I had the opportunity to goto the Detroit Auto Show early with the industry people.  

What was striking was the quality of the models seem to correlate with the quality and desirability of the vehicle.

The Ferrari Fxx girls were amazing.  A blonde and brunette.

The GM and Ford cars had mulitple middle aged women.  A few good looking ones.

Suzuki had a guy in jeans.  I guess they are going after a different crowd.

Toyota and Honda had younger good looking models.

BMW and Mercedes had more elegant models.

The new Camaro looks like shit.  The new Charger is pretty impressive looking.

Lots of hybrids.

By models I mean chicks in short dresses and low cut blouses.  Not the actual models of the cars.

AND..........................................

GEELY, the Chinese car manufacturer did not even make it into the paid portion of the show.  They were regulated to the lobby.  They had one little excuse for a car that looked like my 9yo neice made with paper.

Yugo proved that if cheap is the only thing going for the car, it will fail.  The Koreans proved you need quality in addition to cheap.  

Well, I haven't seen the Greely/Geely/whatever, but I will bet you dollars to donuts that they will be around in ten years and will be the next Hyundai. I have worked in Tool and Die for almost 15 years now and have seen a lot of changes. These changes tell me that the Asians are coming in a big way, and it has to do with outsourcing.

In the early 90's, we tried to outsource auto work to Mexico when NAFTA was passed. It failed for a short list of reasons, chief among which were lack of involvement by the management of the Big Three in the projects and programs they started, and that Mexico as a country is not technologically ready to do the work. I saw this happen with stampings and assemblies, which is not rocket science, but requires a fair bit of supporting infrastructure to produce parts.

Nowadays instead of the big three telling us Die Makers that our tools will be made in here and ran in Mexico, they are telling us exactly which shop in Korea or Vietnam will build a tool that we will run in our American plant. Traditionally, Asian countries don't have a lot of heavy stamping/automotive base to draw from, but there is a difference between outsourcing now and when we did it under NAFTA: The big three have invested large amounts of money and have their own "minders" and project engineers in Asia to keep things moving properly.

This is a big deal, because once the Asians learn how to build tools and buy large enough stamping presses, the Big Three don't need to pay Americans to do it for them anymore. Similarly, they can take components they are already purchasing from that part of the world and creating large assemblies, knocking out a few more suppliers from the vehicle build. Once they start assembling, they can build a car.

GM has made no secret about their plans with China... They already have a GM car being made in China, and expect to have a GM car made in China and sold here in the next 7 years.

Guys, it's coming. Too many people have an interest in making this happen. Aside from whatever greed/survival/profit motives the Automakers have, there are other entities that are desparate for this to come along. Think about what a feather in China's hat this would be-I'm sure a lot of doors will open along the way.

Dave

China has too many resources to let this fail.  They will continue to dump cheap cars on the US market.  There is a price point where quality doesn't matter anymore.  They will find a point somewhere between.

Quoted: GEELY,

Geely the car will probably be as great an experience as Gigli the movie, which should be enough to ban them forever.

I'll bet you guys money that those Chinese made cars will sell like hotcakes here in the US.

The may not necessairly take business AWAY from other manufacturers but they will provide opportunity for MILLIONS of illegals low-income Americans to buy cars that could previously not afford them.

Think about what this will do - pretty quickly there will be an entire new class of people ON THE ROADS that have not been there before.

Changes are coming, and I don't think they'll be good.

CMOS

Americans also appreciate quality.  Thats how Toyota and Honda has won the battle.  The Chinese cars are shitty.  I really doubt even an illegal alien will want to drive one of those. They would stand out like a sore thumb.

Yugo tried and failed.

Its not going to work without the engineering and quality.  The Chinese have none.

Quoted: I'll bet you guys money that those Chinese made cars will sell like hotcakes here in the US. CMOS

Coming soon to a Walmart near you...

THIS POST IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICS

I went a few years ago. The American car companies were all toeing the political correctness line - they had older women, heavy-set women, women wearing pantsuits instead of dresses, even a few men in tuxedos.

Every single Japanese car had a blonde babe leaning on it.