By on December 21, 2007

2008chevroletequinox.jpgAt the rate it's going, the first Chinese car sold in the U.S. might come from GM, assembled right here in North America. Currently GM buys 20 million parts per month from Chinese suppliers. Reuters reports they're increasing their spending by 25 percent a year through 2010. You can expect to see air conditioning, chassis, steering and brake parts coming from the PRC, in addition to the electronics, plastic parts, engines, aluminum wheels (half of the aluminum wheels they use worldwide are Chinese) and other Chinese-made components they currently use. If the trend continues, that "American-made" Chevy will soon have more Chinese content than domestic. An American revolution? I don't think so.

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16 Comments on “Ping Pong, Dim Sum, Tang Hu Lu and Chevrolet...”


  • avatar
    kjc117

    Hmm…and where are all the UAW people????
    While they blindly bash the Japanese their jobs are going, going, gone to PRC. Look at Delphi, you know their execs. got huge bonuses for setting up operations in the PRC and letting the good old USA go straight down the bankruptcy road.

    Yet they still bash Toyota!!???

  • avatar
    N85523

    Cessna’s latest single-engine airplane, the 162 Skycatcher is going to be manufactured in China, though I think final assembly will happen stateside. I wonder what the next outsource to China will be… healthcare? day care? Who knows?

    It’s a revolution for sure, just not a very American one.

  • avatar
    starlightmica

    Anyone know the parts content currently on the Equinox?

  • avatar
    franz

    gling98:
    What do Ping Pong and Dim Sum have to do with the subject matter?

    You may be unfamiliar with the old advertising jingle:
    “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet!”

  • avatar
    tentacles

    Football, meat pie, kangaroos and Holden cars?

  • avatar
    Landcrusher

    Cessa is NOT going to use a chinese engine. The rest of an airplane is rather simple. Still, I am not sure I want to fly one. If they are using composites, then it’s rather hard to tell if they took a short cut in the lay up.

    The BRS (a whole plane parachute) will also NOT be made in China.

    AFAIK, the best things to use from China are things that are cheaper to replace than fix. IOW, if you can replace the AC several times for less than a better unit plus several repairs, then go for it.

  • avatar
    mikey

    Where are the UAW people you ask?Well we are off in the corner, licking our wounds thats where.
    We battled the Japanese invasion and we lost,plain and simple.
    No whats left of us are trying to pick the pieces up and see if we can keep the domestics alive.
    At this point in time I coudn’t care less where GM gets parts,or whole friggen cars for that matter.If it means that GM corp./my pension is assured they can get parts from Somalia.

  • avatar
    tony-e30

    Everyone should relax. If 2007 proved nothing else, it’s that Chinese-made goods and consumer products are of top quality and don’t kill our pets or poison our children. Go GM!

  • avatar
    N85523

    I was refering to the airframe. The engine will be supplied by Continental and made in the US.

  • avatar

    starlightmica : Anyone know the parts content currently on the Equinox? Around 50% US/Canadian content. The V-6 is from China and the transmission from Japan.  For domestic content of other models, see USA Today's "How American is That Car? "

  • avatar
    Landcrusher

    I knew you knew, but I wanted people to know some more about that one before we had them afraid the sky was falling.

  • avatar
    taxman100

    So there are no Chinese parts in the Nissan, Toyota, or Honda sold in the United States?

    The trade laws make sourcing from China unavoidable.

  • avatar

    I think taxman its just more irony regarding buying an “american” car. Many of the domestic only buyers are also part of the avoid made in China products.

  • avatar
    jthorner

    “If it means that GM corp./my pension is assured they can get parts from Somalia.”

    That sounds like: as long as I get mine, I could care less about anything else. What happened to trying to leave a better situation for our children than we enjoyed ourselves? That moral imperative which animated much of our grandparent’s generation seems to be almost completely lost in modern times.

  • avatar

    RE The Equinox parts etc, I will quote from the Lemon Aid book by Phil Edmonston of 2006! The Equinox is an international parts bin: Its designed in the USA, engineered and built in Canada, powered by a Chinese engine, and loaded with parts from Japan, Mexico and the Philippines. Phil goes on to say a vehicle with so many outsourced parts are found on the bottom rung of quality/reliablility ladder!! From the ones I ahve seen around here, I know of one owner who wishes he had purchased something else, apparently the interior has a odour like a “skunk” that comes from the Plastic interior, so much for quality.

  • avatar
    mel23

    That sounds like: as long as I get mine, I could care less about anything else. What happened to trying to leave a better situation for our children than we enjoyed ourselves? That moral imperative which animated much of our grandparent’s generation seems to be almost completely lost in modern times.

    What do you expect from Mikey and his (mostly ex) colleagues? They’ve worked hard and done their part for years while their ‘leaders’ have frittered away the tremendous value once held, and while the general public has bought the cheap import stuff regardless of the eventual impact. At some point, swimming against the rising and quickening current becomes pointless and impossible.

    We have sown and we’re about to reap.

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