“I am watching CNN and seeing bad employment numbers from US auto industry. Interesting, though, here in China US brands, like Buick, are very popular.”
November 7 at 7:38 am
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Mo Kargas, ♫ Rahsheen™, V for Veselka and 14 other people liked this
That's refreshing. US Autos need some good news (especially here in Detroit), regardless where it is coming from - Ken Burbary
Toyota own's here in Uganda, American cars are very hard to find. - Jon Gosier
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It's likely that in China US brands are popular because they're an import and therefore a status symbol. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
US brands like Buick are actually made in China. They're popular because historically before China was communist, Buick was a very popular brand. So when GM entered the market in the 90s, they thought they'd begin by bringing a well recognized brand back. It worked. Became status symbol for all government officials and wealthy folks. Now they're introducing other GM lines like Cadillac etc. - Christine Lu
Very cool, Christine =) - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
Interesting about the Buick "brand's" adoption. When I visited (Guangzhou) China in 1987, Mercedes seemed to be the popular auto (and truck) there (aside from waves of bicycles). - Jim Courtney
Buick seemed very popular 2+ years ago, when it was primarily the only car on the road, but now don't see it that often in Shenzhen or Songjiang. (there are few re-branded cars there sold as Buicks, like the Suzuki) Buicks in the US use Chinese engines, but the cars I think are made in the US(though it is cheaper to replace the whole engine nowadays then to fix parts). You will notice slight refinement differnces; such as how much better a German VW is made VS a Shanghai VW. - clarke thomas
I read an article, I'm pretty sure it was about Buick, how they designed a model in a Chinese design shop specifically to appeal to the Chinese market. - mikepk
And at Ford, we've seen profitable results this quarter in South America and Europe, where the Blue Oval is particularly popular. - Scott Monty
detroit .. 30 years of ignoring reality .. hard to have sympathy for them - Gregory Lent
All the western brands are majority-owned joint-ventures by Chinese. Mercedes is still the most prestigious brand for government officials, and Audi for the richest in China. - Joshua Allen
@Christine Lu: That's very interesting. Though I did guess they were produced in China. I wonder if there is ANY real goods import from the US to China. - Amit Morson
Maybe China can bailout the US auto industry instead of taxpayers. Well, I guess if they keep buying treasuries, it's roughly the same thing except that we're on the line to pay the debt back. - Chris White
"There were some bright spots around the globe for GM. It saw a solid 4.3% jump in sales in China, even as industrywide sales there declined, allowing it to pick up market share. China has become an increasingly important market for GM, one which accounts for more than one in ten vehicles it sells worldwide." - http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/2... - Steve Wilhelm
Buicks rock. My Buick set on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/t... - Thomas Hawk
the auto industry has been have problems for a long long time, just ask anyone who lives in the state of Michigan which has been in a one-state recession for almost 5 years - Jonathan Jesse
The problem is that money is sitting offshore. Corporations aren't going to bring it back into the US just to lose 35% to taxes. - Chris Mayer
No, actually I think the problem is that American cars suck. Make something people want to buy. It might be too late now, because we're going through a period where consumers won't want to buy anything. But why would you buy some old PCs, to use an analogy, when there are new cool Macs coming in the future? I'd wait for the electric/hybrids with cool body styles, handling, and interiors like Porsche, Audi, and BMW. - Chris White
Agreed, Chris. That's why potential auto manuf. bailouts are disgusting to me. They made their beds by just moving junk metal and pumping up stock returns, instead of focusing on making a good product matching customer desires and making profits through customer satisfaction. Hope China can learn lessons from us. - Kevin Leroux
That's interesting. It would be great if Obama comes through on the green cars promise. Good for us in Canada as well (we have an enormous auto manufacturing sector that serves mostly the US giants). - V for Veselka
I don't know if its wise to save the big three. Capitalism is about renewing the old and I cant see Ford, GM, and Jeep changing anytime soon. What if we let them fail. Doesn't that give companies like Tesla a real chance of changing cars in this country? - Erik Weese
president-elect obama will bail out the big three, think about he has massive support from the unions and also has governor granholm (of michiga) on his economic transition team. we definitely see an economic bailout for the big 3. also i doubt very little limits on these companies as any more would put even more constraints on them and more job loss/facotry closure, less union employees, etc - Jonathan Jesse
Erik... are you saying if we lose Ford GM and Jeep then we'll all be able to afford Tesla cars? How's that work, exactly? - Michael Markman
