Chinese carmakers struggling to win local buyers’ hearts in Indonesia

[Korean]

Chinese carmakers struggling to win local buyers

Chinese carmakers struggling to win local buyers’ hearts
The Jakarta Post | Sat, 02/25/2012 3:46 PM

Chinese automakers are struggling to gain a bigger share in the Indonesian automotive market and are placing their faith in new models and a promise of better after-sale-service to offset poor sales during the past few years.

...

He hoped with better quality, Chinese cars could win the hearts of Indonesian car buyers. Our major obstacle is people’s prejudices due to their bad experiences pertaining to Chinese motorcycles in the past,” he told The Jakarta Post in an e-mailed interview.

...

Chery Mobil Indonesia (CMI) president director Hosea Sanjaya shared a similar view with Nathan, saying that Chery cars had received little response from the Indonesian market in the past three years despite their relatively low prices due to a strong stigma in regard to Chinese-made products.

“It was hard to win the market because we did not follow market taste,” he said.

 

[Zabaniyah]

It is true, Chery cars are of terrible quality.

Although, I do see quite a few Great Wall pickups here. They are good, and powered by a Japanese engine.

 

[S10]

Japanese cars went through the same things in the 1960's, 1970's and early part of 1980's before finally carving out their market. Korean cars were in similar boat in the late 1980's and 1990's. You first start at the cheap market, which people will naturally associated you with crap.

I don't deny most Chinese car brands are crap, but we'll get up there in time.

 

[Korean]

Japanese cars went through the same things in the 1960's, 1970's and early part of 1980's before finally carving out their market.

Japanese cars had a reputation for quality in the US by 1971, mainly because the UAW-assembled cars were so bad that anything else looked good next to them.

I don't deny most Chinese car brands are crap, but we'll get up there in time.

It is not possible for the Chinese brands to gain on foreigners because of the Chinese culture that seeks a quick return on no investment and the fact that foreigners already took over 71% of China's domestic auto market.

 

[Nan Yang]

In Latin America, Chinese cars are gaining buyers
Chinese brands, with their low prices, are selling like hot cakes as Latin America's consumer class expands amid rising incomes

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/09/world/la-fg-china-cars-20120210

 

[fly2012]

Japanese cars had a reputation for quality in the US by 1971, mainly because the UAW-assembled cars were so bad that anything else looked good next to them.


It is not possible for the Chinese brands to gain on foreigners because of the Chinese culture that seeks a quick return on no investment and the fact that foreigners already took over 71% of China's domestic auto market.

My roomate got his car in latet 90s, a new Hyundai that was half as cheap as most US cars, horrible quality, trouble here and there all the time. The quality has picked up in 10 years. It is just the same learning curve countries like China and India will go through. As to the 70% of the foreign market, the number is very misleading since almost all these "foreign cars" are manufactured in China through joint ventures. For instance, Audi is a very popular car in China and most of them are made in my home town. China just doesn't protect its car market the way as Japan and Korea did.

And stop talking about the culture, everytime you throw out cheap stuff like this you get yourself embarrassed badly. Don't tell me again Korean culture is Siberian culture instead of a sub-branch of Chinese culture.

 

[Mech]

@fly

Please dont compare chinese cars to Indian. Indian cars coming out these days are pretty darn good.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Japanese cars went through the same things in the 1960's, 1970's and early part of 1980's before finally carving out their market. Korean cars were in similar boat in the late 1980's and 1990's. You first start at the cheap market, which people will naturally associated you with crap.

I don't deny most Chinese car brands are crap, but we'll get up there in time.

In the North American market in the old days, American cars were big, complex, noisy, gas guzzling, and their engines were problematic. You have to send it to repair every once in a while.

Makers like Toyota differentiated their product offerings by emphasizing on smaller cars, that had good quality components for their engines, simplicity and consumed very less fuel. They also offered a very wide variety of cars as well.

And customers were very happy with these smaller Japanese cars. And that is how we see the success of likes of Toyota today.

I cannot say much about the future of Chinese car makers. But what I can say is that they have a lot of catching up to do in order to match against the Japanese and Western giants. Even the Korean car-makers are far from that kind of level.

 

[ahfatzia]

It is not possible for the Chinese brands to gain on foreigners because of the Chinese culture that seeks a quick return on no investment and the fact that foreigners already took over 71% of China's domestic auto market.

LOL sounds like you are the final authority on Chinese culture and business practices.

Let me tell you, China doesn't come this far without her inherent strengths. Chinese people's acute business skills are well known. They don't call us Oriental Jew for no reasons. Chinese technologies advance in an incredible pace for the past decade. So, producing efficiency and economical cars is just a matter of time.

 

[Skull and Bones]

My roomate got his car in latet 90s, a new Hyundai that was half as cheap as most US cars, horrible quality, trouble here and there all the time. The quality has picked up in 10 years. It is just the same learning curve countries like China and India will go through. As to the 70% of the foreign market, the number is very misleading since almost all these "foreign cars" are manufactured in China through joint ventures. For instance, Audi is a very popular car in China and most of them are made in my home town. China just doesn't protect its car market the way as Japan and Korea did.

And stop talking about the culture, everytime you throw out cheap stuff like this you get yourself embarrassed badly. Don't tell me again Korean culture is Siberian culture instead of a sub-branch of Chinese culture.

Indian cars are already doing fine, thanks to overseas acquisition and integration of technologies.

 

[revu]

lol, it's not always because the stigma of Chinese products, it's more because the after sales, and the price of the car are not good enough to compete with it's competitor in my country.

 

[Korean]

Even the Korean car-makers are far from that kind of level.

Too bad Volkswagen Chairman disagrees with you.

 

[Punjabbi Munda]

My roomate got his car in latet 90s, a new Hyundai that was half as cheap as most US cars, horrible quality, trouble here and there all the time. The quality has picked up in 10 years. It is just the same learning curve countries like China and India will go through. As to the 70% of the foreign market, the number is very misleading since almost all these "foreign cars" are manufactured in China through joint ventures. For instance, Audi is a very popular car in China and most of them are made in my home town. China just doesn't protect its car market the way as Japan and Korea did.

And stop talking about the culture, everytime you throw out cheap stuff like this you get yourself embarrassed badly. Don't tell me again Korean culture is Siberian culture instead of a sub-branch of Chinese culture.

Indian cars i guess are pretty good when compared to Chinese ones.
From Mahindra to Tata they now have a big foreign base as well.

 

[canadian icehole]

Japanese cars went through the same things in the 1960's, 1970's and early part of 1980's before finally carving out their market. Korean cars were in similar boat in the late 1980's and 1990's. You first start at the cheap market, which people will naturally associated you with crap.

I don't deny most Chinese car brands are crap, but we'll get up there in time.

Agreed. I remember a long time ago of a neighbour that complained about their recent purchase of a Korean car. They swore never again will they purchase a Korean made car. The car in question was...The Pony.

LOL sounds like you are the final authority on Chinese culture and business practices.

Let me tell you, China doesn't come this far without her inherent strengths. Chinese people's acute business skills are well known. They don't call us Oriental Jew for no reasons. Chinese technologies advance in an incredible pace for the past decade. So, producing efficiency and economical cars is just a matter of time.

Oriental Jew? Never heard that one before.

 

[Korean]

My roomate got his car in latet 90s, a new Hyundai that was half as cheap as most US cars, horrible quality, trouble here and there all the time. The quality has picked up in 10 years.

Thanks to extremely demanding Korean consumers who demand quality and are willing to pay for it, unlike Chinese consumers. Korean consumers demand high quality from its domestic brands and will pay a premium for quality; this has prompted Korean automakers to raise quality and be rewarded with higher prices. This is not the case in China, where Chinese brand automakers are stuck in sub-100,000 yuan low-cost market segment.

As to the 70% of the foreign market, the number is very misleading since almost all these "foreign cars" are manufactured in China through joint ventures.

A Toyota assembled in the US is a "Japanese" car.
A Volkswagen assembled in China is a "German" car.

SAIC and FAW are nothing more than an assembly subcontractor like Foxconn is to Apple.

China just doesn't protect its car market the way as Japan and Korea did.

Japan's auto tariff : 0%
Korea's auto tariff : 0% to EU and American manufactured cars.
China's auto tariff : 30%

Don't tell me again Korean culture is Siberian culture instead of a sub-branch of Chinese culture.

It is.