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From the article, Gleagle, Emgrand and Englon are the new brands they've come up with. Given the grotesque-sounding names in English, I suspect these brands are aimed at the Chinese market. A Chinese-born ex-Chrysler engineer has been apparently been working with Geely for the past six years. I wonder if this means that their cars will have flaky transmissions. According to the Journal, Geely is a relative minnow, with worldwide unit sales of 325,000 in 2009.
This was news to me... I don't really pay much attention to automotive news or even business news to be honest, but I have always driven Volvo's and always found them to be good vehicles that last a long time and which drive really good. I guess I'm worried now that, now being a Chinese brand, that the quality will suffer. I cut my teeth on the old 240's and now drive a '06 XC70. I'm glad we bought our new one before they sold out.
I'm also aware of the very low (some might say nonexistant) human rights and environmental standards in China, and it gives me a strange feeling driving around in a car whose brand is now Chinese. I try to keep ethics in mind for all our purchasing, and this just sort of caught me by surprise. I don't care about the communist issue, but I do care when a country doesn't seem to care about the environment or its people.
I don't think that quality will drop. They understand what their customers and what the general public expects from a Volvo vehicle and will continue to improve on it. People have this strange misconception that everything made in China must somehow magically always turn out as crap. Labor is cheaper in China which means that overall cost of manufacture is lower than in other developed countries but that doesn't change set goals in terms of material quality, assembly quality, etc. If something comes from China and turns out to be crap what you're seeing is intended, there is no surprise that the manufacturer chose to use cheaper components along with cheaper labor to drastically lower cost at the expense of quality. As an example, China also has a large number of semiconductor manufacturers which produce high quality components in China. Why are they high quality? Because they are built to high quality specifications. There is no reason why this can't be done with a car or a toy except the sole reason of reducing cost (usually the fault of large U.S. retailers for continuously searching for cheaper products).
Last edited by iTsLiKeAnEgG; 04-22-2010 at 02:18 PM..
Volvo has not been making what I would recognize as a "real Volvo" since Ford bought them out.
If you live in a non-rusting climate, you will be able to find the old cars for many years to come, like the VW Beetle there are people out there who want to keep them around. Likewise if well cared for your XC70 should last a long time.
I don't think that quality will drop. They understand what their customers and what the general public expects from a Volvo vehicle and will continue to improve on it. People have this strange misconception that everything made in China must somehow magically always turn out as crap. Labor is cheaper in China which means that overall cost of manufacture is lower than in other developed countries but that doesn't change set goals in terms of material quality, assembly quality, etc. If something comes from China and turns out to be crap what you're seeing is intended, there is no surprise that the manufacturer chose to use cheaper components along with cheaper labor to drastically lower cost at the expense of quality. As an example, China also has a large number of semiconductor manufacturers which produce high quality components in China. Why are they high quality? Because they are built to high quality specifications. There is no reason why this can't be done with a car or a toy except the sole reason of reducing cost (usually the fault of large U.S. retailers for continuously searching for cheaper products).
The chinese do everything as cheaply as possible... while inexpensive labor is one way to cut costs it is hardly restricted to just that. They simplify processes, cut corners, use garbage equipment that they manufactured and probably engineered, etc. Even if all of that was false (which it is not) then there is no question to the fact that they use essentially slave labor and have virtually NO emissions regulations. For those reasons alone I turn up my nose to garbage products of red china.
The chinese do everything as cheaply as possible... while inexpensive labor is one way to cut costs it is hardly restricted to just that. They simplify processes, cut corners, use garbage equipment that they manufactured and probably engineered, etc. Even if all of that was false (which it is not) then there is no question to the fact that they use essentially slave labor and have virtually NO emissions regulations. For those reasons alone I turn up my nose to garbage products of red china.
Read what you quoted. It disproves what you're saying.
Read what you quoted. It disproves what you're saying.
I read what you said. All it proves is that you have no concept of quality.
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