I read somewhere that most made are to be exported to North America for sale,this included the modified K-series renamed the N-series AFAIK
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Steve
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We are going to be driving Chinese cars sooner than we expected.
In my experience the quality of Chinese goods is excellent.
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L\'escargot.
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Depends what you're buying, I guess.
My friend says one shouldn't worry about buying Chinese tools because you can use them only once and throw them away.
Nevertheless, every one I have been tempted to buy has been complete rubbish.
Just because something is built at Longbridge instead of Nanking (or wherever) doesn't mean it will be any better.
Remember, we are talking about Longbridge here - and what do the Chinese know about ultimate quality control?
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what do the Chinese know about ultimate quality control?
What did we know about it, until the Japanese taught us how to do it modern style?
You hire people to do that sort of thing. If Nissan can make good cars in Sunderland there's no earthly reason why Nanjing Auto shouldn't do it at Longbridge.
What did for BL was corporate decadence and corrupt, irrational labour relations. Doubt if Nanjing will stand for anything like that. Probably have capital punishment written into the company rules.
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>> what do the Chinese know about >> ultimate quality control?
When Trident aircraft were being built at BAe Hatfield for the Chinese Airline they sent a team to oversee and inspect construction. Very inscrutable and all wearing blue Mao suits. They were a pain in the neck for management and required extremely high build standards. One particular insistence was for continuous runs of electrical cabling with absolutely no joins however long it was. This was not usual in the industry. I think they knew all about ultimate quality control and it's thought that some of those aircraft are still in use in the Chinese military.
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I think the Chinese are fine at assembly but maybe design isn't their strong point, yet. If you look at the small labels on your assoreted hi-tech gizmos these days (Cameras, Printers, MP3 players, DVD players and recorders, microwaves etc) they are mostly assembled in China. Obviously not, if they are Miele, Bosch etc but look at the prices
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I think the Chinese are fine at assembly but maybe design isn't their strong point
I think this is very true and to add to this, assembling components not made in china perhaps. The Chinese are very good at copying stuff so it 'initially' looks the business, however in the process they invariably use very cheap materials be they plastic or metal, which fail without warning.
There are examples of this all over the place, as anyone who has bought tools in a Pound shop would probably know. I had a set of high speed drills that were made in China and they almost all just shattered as soon as I put any pressure on them when drilling, even the largest ones.
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"chinese cars"?
but theyre to be built at longbridge
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Hang on you seriously think that Chinese build quality is going to be worse than anything that fell off the production line at Longbridge in BMC/BL/Austin Morris/Austin Rover/MG Rover days.......?
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Scuse me?
who is gonna buy them?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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who is gonna buy them? ------------------------------
You may be young enough to live to regret that TVM... :o)
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The problem is that they are be going to be built by people who were previously employed there!
The good ones will have found new jobs, leaving the unemployable with car building experience just queueing up to work?
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pmh (was peter)
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Surely the question is, who would want to buy anything that now comes out of Longrbridge, unless they are fresh designs, with bang up to date engines and bodies and faultless quality control, or as near as damn it?
It is too little, too late, I am afraid to say.
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An article in the Telegraph said that they will be able to turn them out in China for £4,500 with a long warranty, if they were to do this and export them, they'd probably sell well, as poor people could buy them on credit cards, and many people would rather have a new car with a warranty than a used one.
I wonder how much they will cost from Longbridge, I suppose they may be cheap if the Chinese build them, ship them as 'kits' in crates, and Longbridge fasten the wheels on to avoid import duty.
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"as poor people could buy them on credit cards"
Not sure whether I find that rude, unfeeling or patronising...:-)
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The word I associate with Rover & MG and Chinese is "Bargepole"!!.
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I don't know why people think Chinese stuff is so bad. Nearly everything is made there now, from Goodyear tyres, to Apple Laptops.
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you can walk away from a crashed laptop ;-)
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You cant avoid buying from china.
But where I get a choice I do. I don't believe all the hype about it only selling over here because its cheap etc. Long term future puts us well into their debt and I am not happy with that idea.
No way will I EVER buy a chinese car new or 2nd hand, not even to sell to someone else. Even if its "assembled" in GB.
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No way will I EVER buy a chinese car new or 2nd hand not even to sell to someone else. Even if its "assembled" in GB.
It's not that many years ago that people said exactly the same thing about Japanese cars.
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Oh yes, the Chinese made stuff will be rubbish.
Of course.
Clearly it would be better to buy a car made by a French, Italian or US carmaker....
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Clearly it would be better to buy a car made by a French Italian or US carmaker....
now thats just plain silly ;-)
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Nothing to do with quality
Just look at things a bit longer term than "what can i afford today?" and it might give you an idea of why not to buy ?
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The Chinese will be good at making cars, it may just take them 10 or 20 years. Cheap brands have to change to more mainstream and quality image in order to be successful. Just look at Skoda, Hyundai and Kia; used to focus on price now focus on quality and value.
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For the last 3 years I've been driving around on Chinese tyres (well, Avons and Hankooks which are both made in China). Never had one go pop yet. Gone are the days when China churned out nothing but cheap tat - let's face it these new Rovers can't be any worse than an Austin Maestro, which was British designed, British engineered, and British built. The K-series had the potential to be a good engine, hopefully now the Chinese have tinkered sufficiently to lessen its appetite for head gaskets!
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Soon Honda Jazz will also be built in China (and gradually only in China).
Comparing with other Chinese goods, I think MG-Rover will now become a somewhat reliable car.
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>>I think MG-Rover will now become a somewhat reliable car.
That Depends on K-series mods, ie, if the oil rail modifications and head gasket mod works?,
Be interesting to find out though.
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Steve
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I didn't say stuff made in China will always be rubbish - but a lot of it is now. And the point has been made well above: why should Longbridge standards be any better now when only people who weren't good enough to find a job elsewhere will - presumably - be available to work there?
I can't imagine anyone who managed to get a job elsewhere will be queuing up to go back.
However, far be it from me to dissuade anyone from buying the new Longbridge product, whatever it is or whatever they call it. It's likely to provide fodder for this forum well into the future.
Yes, I guess I am still bitter - after many years - about being conned out of my hard-earned cash for the sort of rubbish that workers at Longbridge were happy to see leave the factory.
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Who will be first in the back room to drive a Modern Gentleman?
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glad you said drive there lud
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As I said, who is going to buy them? No one wanted them when they were being built by Rover, at a time when it was thought there was a viable company to provide backup, and dealerships to support them through.
So who in their right mind will buy one now. Bad reputation car, No dealerships, no support, unknown company..
Right where does that queue start?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The scale of Chinese manufacturing is huge - some good and some bad.
We associate all the cheap tat we buy as being the typical Chinese standard - used to be Taiwanese - but as someone above said when you look at the standard of electronic goods coming out of China they are very good, & as are their Ships for example.
LHD Jazzes come from China - initally with quality issues now as good as the other Honda plants.
Airbus will be making planes in China soon and I suspect Boeing will follow suit.
These will no doubt be as good as anything made anywhere else.
I wish our own government had the will to expand manufacturing like the Chinese - and it can be done without turning us into a sweat shop as well.
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I think the other thing to bear in mind is that the Chinese Universities are producing thousands of well qualified engineers now (and over the last 5-10 years) so we should expect to see an improvement in their homemade products.
China currently produces 60,000 engineers a year from it's universities.
So whilst they are investing in manufacturing and engineering I think we like to produce sports scientists, sociologists and haidressers. My guess is that they will be teaching us a thing or two about manufacturing soon. (Which is a crying shame for us).
If you ever read any of the statements from the FTSE 100 engineering CEO's they would love to have half that number of engineers as well as see science being tought properly in our schools.
Sorry about the rant but I am passionate about UK manufacturing and education - and in my view it is going backwards.
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I think the other thing to bear in mind is that the Chinese Universities are producing thousands of well qualified engineers now (and over the last 5-10 years) so we should expect to see an improvement in their homemade products. China currently produces 60 000 engineers a year from it's universities.
They do produce big numbers of engineering graduates, but there are a lot of questions about their quality.
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They do produce big numbers of engineering graduates but there are a lot of questions about their quality.
Whereas British sociologists and sports scientists are world renowned for their top-notch skills that make this country what it is today! ;-)
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'I suppose they may be cheap if the Chinese build them, ship them as 'kits' in crates, and Longbridge fasten the wheels on to avoid import duty.'
This is exactly what's happening its a screwdriver plant employing some 200 people.
Slightly off topic but my brother used to be an engineer for Rover but now works for Honeywell. They have one Chinese sub-contractor that has a factory that is THREE KILOMETRES LONG.
I would advise anyone under 30 to start learning Mandarin.
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I don't know why people think Chinese stuff is so bad. Nearly everything is made there now from Goodyear tyres to Apple Laptops.
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This is true, but you dont pay 'Chinese prices' for either of these items, because the parent companies watch over the manufacturers like a Hawk to ensure proper QC.
Having said this, I have heard that Goodyear tyres have been complained about recently since the Chinese made ones have come onto the market.
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Honda Jazz owners, who have bought a new Jazz (original model) in the last 2 years of it's life have been driving Chinese-built cars already. All of the UK market cars were sourced from Honda's Chinese factory in the latter part of the cars production run.
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