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Affordable - made cheaply - is equated in this article heavily as “better” but that is not always the case. I would still hesitate to buy a Chinese vehicle over

Affordable - made cheaply - is equated in this article heavily as “better” but that is not always the case. I would still hesitate to buy a Chinese vehicle over safety and quality.

gambiting 2y ago
Nah - I own a Volvo XC60 that was built in China and it's about 10x better in terms of build quality than my last Mercedes that was entirely built in Germany and creaked like an old horse cart, I was in the dealership probably once a month fixing various issues with the interior. I've owned the Volvo for 4 years now and it has had zero issues, no creaks, fit and finish is great. So no, I wouldn't be concerned about owning a Chinese made vehicle, not in the slightest.
- applied_heat 2y ago
  Was your Volvo in China? I didn’t think any Volvos manufactured by geely were being exported, and production volume was still very low
  - gambiting 2y ago
    It was made in China in Chengdou and brought over(by train!), I'm in the UK. I was told by my dealer that conventional petrol/diesel models were made in Sweden, but right hand drive PHEVs were made in China, no idea if that's still the case nowadays.
    - daghamm 2y ago
      They are usually made where they are sold, this was probably a special case for your config. New tariffs will probably stop this completely
      - whizzter 2y ago
        There's apparently some dealings in process due to the tariffs being imposed on moving final assembly or trying to use their local petrol manufacturing as a leverage for avoiding the tariffs. No idea about what'll come out of it though.
- neilalexander 2y ago
  Even within Volvo's own lineup, my C40, built in China, has had far fewer quality issues than my previous S60 had, which was built in the USA.
- whizzter 2y ago
  Geely made an incredibly smart move buying Volvo. Ford had run down their reputation by forcing penny pinching cheap designs, but there was still a lot of engineering prowess in-house that had gone underutilized and made them a tech-team to catch up the Chineese tech, design and manufacturing to concurrent standards. The only lingering worry is if they're gonna find themselves content with the amount of technology transfer and move on (because Volvo standards requires a high price point and non neglible market share).
GenerWork 2y ago
Motor Trend just gave the Lincoln Nautilus - a SUV made in China - their award for SUV of the year[0] and noted its build quality. While "Made In China" still carries a bad rap, I think that's going to change pretty quickly for more luxury goods like cars. [0] https://www.motortrend.com/news/lincoln-nautilus-2025-suv-of-the-year/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/lincoln-nautilus-2025-suv-of...
- tim333 2y ago
  I think there's a big difference between made in China for an off brand Chinese company which tends to be bad, and made in China for Apple/Volvo/Some western brand with quality control, which tends to be very good.
tln 2y ago
You can and should check euroNCAP or IIHS for independent safety ratings if you care. BYD's 4 model entered in euroNCAP have 5 stars.
hooverd 2y ago
Heh, that used to be German and then Japanese cars.
bryanlarsen 2y ago
It's generally acknowledged that the Chinese made Tesla's are higher quality than the American ones.
kube-system 2y ago
What does "[insert nationality] vehicle" even mean? Most cars are made up of designs and parts that come from all around the world. Any discussion of the topic of product origin and quality is always heavily oversimplified. There are many variables at play here: target marketing, design, manufacture, regulatory environment, etc.
ASalazarMX 2y ago
European NCAP has given great marks to BYD vehicles in crash tests. Just google "BYD crash test", most of the results come from them. Compared to them, my Wrangler is a square death machine, although almost anything is safer than a Wrangler.
- seabass-labrax 2y ago
  Well-designed off-roaders protect their occupants against the kinds of accident that might occur at relatively low speeds on rough terrain, with very rigid frames to prevent the occupants being crushed when rolling over. That is the very opposite design philosophy to most road vehicles, which are protected chiefly against high-speed collisions with other vehicles. The NCAP tests only cover the second kind of accidents. I don't know whether the off-roading safety philosophy applies to your car though, as many SUVs and crossover cars are only designed to look the part, and are in fact more similar to ordinary road cars in safety design.
lll-o-lll 2y ago
Clever design with reusable (between models) components. That’s “efficiency”. Efficient design often means better quality. All countries that get into car manufacture seem to follow a similar path. 10-15 years of crap cars while building scale and expertise, then maturity with much higher quality. I think we are seeing the mature Chinese car industry now and it’s frankly impressive.
SoftTalker 2y ago
All cars today are being made to squeeze maximum profit. The plastics will last maybe 10 years and the electronics will be NLA soon after the warranty expires. If your main computer dies the car is scrap. There is no serious effort to make new cars repariable or maintainable other than for very routine things like brakes. Cars are becoming more and more disposable items, by design.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  I guess you're not old enough to remember how horrible the interiors (both plastics and upholstery) in 1970s and 1980s cars were, nor how often they broke down.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    I remember. Yeah they weren't great for the most part, especially for US manufacturers. The thing is though, those '70s and '80s cars were simple. They could be repaired. And any workshop could do it, you didn't have to rely on the dealership. With not much more than a basic set of wrenches you could repair many things yourself if you wanted to. That's not the same today. Many systems are effectively unrepairable, they are not designed to be repairable. Especially on EVs. Is there any EV that has been designed for easy battery replacement? Once these cars are out of warranty, any major problems will scrap the car.
    - shiroiushi 2y ago
      >That's not the same today. Yes, it is. My last car was a 2015 model that lasted until 2019, so I don't think my information is out-of-date, but it was a Mazda and was very easy to repair (which pretty much never happened anyway aside from regular maintenance). Any my cars before that were easy too. >Many systems are effectively unrepairable, they are not designed to be repairable. Citation needed. People like you always make claims like this, but I think they're all myths. I've never seen any evidence of this myself. Perhaps it's because I didn't have American cars, and only Japanese ones? I don't know. >Especially on EVs. This is a different issue, and I can't speak to it as I've never had one. The vast majority of cars were and still are ICE cars, and your claim is about all cars. >those '70s and '80s cars were simple You obviously never looked under the hood of a 1980s car, with its maze of vacuum tubing.

Affordable - made cheaply - is equated in this article heavily as “better” but that is not always the case. I would still hesitate to buy a Chinese vehicle over safety and quality.

gambiting 2y ago

Nah - I own a Volvo XC60 that was built in China and it's about 10x better in terms of build quality than my last Mercedes that was entirely built in Germany and creaked like an old horse cart, I was in the dealership probably once a month fixing various issues with the interior. I've owned the Volvo for 4 years now and it has had zero issues, no creaks, fit and finish is great. So no, I wouldn't be concerned about owning a Chinese made vehicle, not in the slightest.

applied_heat 2y ago
Was your Volvo in China? I didn’t think any Volvos manufactured by geely were being exported, and production volume was still very low
- gambiting 2y ago
  It was made in China in Chengdou and brought over(by train!), I'm in the UK. I was told by my dealer that conventional petrol/diesel models were made in Sweden, but right hand drive PHEVs were made in China, no idea if that's still the case nowadays.
  - daghamm 2y ago
    They are usually made where they are sold, this was probably a special case for your config. New tariffs will probably stop this completely
    - whizzter 2y ago
      There's apparently some dealings in process due to the tariffs being imposed on moving final assembly or trying to use their local petrol manufacturing as a leverage for avoiding the tariffs. No idea about what'll come out of it though.
neilalexander 2y ago
Even within Volvo's own lineup, my C40, built in China, has had far fewer quality issues than my previous S60 had, which was built in the USA.
whizzter 2y ago
Geely made an incredibly smart move buying Volvo. Ford had run down their reputation by forcing penny pinching cheap designs, but there was still a lot of engineering prowess in-house that had gone underutilized and made them a tech-team to catch up the Chineese tech, design and manufacturing to concurrent standards. The only lingering worry is if they're gonna find themselves content with the amount of technology transfer and move on (because Volvo standards requires a high price point and non neglible market share).

GenerWork 2y ago

Motor Trend just gave the Lincoln Nautilus - a SUV made in China - their award for SUV of the year[0] and noted its build quality. While "Made In China" still carries a bad rap, I think that's going to change pretty quickly for more luxury goods like cars. [0] https://www.motortrend.com/news/lincoln-nautilus-2025-suv-of-the-year/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/lincoln-nautilus-2025-suv-of...

tim333 2y ago
I think there's a big difference between made in China for an off brand Chinese company which tends to be bad, and made in China for Apple/Volvo/Some western brand with quality control, which tends to be very good.

tln 2y ago

You can and should check euroNCAP or IIHS for independent safety ratings if you care. BYD's 4 model entered in euroNCAP have 5 stars.

hooverd 2y ago

Heh, that used to be German and then Japanese cars.

bryanlarsen 2y ago

It's generally acknowledged that the Chinese made Tesla's are higher quality than the American ones.

kube-system 2y ago

What does "[insert nationality] vehicle" even mean? Most cars are made up of designs and parts that come from all around the world. Any discussion of the topic of product origin and quality is always heavily oversimplified. There are many variables at play here: target marketing, design, manufacture, regulatory environment, etc.

ASalazarMX 2y ago

European NCAP has given great marks to BYD vehicles in crash tests. Just google "BYD crash test", most of the results come from them. Compared to them, my Wrangler is a square death machine, although almost anything is safer than a Wrangler.

seabass-labrax 2y ago
Well-designed off-roaders protect their occupants against the kinds of accident that might occur at relatively low speeds on rough terrain, with very rigid frames to prevent the occupants being crushed when rolling over. That is the very opposite design philosophy to most road vehicles, which are protected chiefly against high-speed collisions with other vehicles. The NCAP tests only cover the second kind of accidents. I don't know whether the off-roading safety philosophy applies to your car though, as many SUVs and crossover cars are only designed to look the part, and are in fact more similar to ordinary road cars in safety design.

lll-o-lll 2y ago

Clever design with reusable (between models) components. That’s “efficiency”. Efficient design often means better quality. All countries that get into car manufacture seem to follow a similar path. 10-15 years of crap cars while building scale and expertise, then maturity with much higher quality. I think we are seeing the mature Chinese car industry now and it’s frankly impressive.

SoftTalker 2y ago

All cars today are being made to squeeze maximum profit. The plastics will last maybe 10 years and the electronics will be NLA soon after the warranty expires. If your main computer dies the car is scrap. There is no serious effort to make new cars repariable or maintainable other than for very routine things like brakes. Cars are becoming more and more disposable items, by design.

shiroiushi 2y ago
I guess you're not old enough to remember how horrible the interiors (both plastics and upholstery) in 1970s and 1980s cars were, nor how often they broke down.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  I remember. Yeah they weren't great for the most part, especially for US manufacturers. The thing is though, those '70s and '80s cars were simple. They could be repaired. And any workshop could do it, you didn't have to rely on the dealership. With not much more than a basic set of wrenches you could repair many things yourself if you wanted to. That's not the same today. Many systems are effectively unrepairable, they are not designed to be repairable. Especially on EVs. Is there any EV that has been designed for easy battery replacement? Once these cars are out of warranty, any major problems will scrap the car.
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    >That's not the same today. Yes, it is. My last car was a 2015 model that lasted until 2019, so I don't think my information is out-of-date, but it was a Mazda and was very easy to repair (which pretty much never happened anyway aside from regular maintenance). Any my cars before that were easy too. >Many systems are effectively unrepairable, they are not designed to be repairable. Citation needed. People like you always make claims like this, but I think they're all myths. I've never seen any evidence of this myself. Perhaps it's because I didn't have American cars, and only Japanese ones? I don't know. >Especially on EVs. This is a different issue, and I can't speak to it as I've never had one. The vast majority of cars were and still are ICE cars, and your claim is about all cars. >those '70s and '80s cars were simple You obviously never looked under the hood of a 1980s car, with its maze of vacuum tubing.