[mgrovernut]

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..

 

[mgrovernut]

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.

 

[mgrovernut]

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.