zman

Well here you are people, official shots from within the Bramalea plant, I guess the developement is underway afterall. It's only natural for them to keep things under wraps, that is untill some pair of loose lips come along, thank god.







http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-new...e-ar33938.html

RLSH700

Although I'm glad to know that our beliefs are confirmed, I wouldn't praise the people who leaked the info. This wasn't very honest of them to have done this. Leaking info isn't the right thing to do.

wirewilly

I'm going to be ill. Why the hell does this car show a "B"pillar?????? With all of the technology available today in frame design, why why why are they ruining this car with a "B"pillar???? I guess they will put a "B" pillar on the conv. too !!!!!!!!!! Might as well.

MGDMike

Must be coffee break time, I don't see anyone in any of those photos

zman

Just found out today, that I made a mistake those photo's were taken inside their engineering teck plant in Michigan. Sorry my mistake should of checked out a few sites before I spoke. It is still good news no matter how you slice it.

Paladin06

Jeremiah 29:11

I agree. While it is nice to see or hear some news, it really messes up whatever marketing strategy that DCX had.

Now they will have to figure out what kind of competitive information in these pictures was leaked out and how to respond to it.

If AMD had pictures of the inside of an Intel plant or Dell had pictures of the inside of a HP plant heads would roll.


This reminds about 20 years ago when a Japanese chemical engineers were visiting/touring a US plant. One of the things they noticed
was the Japanese engineers always put up red dots on everything they took pictures of in the plant. Well it turns out they were using this
to scale the design of the plant so they could copy it. Long story short, months later the plant in Japan blew up because the U.S. plant manager
had the wisdom to the have a critical blow valve removed before the tour.

I laugh everytime I think about it. I wish I could have seen there faces.

Paladin06

Yep, now they rule the automotive world. How funny..

Jeremiah 29:11

Yep, if China would to ever come out with a good car......we could have serious problems in 5-10 years.

What was IBM is now owned by Lenovo in China making PC's. Watchout Dell and HP!

NEWS ANALYSIS
By Brian Bremner and Kathleen Kerwin


Here Come Chinese Cars

China aims to be a big auto exporter, with help from big names manufacturing in the country. Detroit isn't looking in its rearview mirror -- yet
Audacious, gutsy, and maybe a little nutty -- how else to describe the push by New York auto entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin and China's Chery Automobile Co. President Yin Tongyao to import and sell 250,000 mainland-made sport utilities, sedans, and sports coupes in the U.S. starting in 2007?

After all, Chery produced only 80,000 cars in all of 2004, has near-zero brand recognition outside China, and has been sued by General Motors' (GM ) South Korean unit for allegedly ripping off the design for its best-selling QQ minicars in China -- a charge Chery denies. And while Bricklin was expected to announce his first dealer on May 26, U.S. auto execs aren't exactly losing sleep over the Chery threat -- not yet, anyway (See BW Online, 5/26/05, Malcolm Bricklin's "Bit of P.T. Barnum")

EARLY DAYS. Big Three execs did take notice, however, when Honda (HMC ) announced plans to export compact cars from China to Europe starting in June. Honda already sells about 200,000 locally built vehicles in China a year, ranging from Accord sedans to Odyssey SUVs. In April, with local partners, it began production at a new assembly plant in Guangzhou that will eventually build and export 50,000 Fit compacts a year to be sold in Europe as the Jazz. Honda won't say if it plans to send China-built cars to the U.S., but it hasn't ruled out exporting other models from China eventually.

In the global auto industry, Chery and Honda are on opposite ends of the spectrum. But they do share this: Both are betting big that the Chinese auto industry is entering a new phase that will see a shift from manufacturing only for the fast-growing local market to become an export base for the rest of the world, too.

This transition is in the early stages. Of the 405,000 vehicles exported last year, according to J.D. Power & Associates, just 10,000 were passenger cars. Low quality and high component costs will keep Chinese auto exports to the U.S. and Europe in the novelty category for the next few years, analysts say.

RISING QUALITY. That's no reason for Western carmakers to be complacent, though. China is closing the quality gap and building a base of low-cost suppliers that could eventually allow it to unleash inexpensive, well-made cars on the West.

And because local production capacity of 3 million vehicles a year is currently outstripping demand by about half a million vehicles, there are already a lot of wheels looking for a garage. "It's inevitable," says Mark LaNeve, chief of sales and marketing at GM. "They'll follow the example of the Koreans and Japanese."

Korean cars gave Detroit fits in the late '90s by undercutting domestic small cars on price and outdoing them on quality -- then moving up into other segments. Autos from China could provide more lower-cost competition for the Big Three at a time when GM and Ford (F ) are already reeling. That could cost them, along with Chrysler, more market share and prod them to move more of their own production offshore.

GOVERNMENT PUSH. How fast can the Chinese gear up? The way things are going, it won't take 20 years to match Toyota (TM ) quality levels, as it did for the Koreans. And with Chinese auto assembly workers earning $2 an hour -- vs. $22 in Korea and nearly $60 in the U.S. for wages and benefits -- it may not be long before China has the wherewithal to start selling competitively priced cars overseas. "The Chinese are probably five or six years away from being able to sell a competent low-end ca

RLSH700

I think the correct phrase would be look out Japan and Europe. I don't think China's impact will threaten Detroit as much as it will Japan and Europe. Most people who buy European and Japanese cars buy them because they believe they feature higher quality for a similar price. These customers are not as loyal as Detroit buyers, when something appears to be of better quality for a better price they will move on.