After scrutinizing all of the websites I could find for the GH Motors group, I'm starting to think that the "minis" for the USA referred to by the Taiwanese CEO are actually minibusses and/or minivans, and that the Soyat may be intended for Mexico only.chabbu said:On the website for GH Motors Mexico, the only small car shown is the (current) Soyat, which they have model-named "INet". In the US press the company said that they will market everything from "minis" to heavy equipment. So the logical assumption is that they will try to US-federalise the Soyat. In the list of companies they plan to source from, I didn't see any other known builders of economy cars. The Soyat is one of the few Chinese small cars that already has airbags, so that helps a little.
MG does not have a fan base at all over here. They went out of business here long before they did in Europe.mgrovernut said:Nanjing have to take MG to the US. MG has a huge fan base over there. If Nanjing do decide to take MG to the US then everyone will soon say Cherry who? Seriously MG could be a big player in the USA.....
:nono: ]E46DinanM3 said:MG does not have a fan base at all over here..
I've driven around the USA and I didn't see many Ferrari's, so presumably no one want's one then? I didn't see many Rolls Royce's or Bentley's either. So I presume these brands are worthless then! MG only left the US because Ralph Nader effectively killed the sportscar. It's the same reason that the E type Jag was removed from sale. No one remembers that car do they? (I'm being sarcastic just in case you have no idea what an E type is). You said Honda makes 50 000 Accords every 2 months in the US. So what? Lada makes 250 000 cars a year in Russia and has 2/3 rds of the market. How many Lada fan clubs do you know? The point is that in the USA no one has ever heard of Geeley, but car journalists know MG. So assuming the products are good then there will be a more natural bias towards them. If you have thousands of fans then that great marketing tool called word of mouth kicks in. It's not just about how many people know of MG, it's as much about what those people who knew the brand think of the cars.E46DinanM3 said:Just drive around in America. You won't see many at all. They did not sell well at all here. Like I said, they didn't even sell enough to stay in business here.
Look at it this way, the biggest MG club has 50,000 people (not necessarliy all owners). Honda sells over 50,000 Accords in 2 months here. The fact is, MG made bad cars. Not even the British liked them enough to keep them in business.
Trust me on this one, I live in the states, I think I would know what Americans like and don't like better then someone who doesn't live here.
Your dead right about the Mini Cooper. BMW really should have called the new MINI something else, after all they haven't sold many of those new MINI's have they (hint best selling Premium small car in the universe)E46DinanM3 said:I will admit that there is a small cult following for MGs, but its not the kind of consumer base you would want for a car to compete with Ford, Honda, Toyota, etc. The people that like MGs are similar to Lotus Elise or Mini Cooper fans. They can support a small-ish amount of sales, but its not what you want for a full sized lineup, which is what the Chinese companies should be going for.
Err - I have an MG sedan - out of choice!E46DinanM3 said:but I don't think anyone is going to want something like an MG sedan.
Do you really think it will take long for consumers to figure out that MGs have become Chinese?
British cars are better, but still not competitive in reliability-
But in a way the cars will be British as the engineering and styling is being done by Arup in the UK, all the Chinese will do is finance and assembly the cars. MG started life as a tuning house and first made sports saloons before becoming famed for its sportcars, so yes it can make cars like the Accord, as long as they retain a sporting flavour. Think of MG as building BMW style cars . My point is that whatever way you look at this using a Chinese brand is not as good as using the MG brand. It's really that simple. So ultimately MG will take on 'Honda and Toyota', but they will just be much more exciting cars....E46DinanM3 said:You completely missed my point. The Cooper is a great car, but you don't see BMW trying to sell a Mini sedan, a Mini sportscar, a Mini SUV, etc. Its a brand with the consumer base to sell one type of car, same thing with Lotus, and I think its the same way with MG. The old MG roadster was a cool car, (like the Cooper) but I don't think anyone is going to want something like an MG sedan. You can't build a full scale company off of a name like that. As far as I can tell, Chinese car companies want to build up to compete with the likes of Honda and Toyota, you don't do that by making a few very specialized niche cars, but making cars with broad appeal, like the Accord and the Camry.
Do you really think it will take long for consumers to figure out that MGs have become Chinese?
