Anybody Own or Drive Chinese Cars?

[securespark]

MG, Polestar, BYD, Great Wall, ORA.

Owned or driven any?

Impressed?

 

[Avocet]

No. On another forum, there's a chap who has recently taken delivery of an MG4 and loves it, but it's early days yet.

Polestars are essentially Volvos (Volvo is also owned by he Chinese). They seem to get good reviews. I'd quite fancy a Polestar, to be honest.

 

[DiyNutJob]

I have exceptional luck with cheap chinese products. I would drive one if it's an ICE. I need a people carrier with tiny engine.

 

[johnny2007]

The only chinese thing I would voluntarily touch is a woman.

 

[norseman]

The only chinese thing I would voluntarily touch is a woman.

Nice one

To be honest the Chinese are a high tech. nation just as capable of producing quality products as any country & both the US/Germany have many of their products, such as car parts, made there due to the lower labour costs.

A distinction needs to be drawn between Asia products designed to be sold cheaply (toys, household goods etc.) & contracted manufacture of components complying with design & materials specified by the customer. Proper quality control of the end product plays an important part & this applies to all manufactured items, regardless of where they are made.

 

[johnny2007]

Nice one

To be honest the Chinese are a high tech. nation just as capable of producing quality products as any country & both the US/Germany have many of their products, such as car parts, made there due to the lower labour costs.

A distinction needs to be drawn between Asia products designed to be sold cheaply (toys, household goods etc.) & contracted manufacture of components complying with design & materials specified by the customer. Proper quality control of the end product plays an important part & this applies to all manufactured items, regardless of where they are made.

Totally disagree with this.
The chinese car parts are simply crap.
See pictures of a 1 year old rear wheel hub supposedly made of stainless steel that I replaced a few years ago.
My friend worked in China for a while, overseeing the production of designer sunglasses for luxottica.
He run away from there because no matter what he did, their work culture is not about quality but quantity.

 

[Avocet]

Totally disagree with this.
The chinese car parts are simply crap.
See pictures of a 1 year old rear wheel hub supposedly made of stainless steel that I replaced a few years ago.
My friend worked in China for a while, overseeing the production of designer sunglasses for luxottica.
He run away from there because no matter what he did, their work culture is not about quality but quantity.

Stainless seems like a bizarre material choice for a hub? (Anyway, that's a side issue, I guess).

China is, as Norseman says, an absolute giant in manufacturing, and you can get whatever quality you want out of China. Indeed, the Chinese-built Teslas are reckoned to be better quality than those made in America. If you want high quality stuff, you have to pay for it, but they can most certainly do it. However, if you want cheap tat, they can do that too!

During the pandemic, I ended up getting lumbered with sourcing a load of masks from China - FFP2 and the "surgical" type. I dealt with about half a dozen companies (through an intermediary), and have no doubt that if they want to, and you're willing to pay for it, they can turn out excellent stuff. However, what I did find, is that the culture is, (also as you say) not naturally one of quality and conformity. Some of the places I dealt with, were perfectly happy to put whatever compliance marks I wanted, on pretty much anything - whether it complied or not. I got some samples tested, went through the whole CE-marking range of tests with an EU notified body, etc, passed the tests, placed the order, and then the first container turned up (you can fit a lot of masks into a shipping container)! I sent half a dozen or so, off to a British lab and asked them to do a few of the tests at random, on each of them. They failed!!! Filtration was bloody excellent (better even, than the required standard for an FFP3 mask), but they failed on breathability. When I called them, they said (quite openly and honestly) "yeah, we found some better material"! I told them I didn't want "better" I wanted "the same as was tested"! They (genuinely, I think), couldn't understand what my problem was. They'd supplied something that filtered even better than required. Why was I upset?!

Just such a different culture.

 

[DiyNutJob]

The chinese car parts are simply crap.

Carp in what way? My german hub looks same. Did the chinese part crack?

He run away from there because no matter what he did, their work culture is not about quality but quantity.

Not everyone needs quality. I just need something to work, cheap, and lasts forever. Most of my china stuff are like that, which is why I keep buying.

Here's an example. I bought china 3mm dowels (cake rods) for relocating small wood screws. Look at the quality of that carp. The chinese worker must have chewed and ate some of it:

But, it doesn't matter. For a couple of pounds, I get a life time supply. China is totally lolz.

 

[Stivino]

Inside each wheel on that car is stamped; MADE IN CHINA. I suspect there will many more Chinese parts on it and across the VW group range as well as most other manufacturers.
They can't all be carp.