[fm.illuminatus]

It's cheaper?

 

[fm.illuminatus]

americans will buy anything. Look at daewoo, they only made crappy cars and they sold alot in the 2 years they were in north america. I would rather buy a Chery than a Daewoo.

Daewoo is out of business now... not exactly a crowning success.

 

[fm.illuminatus]

My experience with my Chinese wife, in-laws, friends etc.. is thay they love their country, but don't like chinese brand products at all!
They only buy japanese & european stuff.

My mom is full chinese and immigrated from shanghai in the late 60's. When I told her about chinese cars she frowned, made a disappointed snort and said something to the effect of "I bet they are junky".

 

[fm.illuminatus]

That's true to an extent. It also depends on where they are from. HK Chinese and Taiwanese are probably the least likely to buy Chinese brands. Mainland Chinese, they know that Chinese products typically are not on par with foreign products, but there is a good percentage who would buy Chinese products just to support China. I think even though many Chinese would prefer to buy foreign brands because of quality issues, they still feel ashamed that China isn't doing well enough. However, there are some industries where Chinese brands have become very competitive with foreign brands, particularly in the appliance and computer industries, and Chinese brands are very dominant in these areas in China.

I think that Chinese and Americans are similar to an extent in this reguard. Americans are very nationalistic too, but they often buy foreign products instead of American brands. This is unlike Japanese and Koreans, who stick to their own products no matter what. Chinese and Americans are similar in many other ways too, besides just that area.

Americans (and Chinese it seems, from what you are saying) for the large part are not dillusional when it comes to the reality of brand quality. American cars are poorly made, compared to european and japanese cars, but they are still lightyears better than the best chinese car. However, most Americans WILL gladly buy other american brands and see the low quality of American cars as an exception to a general image of American quality, not the rule. More importantly, American cars, despite the fact they are viewed as less reliable are still viewed generally viewed as safe. People can deal with less reliability (especially when warrentees are involved), but very few American comsumers are willing to sacrifice safety.

 

[fm.illuminatus]

Considering that I've known two people who almost died when their Ford Explorers blew tires and tumbled around on the highway, leaving permanent scars on their foreheads and arms, I don't know if I can agree that American cars are really all that safe.

Ok, American cars are safe excluding ford.

 

[fm.illuminatus]

the 1st one

and yes they are becoming ALOT ,, in the street i live in there's 2 already
so the QQ , they are becoming the no.1 girls car

And I know alot of ppl who do own it , no one complains , everyone is happy

the only things they dont like so far is the Loud engine and the Cheap interior then again when they consider the price they bought it for , they think it was very fair and very value for money .

i mean c'mon for $10,000 you get a
16V Sohc FORD CVH 1.6L - 95 HP Engine
93 Seat Toledo chasis
Valeo A/C - 2 siemens APV airbags - ABS with EPD
Power windows and Power mirrors
5 x 14" Alloy wheels
great trunk space
large sedane compared to the accent and lanos .

4 years waranty !

nothing could go wrong I guess

Or I could get a used '95 bmw m3 with 240 hp, leather seats, power everything, cd changer, 17 by 8 inch sport wheels and suspension and great looks with wicked preformance. Or a used BMW 528i. Or a host of other used luxury cars or mid-range cars by more reputable brands, many of the cars still under warruntee.

 

[fm.illuminatus]

WTF are you talking about, That dude lives in Egypt, you can't buy a used 95 bmw M3 in egypt. And even if you buy one in the US the car will break down. The reason most people sell their used cars in the first place is because their cars already have hugh problems and likely will break down, you'll end up calling a tow truck before you drive your car home.

Didn't realize he lived in egypt.

However, your attitude on used cars is rediculous. I haven't bought a new car in my life, and I've had some used cars that have been perfect (I had a BMW 525i and a BMW 325xi with absolutely no problems) and some with a few issues (my 540i needed some maintence and tires and my 740il is a disaster in terms of maintenence). Buying a used car is just a matter of doing your research. There are plenty of reasons people sell their used cars: they want something newer, are bored with what they have, want something more powerful, need something larger for the family, want something the handles better, etc. Simply unloading their junker on someone else is at the bottom of the list, and although it happens all the time, normally if you pull a carfax report you can avoid getting a lemon.

 

[fm.illuminatus]

a used 95 bmw will still cost more than a new chery A11 here ,

you have to know something about the market here , ppl dont like to lose money !

IE , Daewoo Lanos ( not the new aveo ) is still on sale in Egypt ( Because its being built by some stupid egyptian factory ) for $11500

then you think that why not get a used 1999 Daewoo Lanos for example ! it would be still good and cheap ! to discover that the usesd lanos are in range of $8500 to $9500
which is totally useless

a used BMW 95 ( not even the m5 , just the regular 5 series ) costs $16000

Not to mention the 90,000 KM or even more !

funny classfieds : " BMW 316i 98 - JUST LIKE NEW ! 120,000 KM "
see ? this is considered a brand new car .. how much this one costs ? $21000 !

how much does the new BMW 320i cost ? ( which btw is beeing put together in egypt not imported , which means it should be cheaper , u think ) its for
$60,000 hehe

what a country I live in !
so you see chery has all the " FLAVOURS " of being a winner here , value for money here is a very bi issue !

except for mafioso kids , who just wants to buy a car that no one else has ( I am not one , altho I wish I was )

Oh, see, I didn't realize we where talking about chery in egypt. I though you were talking about bringin Chery to the U.S.

 

[fm.illuminatus]

and a used 95 BMW is slower than a Ferrari, so what would be the point in that?

Huh??? I was comparing the BMW to a Chery QQ not a Ferrari...

 

[fm.illuminatus]

fm.i , I wrote that in my Ferrari phase, don't worry about it. Much respect to your 540, I have an E34 530i touring with the V8 motor.

In England, I would also never consider buying a new car with my own money. However, Egypt may be a bit like China: in China, because the car sales have been growing every year, there aren't that many older cars around compared to the potential demand. Certainly in China I wouldn't buy a secondhand car, because people's expectations of value are just way too high - I'm going back a couple of years now but I've met people who bought secondhand cars with 300k km on the clock for around 40% of the new car price - in England that mileage would put the value at 10% of new or less.

Ahh, I see your point.

And on a different note... you have an E34 530i Touring?? How does that 3.0 V8 sound? How is it on realiability? For some strange reason I've always liked the small V8 (I wish they imported the e39 535i here).

 

[fm.illuminatus]

it's a nice little V8 - sound is spot on, except of course that with an auto box hanging off the back of it you are quite limited in what noises you can make - no blips and barks I'm afraid.

Reliability has been fine so far, I picked it up about 3 years ago with about 140k miles on the clock, and because I only use it a few weeks of the year when back home I think it's only up to about 155 now. Occasionally have to feed it a little engine oil, but not much and it doesn't smoke.

Fuel consumption is about 22mpg, for some reason my wife gets more like 25, I guess it's because she is lighter than I am. Presumably the 535 and 540 use more fuel in return for an increase in performance that you probably don't need if it's your sensible car and you aren't trying to prove anything.

Note that it's always difficult to justify not having the most powerful version!

Well, I can justify it for you, my 540i gets an amazing 12 miles to the gallon, city, although I do get about 22 mpg highway.

155K and not major problems is pretty good too, I guess I hang around bimmerforums.com too much, everyone goes there to complain about their problems and sometimes I forget that BMW's are actually pretty reliable.

On a different note, you should do a manual conversion, that would be cool. :thumb: