CHINESE engines

Vortex

Vortex

Native Texan
I was at one of the local Chevy dealers getting my 01 Impala work car fixed again and was wandering around the display area. I was looking at something called a Chevy Equinox, a smallish SUV that came out recently. The entire engine appears to be made in China! I about lost my breakfast. Now Im not talking about a rebadged Daewoo, this thing I thought was made in the US. I saw the tranny was from Japan too. God, what are we coming to?
 
Vortex said:
I was at one of the local Chevy dealers getting my 01 Impala work car fixed again and was wandering around the display area. I was looking at something called a Chevy Equinox, a smallish SUV that came out recently. The entire engine appears to be made in China! I about lost my breakfast. Now Im not talking about a rebadged Daewoo, this thing I thought was made in the US. I saw the tranny was from Japan too. God, what are we coming to?
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The vehicle is made in Canada at the CAMI manufacturing plant in Ingersol Ontario. The facility is a joint venture between GM and Suzuki. the vehicle is the replacement to the Tracker. Its program code was is the GMT191. They are in the process of expanding the plants capability to produce a Pontiac version (GMT192) and a third version that I think will be a Suzuki to replace the Sidekick. This is the same vehicle plat form that was used on the Saturn Vue which is built at the Saturn plant in the US.
 
Yup, the engine is made and assembled in Commie Red China. Bet it's real fun getting replacement parts. What I can't figure out is this Equinox as mentioned is based on the Saturn Vue, but that vehicle uses a V6 from Honda. The Vue is actually quite a peppy vehicle.

But ya want to know something else...that radio that Ford is putting into all of its new cars now, it's from China too.

I could understand if the domestics were growing here and abroad in an effort to take advantage of new markets. It's just that I can't wrap my mind around all of this exported manufactuing. My bet is Eastern Europe (Russia included) will be the next place product will be coming from. Africa won't be far behind...
 
Sources for GM parts

You should be happy that the engines looked Chinese. Most of the GM junk in the town I live in is serviced by the worst Chevrolet dealer on the planet. In keeping with the policies of the message board, I'll not mention the name, but they do make their sales men dress in a dog costume and stand out on Route 21 waving at people.
 
Vortex said:
I was at one of the local Chevy dealers getting my 01 Impala work car fixed again and was wandering around the display area. I was looking at something called a Chevy Equinox, a smallish SUV that came out recently. The entire engine appears to be made in China! I about lost my breakfast. Now Im not talking about a rebadged Daewoo, this thing I thought was made in the US. I saw the tranny was from Japan too. God, what are we coming to?
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Reasonably priced SUV. This is a 2005 model and a negative factor IMO was it has drum brakes in the rear.
 
Cost.

It all comes down to cost, its truly disgusting at how cheap they can manufacture something in China. We have factories in PR, DR,Mexico, and Brazil, we can't even compete with the costs they throw at us from China. Up until now we used mainly US vendors, but our corporate purchasing has ordered we go offshore to China. So we can increase our margins without increasing the total price...by too much.

They can produce quality, you just have to sit a couple of quality assurance engineers on them 24/7.

As far as shortage of parts, thats usually caused by a failure to forecast for spare parts so they don't get made, and then you get bit by huge lead times, made worse by the boat ride from China (5-6 weeks to LA).

Anyway my .05 worth from a product development insider.
 
Ya know back in the day made in chine or japan was cheap and not worth buying..But today it's suppose to be better quality at a cheaper price... :banned:
 
MarauderMark said:
Ya know back in the day made in chine or japan was cheap and not worth buying..But today it's suppose to be better quality at a cheaper price... :banned:
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Better quality? No

Cheaper price? not necessarily to the end consumer!

It's a sell out. Remember when Clinton went to China and made the deal to open trade? He said China was a huge market for US goods. Yeah right.

Walmart is probably one of the leaders in moving operations to China, and forcing the manufacturers they deal with to move operations to China.

Trade with Russia? It would have been a better bet, and possibly help them to remain on the road from communism. Russian made goods are not all that bad, and they make a good jewelled mechanical watch!

Some people think all this trade with China will turn then from communism. It hasn't so far, just given them a lot of money they didn't have before. And at what cost to us?
 
Well, I guess the master plan from the current political party running things is all our manufacturing jobs will be in China and we will be a nation of burger-flippers, nurses aides and door to door salesman. Someday we wont even be able to afford that Chi-Com crap.
 
Vortex said:
Well, I guess the master plan from the current political party running things is all our manufacturing jobs will be in China and we will be a nation of burger-flippers, nurses aides and door to door salesman. Someday we wont even be able to afford that Chi-Com crap.
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So I suppose the agenda for the last political party was for us all to be sombrero wearing Wal-Mart greaters. A lot of mfg. jobs went south of the border under the "other political party" in the 80's and the early 90's when they controlled both houses of Congress. This isn't a problem isolated to the current party in power...it's got deep roots going way back. Instead, try blaming the fat cats running these big companies. For example, take JT Battenberg III, president and CEO of Delphi the worlds largest automotive supplier. He still makes ~8 million a year but oversaw the stock take a 50% plunge and huge profit losses in the three years I worked there. He somehow still has his job and guys I used to work with continue to lose jobs to Asia. No government body/political party can be blamed for nonsense like that.

BTW, Ford and GM make suppliers quote China supply chains...even if the supplier can make it for the same price or cheaper here. So when someone figures out how any political party is responsible for that...let me know.
 
MarauderMark said:
Ya know back in the day made in chine or japan was cheap and not worth buying..But today it's suppose to be better quality at a cheaper price... :banned:
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The best that political prisoner/slave labor can supply!
 
That 3.4L V6 in the equinox has been doing duty in the chinese buick century for a few years now. My dad lives in Beijing, and that was teh company car that he got when he first arrived. IT spent more time in teh shop than on the road. Finally bought a Honda Odyssety to drive over there....

By the way, the Chinese Car of the Year? Ford Mondeo, assembled in China......
 
Vortex said:
Well, I guess the master plan from the current political party running things is all our manufacturing jobs will be in China and we will be a nation of burger-flippers, nurses aides and door to door salesman. Someday we wont even be able to afford that Chi-Com crap.
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I thought you red state folks would eventually get around to realizing this.

A little late.

:D
 
The way I feel about it is
Japan= great engineering and well thought out cars
China= no engineering and just settliing on pirating existing designs. Chinas probabaly selling Equaknock-offs for half the price right now!
 
GodOSpeed said:
China= no engineering and just settliing on pirating existing designs. Chinas probabaly selling Equaknock-offs for half the price right now!
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That's pretty much how Japan started out in the 50's!
 
Bigdogjim said:
It's called GLOBAL economic's................................
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Nope...It's called screw the American and European middle class while passing it off by citing the myth of globalization. Absolute BS!

We have always had international trade...except now it's in people.

I heard today that the current regime's military leaders want to have a foreign country build the next presidential helocopter, fronting it through Lockheed Martin with European parts and assembly.

Unlike European governments, ours chooses to not protect us from the "race to the bottom" because they have been completely corrupted by the corporations. This applies to both of our current major political parties.

No job for you...

God help us!

Next Stage: Soylent Green

:D
 
hitchhiker said:
Nope...It's called screw the American and European middle class while passing it off by citing the myth of globalization. Absolute BS!

We have always had international trade...except now it's in people.

I heard today that the current regime's military leaders want to have a foreign country build the next presidential helocopter, fronting it through Lockheed Martin with European parts and assembly.

Unlike European governments, ours chooses to not protect us from the "race to the bottom" because they have been completely corrupted by the corporations. This applies to both of our current major political parties.

No job for you...

God help us!

Next Stage: Soylent Green

:D
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AMEN to that!
 
hitchhiker said:
I thought you red state folks would eventually get around to realizing this.

A little late.

:D
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My goodness! The biggest mistake anyone can make is thinking that the good
ole USA can't compete in the world market. If you want to see what happens
to a country that doesn't believe in "globalization" just look at Japan. They are just now pulling out of a ten year plus recession because they kept their markets closed to competition. I will be the very first to agree that global trade is in many cases far from fair but then nothing in life generally is.
We American workers will always beat the Azz off of the world but we are in a fast changing marketplace and if you snooze you lose. To decry globalization is to deny reality. It's here, it ain't going away and you won't win
by barking at it.

Flame away if you wish, I'm a big boy and I can handle the heat. I just think we will always be a winner.

"Red State" Rumble
 
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