Word: detroiter
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...this signals a U-turn for a stalled and much maligned part of the auto business. Detroit has traditionally viewed small cars as money losers, the province of low-cost Japanese and Korean brands; retirees and budget shoppers are considered the core customers, not the most desirable clientele. Sure, you need an economy car for first-time buyers, and small cars offset the lousy mileage of SUVs and pickups, enabling automakers to meet federal regulations for corporate average fuel economy--which, thanks to industry lobbying, have barely budged in more than a decade. Given a choice, however, most Americans...
Small may be hip, but heavy metal and horsepower are what rev Detroit. Highlights from this year's auto show...
...suspect that GM's comrades passed along trade secrets. Regardless, Chery plans to build on its success at home to become the first Chinese automaker to crack the American market. It revealed plans to offer five models last week, including an SUV, at costs below anything riveted together by Detroit's Big Three. It has teamed with a legendary partner--Malcolm Bricklin, who brought the Subaru to America in the 1960s. Bricklin describes Chery as "ambitious like crazy," and his New York--based firm, Visionary Vehicles, plans to import up to a quarter of a million Cherys a year starting...
Chery has already done crazy things to China's auto market, which in turn could have a huge impact on America. The reason is overcapacity. Although executives in Detroit would drink windshield-wiper fluid through a straw for the roughly 15% growth in car sales that China saw last year, in China that increase might be too slow to keep up with production. Foreign firms like GM, Volkswagen and Ford have invested billions of dollars in China to make far more cars than the market can absorb. Last year Chinese consumers bought about 2.2 million cars, and assembly lines...
...cars. "If they can compete on price, Ford and Nissan will likely start exporting" to America within a decade, predicts Eric Harwit, a professor at the University of Hawaii who researches China's auto industry. The Cherys you'll soon see in car lots could be the vanguard for Detroit's own made-in-China cars. --By Matthew Forney/Beijing