Sudden explosion of Chinese and Korean car market

Wahesh

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Has anyone noticed this? The sudden explosion of the Chinese and Korean car manufacturers have seemingly come out of no where.

How is it that they have suddenly surged?

I don't give a rats arse how good they look or how highly priced are, you will NOT find me dead in dark buying a:
  • Haval
  • Baic
  • MG
  • Great Wall (LOL)
  • Ssangyong
  • Genesis
  • Hyundai
  • Kia (special up-yours to these Karmichaels)
 

Alan79

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Has anyone noticed this? The sudden explosion of the Chinese and Korean car manufacturers have seemingly come out of no where.

How is it that they have suddenly surged?

I don't give a rats arse how good they look or how highly priced are, you will NOT find me dead in dark buying a:
  • Haval
  • Baic
  • MG
  • Great Wall (LOL)
  • Ssangyong
  • Genesis
  • Hyundai
  • Kia (special up-yours to these Karmichaels)
This was bound to happen when the libs decided to stop subsidies for manufacturing in Australia. It meant the manufacturing industry ended in 2017 if memory serves me. Toyota was the last to go I think.

So this created a bit of a situation where import taxes were applied to what we saw as Australian makes as evenly as those makes you listed above. I think that gave those manufacturers the foothold they needed.

From what I've read the cutting of subsidies to the vehicle manufacturers here was political. The libs knew that it was a highly unionised industry and by destroying it, they thought it would weaken the ALP.
 

Wahesh

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My missus has an i30 Hyundai and it a good little car I love it. Does everything it needs to do no dramas that’s all you can ask
A lot of people, myself included, lost all faith in Hyundai when they manufactured this disaster:

1675122248658.png


Even Sung Kang (Korean actor who plays Korean character Han in Fast & Furious) poked fun at the Hyundai's in Tokyo Drift.
 

Hacky McAxe

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They're definitely a mixed bag. Most Hyundai and Kia are decent. Genesis and Haval have a few decent cars. And MG is still based on it's original British design even though they are now owned and made in China. But the rest aren't great. I haven't looked into Great Wall in a while, but on release they were pure junk. And Ssangyong are even worse.

On the flip side, the new affordable electric vehicles coming out of China (like the BYD Atto 3) are rated as some of the best EVs you can get, especially in comparison to the overpriced and often faulty Tesla.
 

CroydonDog

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Chinese cars are where Korean cars were 20 years and and where Japanese cars were decades before that. Not sure they have come out of nowhere. Great Wall has been around since about 2009.

My daily commuter is an i30 wagon. Its indestructible (even been stolen and recovered in the past few months), and hasn't skipped a beat in a decade and 150,000km. Its not meant to be sexy, or used to pull chicks, or beat anyone at the lights, but its just reliable motoring.

The family car is a newish Volvo SUV (mine is made in Sweden but the Company is now, funny enough, owned by Chinese (Geely)). Brilliant to drive, especially on the highway (we do a lot of long road trips), heaps of cool tech (parks itself if you want), but with all the tech etc, its probably more likely to eventually start costing a shitload to keep on the road, compared to that Hyundai. The Hyundai also had double the warranty length.

I personally wouldn't buy a Chinese car anytime soon, but i can see the (short term) attraction for some, especially for the commercial vans and utes. Buyer beware i guess when it comes to things like long term resale and reliability as well as they brand still being around long term to get it serviced etc. My 25 year old self probably said the same about Korean cars (my first car was a true blue dinki di VK Commodore), but 10 years later, i bought one after it had won Car of the Year.
 

The DoggFather

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Has anyone noticed this? The sudden explosion of the Chinese and Korean car manufacturers have seemingly come out of no where.

How is it that they have suddenly surged?

I don't give a rats arse how good they look or how highly priced are, you will NOT find me dead in dark buying a:
  • Haval
  • Baic
  • MG
  • Great Wall (LOL)
  • Ssangyong
  • Genesis
  • Hyundai
  • Kia (special up-yours to these Karmichaels)
Genesis is Hyundai, like Lexus is Toyota
 

The DoggFather

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Plus IIRC, Hyundai stole the head designer of Mercedes, thats why they are starting to look good and Mercs look like shit now.

He has moved onto KIA now, Hyundai's sister company.
 

Wahesh

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They're definitely a mixed bag. Most Hyundai and Kia are decent. Genesis and Haval have a few decent cars. And MG is still based on it's original British design even though they are now owned and made in China. But the rest aren't great. I haven't looked into Great Wall in a while, but on release they were pure junk. And Ssangyong are even worse.

On the flip side, the new affordable electric vehicles coming out of China (like the BYD Atto 3) are rated as some of the best EVs you can get, especially in comparison to the overpriced and often faulty Tesla.
I actually saw a "Build Your Dreams" car in cross-city the tunnel on Australia Day. While it looks brilliant in the dark, it's still Chinese, so I'm likely to steer clear. I couldn't even work out what the logo was at first, never seen it before. Kind of looks like they were trying to make it look a little like a European performance car.

1675137716386.png
 

Alan79

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There's honestly not that much difference between cars in styling terms these days. I know that early on the great wall utes looked like a kids drawing. But the bulk of car designers now probably just rip off whatever is popular with a few minor tweaks. If you remove the badging I'd guess that 99% of people would struggle to identify a brand. The one exception being LandCruiser utes which have had their own distinct look for about 20 years.
 

Hacky McAxe

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I actually saw a "Build Your Dreams" car in cross-city the tunnel on Australia Day. While it looks brilliant in the dark, it's still Chinese, so I'm likely to steer clear. I couldn't even work out what the logo was at first, never seen it before. Kind of looks like they were trying to make it look a little like a European performance car.

View attachment 64561
It's a bit small for my liking. But most electric vehicles are. Drives great though and has an excellent interior. They also use blade battery loading.

Basically with Electric Vehicles the issue is that every 10-12 years you have to replace the batteries, and it's not an easy thing to do. Usually costs $20k-$30k. With the blade system is costs $5k-6k.

Still a lot but I usually spend at least that amount on a car every 10 years.
 

Cappuccino

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Kia been around for a while and is better now than ever
The Chinese garbage u see around is a direct result of the used car and new car market being out of control on cost and wait times, and people being absolute cucks. Any time i see an MG its always a simp driving it.
 

Hacky McAxe

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Genesis is Hyundai, like Lexus is Toyota
My favourite car when I was younger was the Toyota Cressida. Beautiful interior, had some nice grunt to it, drove great. When they ended the Cressia line they took the luxury interiors and put them in the Lexus. Then they took the engine and put them in the Camry. That's why early Camry's were so good.
 

senshidog

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The reason why you are seeing many more of these brands on the road, is because Chinese car manufacturers are able to get access to chips and semi conductors (which are in very short supply after the major factory supplying the car industry burnt down). In addition many do everything inhouse (like Hyundai do), so have no reliance on external providers/manufacturers).

Add to this that China to Australia is a faster shipping route, that cars built in other countries (including Japan and Korea).

All this adds up to (currently) more stock availability of Chinese made cars.

Having looked around at cars recently, the blinding obvious concern about many of the Chinese brands, was in the fitment of panels (inconsistent panel gaps), average / thin paint, excessive use of cheap interior plastics.

That leads to a cheap car, but one that probably won't last in Australias hotter climates and summers. Heat damages plastics and creates expansion and contraction issues with trims.

Honestly after looking at them closely I'd never buy these from your list (or any other Chinese owned car manufacturer):
  • Haval
  • Baic
  • MG
  • Great Wall (LOL)
  • Ssangyong
These below however have come leaps and bounds in recent times. KIA still have a way to go with their interiors, but they are getting better. Still too much hard plastics and movement in said plastics.

Hyundai own Genesis (the later being their luxury brand). The i30s are a great little car and superbly reliable. That said in recent times both KIA and Hyundai have had a string of recalls.

That said though Hyundai have come a long way and it's no suprise they are selling well, as it's a pretty decent package. Outside of Chinese car manufacturers they are one of the only car manufacturers that own everything from the chips and panels put into their vehicles, through to the logistics and cargo ships their vehicles arrive on. Pretty impressive!
  • Genesis
  • Hyundai
  • Kia (special up-yours to these Karmichaels)
Oh and a side note but the Hyundai Excel Twin Cams went bloody hard in their day. A mate had one and it got the living shit thrashed out of it and still was going well with 180k on the clock.
 

The DoggFather

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My favourite car when I was younger was the Toyota Cressida. Beautiful interior, had some nice grunt to it, drove great. When they ended the Cressia line they took the luxury interiors and put them in the Lexus. Then they took the engine and put them in the Camry. That's why early Camry's were so good.
You remember the Toyota Crown? That was the the original Lexus lol
 
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