6 ms·

Mainly because they're nowhere to be found outside China?

by extrememacaroni 4y ago

msworddebugger 4y ago
You see them in some MENA with loose import laws. They’re ugly as sin but they’re the cheapest new cars you can buy.
MikePlacid 4y ago
They are rather popular in Russia, especially trucks. And their market share will only increase now.
VBprogrammer 4y ago
Don't know where you are from but in the UK MG are outselling a whole bunch of the big car makers. I think possibly even the 3rd biggest by sales volume at the moment. The age of the Chinese car is coming. I think in the transition to electric cars they are going to take a big chunk of the lower end of the market. I get a feeling this is why a lot of mid market brands like Mazda and Volvo are trying to push into the upper end of the market. Cars like the MG4 are getting rave reviews for example.
- NicoJuicy 4y ago
  Volvo is bought by the Chinese
- thedrbrian 4y ago
  Cheap shit outsells expensive stuff. News at 11
  - xbmcuser 4y ago
    Japanese cars were cheap shit till they took over the world. Korean tv/devices were shit till they took over the world. Same is going to happen with China made stuff.
    - themitigating 4y ago
      Were japanese cars cheap or did the oil crisis give them a foothold?
      - qzw 4y ago
        Both. The important thing is that in the beginning they were considered inferior to American cars in all relevant respects, so they were not taken seriously. The oil crisis happened to highlight one of their key strengths and accelerated their adoption. But it’s highly likely the same end result would’ve eventually happened anyway because the incumbent American automakers were unwilling/unable to respond to the threat for several decades.
    - qzw 4y ago
      Exactly, Korean cars, Taiwanese semiconductors, and Brazilian jets are also good examples. Seems like GP is not yet acquainted with Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation.
  - gambiting 4y ago
    I drove both the ZS EV and MG4 and neither one felt like "cheap shit". In fact they felt more premium than some more expensive EVs - and you could see a lot of parts from VW, which shouldn't be surprising as VW is part owner of SAIC.
    - mattlondon 4y ago
      I leased a MG ZS EV recently and was quite surprised at the apparent quality. Sure there were some cheap-feeling bits like the glove box and panoramic roof shade, but generally it felt solid, felt we'll put together, and drove reasonably nicely (corners were not it's best bits, but otherwise pretty good) The self driving features were utter shite though
    - jumberoa 4y ago
      OTOH the MG3 (1.5L ICE) is a piece of garbage. The engine vibrates/rattles like an old tractor. The 4 speed transmission revs like mad at the slightest incline before going up a gear and almost stalling the engine with the huge jump in gear ratio, and causing heaps of knocking until the engine crawls it way above 2.5k RPM only to do it again with the next gear.... The suspension was horrible again, much too soft making the whole car bounce up and down long after hitting pot holes (I'm taking seconds.) The interior quality was quality was okay for the price of car but definitely very plastic-y. Seats were like seats on LCC planes. Good thing it was only a rental.
      - gambiting 4y ago
        The MG3 has absolutely nothing to do with the ZS EV and the MG4 though - it's based on an ancient platform that was made long before SAIC started putting money into MG and into their electrification. While I'm not surprised your experience with the MG3 was poor, I don't see how that's relevant to their current EV vehicles.
    - VBprogrammer 4y ago
      The one thing which made the MG4 feel cheap to me was the dash board. It looked to me like it was using programmer graphics, waiting on the design team to decide how to make it look nice. Mismatched icons and text sizes everywhere. Someone said shipit and they went to production. Other than that it was a fun easy to drive little car.
- 2143 4y ago
  > The age of the Chinese car is coming. Globally, I'd say Japanese cars had a pretty good run. However, they — Honda and Toyota atleast — seem to be hesitating with the EV transition. It's not like they don't have the engineering prowess.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Japanese engineering has always fascinated me. It seems to be both revolutionary and conservative at the same time.
    - Veliladon 4y ago
      Because good process design doesn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Like how Toyota was the only car maker able to keep going through the silicon shortage because they recognized the limits of lean manufacturing and that chips are not commodity items, as much as we like to think of them as one. So despite having everything that was a commodity as JIT lean manufacturing they still kept a massive stockpile on stuff that might become hard to source on hand.
      - bornfreddy 4y ago
        TIL, thank you. A bit more about Toyota and silicon shortage: https://www.autoblog.com/2021/03/09/toyota-how-it-avoided-semiconductor-shortage/ https://www.autoblog.com/2021/03/09/toyota-how-it-avoided-se...
      - glandium 4y ago
        There's a limit to what they could handle. They're hit by the shortage like everyone else now.
bryanlarsen 4y ago
Polestar and MG are two very popular Chinese brands in Europe.
- nikanj 4y ago
  Isn’t Polestar a Volvo?
  - bri3d 4y ago
    Polestar is a joint venture between Volvo (majority owned by Geely anyway) and Geely themselves. Their cars so far are indeed made in China, with a US manufacturing facility coming online soon.
  - kfajdsl 4y ago
    Volvo is owned by Geely. Personally, I'm not sure those count as an example of China's design prowess, since those cars aren't designed in China.
    - bri3d 4y ago
      I think that most conversations about where cars are designed or made aren't very clear cut with the _exception_ of a lot of Chinese brand cars, which is an interesting commentary in and of itself. For example, Polestar cars are designed in Sweden on joint Swedish-Chinese engineered platforms and made in China. Most vehicles are highly globalized like this until you get to the Chinese-market ones, which are designed (or "designed," depending), engineered, manufactured, and sold just in China.
    - tpmx 4y ago
      The now public Volvo Cars is majority-owned by Geely. (Volvo Cars, not Volvo.) Volvo makes trucks, buses and construction equipment. It's one of the largest manufacturers of heavy-duty trucks globally, including e.g. the Mack brand. Geely owns 8.2% of Volvo. I think it's still majority Swedish-owned, but I'm not certain. They share the Volvo brand via a long-standing agreement.
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
China sells some to Australia and other countries. You won’t see many of them in the USA due to huge tariffs (reciprocated by China), but any polestar you see was made in China (by Geely).
giobox 4y ago
This is an extremely dated take on where Chinese cars are sold - you haven’t visited or paid attention to what is happening in the European auto industry recently. Xpeng, MG, Ora - lots of new Chinese car brands on sale across Europe, and often offering better electric car range for less money than say a VW ID 3. We just don’t see them in USA as politics and tarrifs have prevented it to a large extent. If you are curious - tons of videos by British/European YouTubers reviewing Chinese cars on sale in Europe today. Here’s a review of the Xpeng p7 by famous uk auto publication Autocar, as another example. On sale in Norway and several European countries: > https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/xpeng/p7 https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/xpeng/p7 The mg 4 on sale across Europe: > https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/mg-motor/4-ev https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/mg-motor/4-ev The ora cat on sale across Europe: > https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ora/funky-cat https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ora/funky-cat > polestar (Gheely, also on sale in U.S.A.) Etc etc. there are a lot more coming too, and the traditional big European auto makers are extremely scared of competing at entry level with these brands who already offer more tech and range for less money on their entry level EVs. Just like the Koreans managed (KIA, Hyundai etc), these brands will eventually crack how to style for western audiences too. Polestar already has. The MG is extremely competitive especially at low price.
- spaceman_2020 4y ago
  I've generally found most mainstream attitudes to China being a decade out of touch. There's still the perception that "China only makes cheap trash" when even a cursory glance at all the stuff in their house will show them that half the stuff is made in China, and that you can get practically any quality made in China - as long as you're willing to pay for it.
ricardobayes 4y ago
They are. The MG SUVs are sold here in Spain and they are selling like hotcakes. They look nice, they have every modern feature you need as standard equipment (apple carplay, dual-zone A/C), 5 star crash test, all for a laughably low price (13k EUR, cca. the same in USD). Every car that has the same equipment (and looks) cost at least double, or triple. I think they are using Spain as a test market and will expand soon.
forinti 4y ago
There are tons of Chinese cars in South America and lots of Geelys in Brazil. I've being seeing electric JACs lately. I've also been recently to Uruguay and saw lots of gas BYDs, which quite surprised me, because I thought they only made electric vehicles.

Mainly because they're nowhere to be found outside China?

msworddebugger 4y ago

You see them in some MENA with loose import laws. They’re ugly as sin but they’re the cheapest new cars you can buy.

MikePlacid 4y ago

They are rather popular in Russia, especially trucks. And their market share will only increase now.

VBprogrammer 4y ago

Don't know where you are from but in the UK MG are outselling a whole bunch of the big car makers. I think possibly even the 3rd biggest by sales volume at the moment. The age of the Chinese car is coming. I think in the transition to electric cars they are going to take a big chunk of the lower end of the market. I get a feeling this is why a lot of mid market brands like Mazda and Volvo are trying to push into the upper end of the market. Cars like the MG4 are getting rave reviews for example.

NicoJuicy 4y ago
Volvo is bought by the Chinese
thedrbrian 4y ago
Cheap shit outsells expensive stuff. News at 11
- xbmcuser 4y ago
  Japanese cars were cheap shit till they took over the world. Korean tv/devices were shit till they took over the world. Same is going to happen with China made stuff.
  - themitigating 4y ago
    Were japanese cars cheap or did the oil crisis give them a foothold?
    - qzw 4y ago
      Both. The important thing is that in the beginning they were considered inferior to American cars in all relevant respects, so they were not taken seriously. The oil crisis happened to highlight one of their key strengths and accelerated their adoption. But it’s highly likely the same end result would’ve eventually happened anyway because the incumbent American automakers were unwilling/unable to respond to the threat for several decades.
  - qzw 4y ago
    Exactly, Korean cars, Taiwanese semiconductors, and Brazilian jets are also good examples. Seems like GP is not yet acquainted with Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation.
- gambiting 4y ago
  I drove both the ZS EV and MG4 and neither one felt like "cheap shit". In fact they felt more premium than some more expensive EVs - and you could see a lot of parts from VW, which shouldn't be surprising as VW is part owner of SAIC.
  - mattlondon 4y ago
    I leased a MG ZS EV recently and was quite surprised at the apparent quality. Sure there were some cheap-feeling bits like the glove box and panoramic roof shade, but generally it felt solid, felt we'll put together, and drove reasonably nicely (corners were not it's best bits, but otherwise pretty good) The self driving features were utter shite though
  - jumberoa 4y ago
    OTOH the MG3 (1.5L ICE) is a piece of garbage. The engine vibrates/rattles like an old tractor. The 4 speed transmission revs like mad at the slightest incline before going up a gear and almost stalling the engine with the huge jump in gear ratio, and causing heaps of knocking until the engine crawls it way above 2.5k RPM only to do it again with the next gear.... The suspension was horrible again, much too soft making the whole car bounce up and down long after hitting pot holes (I'm taking seconds.) The interior quality was quality was okay for the price of car but definitely very plastic-y. Seats were like seats on LCC planes. Good thing it was only a rental.
    - gambiting 4y ago
      The MG3 has absolutely nothing to do with the ZS EV and the MG4 though - it's based on an ancient platform that was made long before SAIC started putting money into MG and into their electrification. While I'm not surprised your experience with the MG3 was poor, I don't see how that's relevant to their current EV vehicles.
  - VBprogrammer 4y ago
    The one thing which made the MG4 feel cheap to me was the dash board. It looked to me like it was using programmer graphics, waiting on the design team to decide how to make it look nice. Mismatched icons and text sizes everywhere. Someone said shipit and they went to production. Other than that it was a fun easy to drive little car.
2143 4y ago
> The age of the Chinese car is coming. Globally, I'd say Japanese cars had a pretty good run. However, they — Honda and Toyota atleast — seem to be hesitating with the EV transition. It's not like they don't have the engineering prowess.
- kube-system 4y ago
  Japanese engineering has always fascinated me. It seems to be both revolutionary and conservative at the same time.
  - Veliladon 4y ago
    Because good process design doesn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Like how Toyota was the only car maker able to keep going through the silicon shortage because they recognized the limits of lean manufacturing and that chips are not commodity items, as much as we like to think of them as one. So despite having everything that was a commodity as JIT lean manufacturing they still kept a massive stockpile on stuff that might become hard to source on hand.
    - bornfreddy 4y ago
      TIL, thank you. A bit more about Toyota and silicon shortage: https://www.autoblog.com/2021/03/09/toyota-how-it-avoided-semiconductor-shortage/ https://www.autoblog.com/2021/03/09/toyota-how-it-avoided-se...
    - glandium 4y ago
      There's a limit to what they could handle. They're hit by the shortage like everyone else now.

bryanlarsen 4y ago

Polestar and MG are two very popular Chinese brands in Europe.

nikanj 4y ago
Isn’t Polestar a Volvo?
- bri3d 4y ago
  Polestar is a joint venture between Volvo (majority owned by Geely anyway) and Geely themselves. Their cars so far are indeed made in China, with a US manufacturing facility coming online soon.
- kfajdsl 4y ago
  Volvo is owned by Geely. Personally, I'm not sure those count as an example of China's design prowess, since those cars aren't designed in China.
  - bri3d 4y ago
    I think that most conversations about where cars are designed or made aren't very clear cut with the _exception_ of a lot of Chinese brand cars, which is an interesting commentary in and of itself. For example, Polestar cars are designed in Sweden on joint Swedish-Chinese engineered platforms and made in China. Most vehicles are highly globalized like this until you get to the Chinese-market ones, which are designed (or "designed," depending), engineered, manufactured, and sold just in China.
  - tpmx 4y ago
    The now public Volvo Cars is majority-owned by Geely. (Volvo Cars, not Volvo.) Volvo makes trucks, buses and construction equipment. It's one of the largest manufacturers of heavy-duty trucks globally, including e.g. the Mack brand. Geely owns 8.2% of Volvo. I think it's still majority Swedish-owned, but I'm not certain. They share the Volvo brand via a long-standing agreement.

seanmcdirmid 4y ago

China sells some to Australia and other countries. You won’t see many of them in the USA due to huge tariffs (reciprocated by China), but any polestar you see was made in China (by Geely).

giobox 4y ago

This is an extremely dated take on where Chinese cars are sold - you haven’t visited or paid attention to what is happening in the European auto industry recently. Xpeng, MG, Ora - lots of new Chinese car brands on sale across Europe, and often offering better electric car range for less money than say a VW ID 3. We just don’t see them in USA as politics and tarrifs have prevented it to a large extent. If you are curious - tons of videos by British/European YouTubers reviewing Chinese cars on sale in Europe today. Here’s a review of the Xpeng p7 by famous uk auto publication Autocar, as another example. On sale in Norway and several European countries: > https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/xpeng/p7 https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/xpeng/p7 The mg 4 on sale across Europe: > https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/mg-motor/4-ev https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/mg-motor/4-ev The ora cat on sale across Europe: > https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ora/funky-cat https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ora/funky-cat > polestar (Gheely, also on sale in U.S.A.) Etc etc. there are a lot more coming too, and the traditional big European auto makers are extremely scared of competing at entry level with these brands who already offer more tech and range for less money on their entry level EVs. Just like the Koreans managed (KIA, Hyundai etc), these brands will eventually crack how to style for western audiences too. Polestar already has. The MG is extremely competitive especially at low price.

spaceman_2020 4y ago
I've generally found most mainstream attitudes to China being a decade out of touch. There's still the perception that "China only makes cheap trash" when even a cursory glance at all the stuff in their house will show them that half the stuff is made in China, and that you can get practically any quality made in China - as long as you're willing to pay for it.

ricardobayes 4y ago

They are. The MG SUVs are sold here in Spain and they are selling like hotcakes. They look nice, they have every modern feature you need as standard equipment (apple carplay, dual-zone A/C), 5 star crash test, all for a laughably low price (13k EUR, cca. the same in USD). Every car that has the same equipment (and looks) cost at least double, or triple. I think they are using Spain as a test market and will expand soon.

forinti 4y ago

There are tons of Chinese cars in South America and lots of Geelys in Brazil. I've being seeing electric JACs lately. I've also been recently to Uruguay and saw lots of gas BYDs, which quite surprised me, because I thought they only made electric vehicles.