A top General Motors executive says Chinese-made cars
are not ready for the US market, dismissing a recently announced venture to
import vehicles from China.
GM chief financial
officer John Devine made the comment in an interview at the North American
International Auto Show, adding that there is still a lot to be done to make the
vehicles as competitive as they have to be in the US market.
Devine shrugged off the announcement last week of a deal involving a New
York-based firm Visionary Vehicles and China's Chery Automobile Company to sell
a new line of automobiles in the US market.
Devine said GM is more focused on producing cars for the rapidly growing
Chinese market after selling nearly 500,000 vehicles last year. (Source: Xinhua)
I have played with the idea of exporting Chinese cars, as they are
generally very cheap. But price is probably not the main issue, as
quality is an important thing that first needs to be sorted out. To
give an example, Saturday night I was sitting in a (relatively new)
Foton taxi. The front window was open, and as it was about zero degrees
outside I wanted to close it. That was hardly possible, as the
electrical window moved up with only a few milimeters per second. When
we were getting out it appeared that the back window had to be lowered
to open the door, because the handle on the inside wasn't working. The
taxi driver apologized by saying that it was not a Gerrman car (I guess
he thought we were Germans). I was glad that at least the brakes
and steering wheel were still OK...
7:09:31 PM 
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