Ideas to help Chinese cars sell well in the USA

4979 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by mgrovernut, Nov 29, 2006

rtz

Discussion Starter · Nov 21, 2006

Success could be had in a few ways:

Low cost hybrids?

Really low cost cars? If a car costs $4,000 new and it's decent, I'm pretty sure people would buy it to get to work and back.

High performance.

A vehicle has to have something special. Something it excels at. Fuel economy, or performance. If it's middle of the road and completely average($16,000, 20 something mpg, ~200hp/tq), then it just blends in with the 50 other cars just like that.

If you need some help developing or choosing the right heads/cam/intake package for maximum hp/tq, check out these two sites:

flowtechinduction.com
totalengineairflow.com

Also, this site has some info regarding cams that might help in your R&D efforts:

wighat.com/fcr3/

Regards

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mgrovernut

· #2 · Nov 21, 2006

1.) Have a good brand name (not something that sounds stupid like Chery or Brilliant). Ideally just buy a defunct brand name. Plenty of good ones going spare like Triumph...

2.) Pass NCAP saftey tests. Fail this and no one will take the Chinese seriously. VERY important.

3.) Build reliable cars.

4.) In the short - medium term follow KIA's example and import car designers, engineers and stylists to get things right (other wise risk being like Proton)

5.) Don't take on the big boys at things like Hydrogen engines when designing a decent internal combustion engine is already difficult enough.

6.) Do offer long warranties (like KIA)

7.) Open some car factories outside China to keep the locals on side and to make sure that imports aren't restricted...

8.) Employ western sales and business development personel (American companies do this in reverse when entering new markets like China).

9.) When weak act like you are strong, when strong act like you are weak..

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Admin

· #3 · Nov 22, 2006

rtz said:
Success could be had in a few ways:

Low cost hybrids?

Really low cost cars? If a car costs $4,000 new and it's decent, I'm pretty sure people would buy it to get to work and back.

High performance.

A vehicle has to have something special. Something it excels at. Fuel economy, or performance. If it's middle of the road and completely average($16,000, 20 something mpg, ~200hp/tq), then it just blends in with the 50 other cars just like that.

If you need some help developing or choosing the right heads/cam/intake package for maximum hp/tq, check out these two sites:

flowtechinduction.com
totalengineairflow.com

Also, this site has some info regarding cams that might help in your R&D efforts:

wighat.com/fcr3/

Regards

welcome to China car forums RTZ

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gr8

· #4 · Nov 22, 2006

start at Canada

ill certainly buy one

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AXLE

· #5 · Nov 22, 2006

mgrovernut said:
5.) Don't take on the big boys at things like Hydrogen engines when designing a decent internal combustion engine is already difficult enough.

Well there is nothing wrong with trying is there? And perhaps engineering as well as R&D for various experimental technologies could do some good for production-feasible technologies in the future for companies which mess around with this stuff. I say the more they try, the better they will become in the future. Thats why I love concepts. When you see a good concept, you know that company is trying.

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BringIt

· #6 · Nov 22, 2006

mgrovernut said:
1.) Have a good brand name (not something that sounds stupid like Chery or Brilliant). Ideally just buy a defunct brand name. Plenty of good ones going spare like Triumph...

2.) Pass NCAP saftey tests. Fail this and no one will take the Chinese seriously. VERY important.

3.) Build reliable cars.

4.) In the short - medium term follow KIA's example and import car designers, engineers and stylists to get things right (other wise risk being like Proton)

5.) Don't take on the big boys at things like Hydrogen engines when designing a decent internal combustion engine is already difficult enough.

6.) Do offer long warranties (like KIA)

7.) Open some car factories outside China to keep the locals on side and to make sure that imports aren't restricted...

8.) Employ western sales and business development personel (American companies do this in reverse when entering new markets like China).

9.) When weak act like you are strong, when strong act like you are weak..

Agreed except 1 and 5.

1) Why not start your own brand? Even if you buy someone else's, consumers KNOW it's not the original brand, and you have to pay a handsome sum for the brand name. Not worth it.

5) ICE is so advanced these days, it will take forever to catch up. On the other hand, fuel cell, hybrids, etc. are at their infancy, it would probably be easier to catch up, don't you think?

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mgrovernut

· #7 · Nov 22, 2006

BringIt said:
Agreed except 1 and 5.

1) Why not start your own brand? Even if you buy someone else's, consumers KNOW it's not the original brand, and you have to pay a handsome sum for the brand name. Not worth it.

5) ICE is so advanced these days, it will take forever to catch up. On the other hand, fuel cell, hybrids, etc. are at their infancy, it would probably be easier to catch up, don't you think?

On point 5 I would remind people that Honda, GM, Toyota and BMW are set to launch Hydrogen cars within the next 2-3 years. They will be highly advanced and will have had billions spent on them already. In fact Honda already have a really good car testing in Japan which most people would buy right now if they could, but being Honda they are refusing to launch it for at least 3 years because they want to test it to destruction! Even if the Chinese tried to build cars out of lightweight materials like Aluminium it would still take a number of years to catch up with Audi and Jaguar (who have both spent millions on development). But why bother? Why not buy the technology off the shelf? Porsche buy a lot of their technology straight from VW!

On point 1 I'm not saying you can't launch a new brand I'm just saying it's much faster to use an existing one. If you look at a balance sheet for a company a value is put on this. It's essentially called 'goodwill'. If you take Nanjing and MG as an example they have already lined up 450 dealers in the UK and US to sell their cars. How many does a brand like Ssangyong have after already being in the US and UK for a number of years? Why struggle to make yourself known when you can simply spend a few million effectively buying goodwill? It's a lot cheaper than trying to market a new name. Over here in the UK most people still can't even say Ssangyong.

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Jackk

· #8 · Nov 28, 2006

I think that MGRoverNut has got it pretty much figured out

However I think that overzealousness in technology and design is something that Chinese car makers cannot afford at the moment.

If they manage to change consumer attitudes, convince service stations to invest.... i.e. create a market for an alternative powerplant system like hydrogen, bigger players like Toyota, GM and Daimler will be the ones who'd be capitalising on that.

Brand wise... would you buy a Smart that you know is being built by Mercedez, a Lexus backed by Toyota or a Rolls Royce being built by me?

SsangYong would never have had much success with its Rodius even if it was sold as a Maserati. They should have just designed it better.

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mgrovernut

· #9 · Nov 29, 2006

Jackk said:
I think that MGRoverNut has got it pretty much figured out
SsangYong would never have had much success with its Rodius even if it was sold as a Maserati. They should have just designed it better.

Well a Maserati is a bit ufair. But if it had been badged as a Rover (not Land Rover) then it would certainly have sold.

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