New Chinese-made cars are mostly cheap knock-offs

New Chinese-made cars are mostly cheap knock-offs

EDITOR:

The Detroit Auto Show last week featured model displays from several Chinese manufacturers. From 10 feet away, the vehicles appear attractive, and the estimated retail price appears even more attractive. However, closer inspection reveals some things in common with all of the Chinese auto makers. Uneven gaps between body panels, sharp metal edges, insufficient spot welds, flimsy plastic interiors, cheap tires and poor upholstery seems to be the theme that keeps the prices low, along with the usual slave labor used to assemble the vehicles. Digging deeper, we find that none of the Chinese models displayed at the auto show even meet the minimum U.S. safety regulations, and all fail the standard front end crash tests. With the recent wave of dangerous products from China, such as toys with lead-based paint and poisoned dog food, what would make anyone believe that their cars would be any better?

As if things couldn’t get worse, the Chinese OEMs make no bones about copying the styling of other established manufacturers. And this is not like the Ford and Chevy wars of the 1960s and ’70s, where the Mustang and Camaro looked somewhat similar. The BYD F8 and the Geely Merrie 300 look almost identical to some Mercedes-Benz models of two or three years ago. They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. But whatever happened to copyrights and patent laws? I doubt that Mercedes is flattered.

The bottom line is that if you want to get into the big business of selling vehicles to the U.S. and European nations, you have to play by the rules. At this point, the Chinese vehicles are just cheap knock-offs and death traps. Yet they introduce this junk like it was the best thing since sliced bread. I feel embarrassed for Americans who are of Chinese heritage.

MIKE SCOTT

Canfield

A matter of belief

EDITOR:

All right, who are we to believe, Cal Thomas or the very weighty evidence on global warming?

Let’s see, if we had believed Cal when Gorbachev first appeared on the scene we would have been convinced he was the 666 of Revelations because of that birthmark on his forehead. Before the first Gulf War, Cal claimed that Saddam Hussein must be 666 and we had better get over there and defeat him right away. Then the Millenium was sure to bring about Armageddon and we better be in our bunkers when it hit. Later on, we would have believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and the smoking gun nuclear cloud was just around the corner.

I can’t even begin to list all the insane things that Cal has claimed over the decades, and every single time he was wrong. He seems to believe that he is some kind of holy prophet, but surely prophets must be right at least once in a while. This nonsense goes on and on and is sadly mislabeled as religiousness or as politics. This man is neither religious nor political. He is insane and those who believe him are deluded and shortsighted. They cannot judge for themselves when the lies are uncovered over and over again, ad infinitum.

ROGER LAFONTAINE

Youngstown