happens when enough people don't "volunteer" for the buyout. (Nissan's Japan-built GTR sports car is an $80,000 rocket with every current bell and whistle imaginable, but even mighty Nissan is trying to avoid lay-offs at 2 US factories, offering workers 'voluntary buyouts' first).

Not too many people working at Nissan in the US have a lot of tenure; I can remember when Marv Runyon, a former Ford manufacturing executive, head of the Tennessee Valley Authority and US Postmaster General took a job as head of Nissan's manufacturing division in the US in 1981, and became the first and then only American employee eligible for retirement benefits from that company.
"It's the realities of the market. Looking at it, we decided we had about 1,200 employees in excess," Nissan spokesman Fred Standish told industry newspaper Automotive News, and I'm certain those 1,200 workers appreciated being termed as "excess" by management.
And Nissan won't be the only captive import cutting back and leaving many workers wondering where they'll be able to find another nearby job which would offer the same relatively high pay and selection of benefits they got at Nissan. Perhaps some of them might be thinking, "Maybe we should have joined that union." (The Bugatti Veyron, at $1.6 million, seen on display at the recent Beijing Auto Show).

The Detroit Three don't have a lot of time to do what's necessary so the captive imports don't look at them as one big potential garage sale of people, machinery and technologies. The Tiger Champ is one chapter of that story, and certainly the Nissan buyouts are, too.
Unless the Detroit Three start making, promoting and selling the kind of relevant cars and trucks which Americans are clamoring for --- high-mileage, safe and sensible --- in addition to the high-horsepower Chevrolet Corvettes, Dodge Challengers and Ford Roush Mustangs they already sell, we can easily predict more than one million well-paid American workers losing jobs, homes and families in an economy where some management considers them as "excess."
What do you think?

Aug. 12, 2008 (China Knowledge) - Chongqing ChangAn Automobile Group, China's third-largest vehicle manufacturer, said that its U.S. partner Tiger Truck has started production of vehicles carrying the ChangAn Auto badge in Poteau city, Oklahoma. This marks Tiger Truck becomes the first U.S.-based assembly facility to produce China-sourced vehicles.

i thought it already started before?

Wow, that is actually an imprtant fact to note, then. That is the first Chinese vehicles to America being ChangAn Tiger trucks. A tiny town in Oklahoma being the spot, so little notoriety that its almost a covert operation of sorts.

Just read this, not sure how true it is :confused:


In that case, you'll be interested to know that Tiger Trucks is building the Champ 4500 in Oklahoma right now.

It's a Chang'An truck sent from china in kit form and assembled here, and it's the same size of a full-sized pickup. Visit their website, and you'll see a picture of the Champ parked next to a Chevy Silverado for comparison.

It's priced at around $13,000 and-get this-though it's not legal for use on US roads, you can drive it legally on Oklahoma highways on roads limited to 55 MPH. Suprising, especially since this thing has a 3-cycle diesel engine with a top speed of 35 MPH. Yes, they're here, and you can drive one on the road in Oklahoma. Forget Nanjing and the others.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/26/doh-all-plans-for-return-of-mg-to-u-s-dead/


:lol:

I see even their own website calls it an "off roader" :eek:

" In June, Gov. Brad Henry signed a bill that makes the Champ and a small Tiger Truck pickup, the Star, legal starting Nov. 11 on all roads in Oklahoma except most federal highways."

So what counts as a highway, anything thats not a dirt road :confused:

Windy, it looks like the whole state wants to get behind the promotion of this manufacturing plant. And so the legal limits appear to be getting stretched a bit. As I understand it the Governor's signature on the bill will allow the vehicle on any roadway other than Interstate (federal) Highways.
Here's a related story from Automotive News.

Title: "Insurer group: Minitrucks pose hazard that needs feds' attention"

http://www.autonews.com/article/20080811/ANA06/808110376&SearchID=73328238127193

Title: "Insurer group: Minitrucks pose hazard that needs feds' attention"

http://www.autonews.com/article/20080811/ANA06/808110376&SearchID=73328238127193

Sorry, can you copy and paste the article for us please ? or at least summarize it, I can't read it, it needs subscription.