[grecy]

When it came to Australia it essentially forced the closure of the Ford and Holden (GM) vehicle design and factories.

You can buy a brand new Chinese car with a 3 year warranty for less than the depreciation on a new Ford/GM/Toyota would be in 2 years.

So after 3 years you can literally drive the Chinese vehicle to the dump and buy another one, and you're still up financially.

Reviews so far say they're cheap, you get what you pay for, but they work and are reliable enough.

[threeseed]

This isn't what happened at all.

The decline of Australian car makers was entirely a result of consumers favouring (a) European car makers e.g. Mercedes and (b) smaller, more fuel efficient cars.

People just don't want large, 4 door sedan cars with V8 5L engines, a comparatively lower class brand and a less than luxurious interior.

[dnomad]

I've noticed Australians and many others will go out of their way to not buy Chinese-made. It's a bit crazy. People, especially some Chinese themselves in certain cities, will go out of their way to spend a bunch of many on expensive Japanese and American cars when you can get a an equivalent Chinese vehicle for literally a third of the price. You've got to hand it to the car companies, they've done a very, very good job convincing people that their car is a status symbol just as important as their house.

[hvidgaard]

If it's 1/3 of the price, I'm 100% sure it's not even remotely as safe. I don't buy many cars, but spend enough time in them that safety matters to me. That some Chinese avoid them when they can is very telling about the cars.

[gkanai]

> they're cheap, you get what you pay for, but they work and are reliable enough.

Chinese vehicles are not as safe in accidents as those cars which have had a longer time to engineer safety technologies. Also the price point of most Chinese cars do now allow for addition of safety technologies at the level of most other non-Chinese vehicles.

Same thing with the upcoming COMAC Chinese-made airplanes. You do not want to fly those planes when they finally hit the market.

[boznz]

Ford, BMW, VW, Volvo, etc already manufacture cars in China, and with 50% to 100% Chinese ownership its pretty obvious the next generation of Chinese cars are going to have the same level of refinement and safety as these (because, well Fuck IP rights) and at about half the price