Not Exactly the Peoples Car

VW has introduced a new automobile. Unfortunately Bill Gates and Warren Buffet (and possibly Jimmy Buffet) are going to be the only ones that can afford it. Wonder if they should have stuck to making Golfs or whatever it is they make now. Article here.

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In something unrelated to this but auto related, I was reading an article in Popular Mechanics, and it said that China is going to start producing cars by late this year or early next year. The price tag of these new vehicles is supposed to be less than anything else on the market including Hynudai. It is about time someone made another car for the ordinary person instead of the Yuppified SUV target market that the American automakers love so much.

Reply to
Bill Berckman
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these chinese cars will be blisterpacked and hanging in your local vw parts house this coming year...they will all be labeled "EMPI"....

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

I'm no bleeding heart liberal but I could not in good conscience buy a vehicle from a country that exploits its people with low wages and the quashing of dissent. Has it gotten much better there in terms of freedom of expression since Tiananmen Square in 1989?

Also, we are fueling their economy so that they can pay for the research to make more powerful and accurate missiles that can reach our country. (China surpassed Japan as our biggest trading partner more than a year ago). That's in addition to the technology they convinced Clinton and Gore to transfer in return for sizable campaign contributions. It doesn't look like the Bush administration is going to do anything about China that would upset the business community in the US. Want to take a guess how much longer we'll guarantee Taiwan's safety before deciding the cost isn't worth it? And we thought the world was going to be a safer place after the Soviet Union broke up.

Randall

Reply to
Randall Post

Right on! And we will make fiberglass copies of the Bugatti Veyron to fit the chassis! :)

Reply to
Lorem Ipsum

It will kinda be like those collectible liquor bottle things - each Chinese car will come with a full tank of gas, so something like 1/3rd of the value is in the tank. Drive to empty and get another one.

Reply to
Lorem Ipsum

No, no, no. They would be more like HP printers. You buy the printer for a pittance but need to take out a loan to get a new gas cartridge. The good thing is each gas cartridge contains a complete engine so you never have to worry about it.

Reply to
Michael Cecil

No, no, no. They would be more like HP printers. You buy the printer for a pittance but need to take out a loan to get a new gas cartridge. The

good thing is each gas cartridge contains a complete engine so you never have to worry about it.

-- I remember when I was selling office copiers back in the mid 80's when the Canon PC 10/20 & 25 copiers came out. They were the first to go with the concept of a dirt cheap copier, but bend over and spread the vasoline when you want toner for it. The toner/drum cartridge brought the cost per copy up to something like 10 cents per copy. I had a printer that cost around $60 and went to get it serviced, and the guy told me to throw it away because it would cost more to fix it than it would to buy a new one. I guess we live in a throw away society or as General Motors called it in the 50's Planned Obsolence.

Reply to
Bill Berckman

China is been making cars for quite a while now. There's a small coupe sold here in the DR that boasts 85 km/gallon. running regular gasoline. it has a

850cc 3 cylinder engine. And costs less than half than most cars.

The problem is (or should be), can we trust chinese quality?

Karls

Reply to
Karls Vladimir Peña

MacAurthor was right when he stated that America should bomb the Manchurian supply lines and rearm Chiang Kai-shek, because China would eventually be the greatest threat to America and the free world. (Truman fired him instead.)

It is a shame that our leaders have not at least put together the tenants in "The Art Of War" and China's current economic growth (growing American dependence upon China for most manufactured goods). Basically you strive to make your enemy dependant upon you, weaken him, and then strike with the chances for resistance are very low.

It is also a shame that they don't teach kids in school about a major reason for the fall of the Spanish empire. They had become so much of a consumer society - buying cheap goods from neighboring countries because of the wealth flowing into Spain - that they lost the know-how to manufacture their own goods. When the money dried up (due to the English "privateers" and the fact that the "New World" was not really a land filled with gold), they no longer had the know-how to be self sufficient/self sustaining.

C'est la vie.

Reply to
KWW

Chinese quality can't be any worse than mexican quality.

Reply to
gevans

I'm no bleeding heart liberal but I could not in good conscience buy a vehicle from a country that exploits its people with low wages

I thought for a minute you were talking about Wal Mart, but you said cournty and not company.

Reply to
Bill Berckman

I've never shopped at a Wal-Mart although there is one about a mile from my house. I shopped just last night at Target; I still have some credit left on a gift card someone gave me for Christmas. I should be mad at them though. With my gift card I bought a "genuine Italian bonded leather" belt that broke in two pieces starting at the eyelet hole after only 3 months of use. It was made in the USA.

Am I a hypocrite for buying from Harbor Freight Tools where most of the merchandise comes from China? I bought a floor jack for $40 that raises to a maximum height of 19", just what I need to raise my VW so that I can slide the engine out. I don't know what USA made jacks cost but I'm sure I would balk at the price.

Reply to
Randall Post

schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

According to many european tests the car is unsave for the european roads... ...I believe US standards of safety are higher..

Check out this link:

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the crashtest movies. I'm sorry it is in Dutch, but i didn't want ya'll to mis it...

Roger

Reply to
bug '59

Experience has shown that ever since the 80's at least, you can't trust any quality anymore. Regardless of where it's made

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

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for the crashtest movies. I'm sorry it is in Dutch, but i didn't want ya'll > to mis it...

Yup, those pictures of the Landwin made it to the papers up here too. Look at the second one down(click to enlarge), not nice...

J.

Reply to
P.J. Berg

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