Volvos from China

[lisbon_road]

China is huge.  Larger companies can afford to have their own quality people out there policing everything.  The Chinese are learning fast and will come on.  As someone said above, look at Korean products: the actual products are generally very good quality.  

 

But you do need to take care.  Many Oil and Gas companies have policies of no Chinese content, though how they manage it I have no idea as there is so much Chinese stuff in everything.  

 

Certainly if you just go through Alibaba and start buying stuff like cast metal parts and so on, you're going to come unstuck.  They generally seem to work by supplying the lowest quality product they can and then improving it until the customer is happy, which is different to here.

 

I spent a lot of time working with Chinese companies and many many e mails and skype calls.  Been working on replacing products recently to fill a gap where a factory in the UK has closed and stopped production, due to its US owner loosing interest and not investing.  Story you hear too many times sadly.

[Lacquer Peel]

We already have 2 Chinese made cars here in the UK, the China State Washing Machine Company 3 & 6, and they've gone down like a lead brick

It's not because they're Chinese though, they're too expensive and uncompetitive in a market driven by headline emissions/MPG figures.

[sierraman]

Where a western company is closely overseeing things they are ok. When they are left unattended to get on with it they are hopeless.

[martc]

except Japan (far East? geography is not my strong suite!) where they do make some decent stuff.

 

Other gross generalisations are readily available!

 

Japan is about as far east as you can get before it becomes west again! Also I think the Koreans may argue the toss over your generalisation!

 

We already have 2 Chinese made cars here in the UK, the China State Washing Machine Company 3 & 6, and they've gone down like a lead brick

 

But they're outselling Subaru's at the moment, and the MG3 came 10th out of 200 in the Auto Express’ Driver Power 2015 survey so the Chinese can't be doing too much wrong building it.

[sierraman]

I like the MG3 and 6 by virtue of their likely curiosity value in a few years. But based on the facts pitching the MG3 up against say the Fiesta or a Clio it looks stupendously shit.

 

I'd still have one in years to come in the same way I'd have a Fiat Regatta, again monumentally shit against the then competition.

[DSdriver]

When I was a kid, cheap plastic toys were always stamped Made In Japan, then it became Made in Hong Kong. I believe that by 2050 the wheel will have turned and they will be Made in UK (if the UK is still an entity).

[TataBobu]

I wonder if the MG6 comes with "S", "TS" or "TL" stamped on the back, or they have a "badgeless" offer.

[rml2345]

As an avid collector of model cars, nearly all of which are made in China, I can confirm that the Chinese obviously know what they are doing when it comes to quality, fit and finish together with level of detail.

 

I think it has more to do with how much YOU are prepared to pay for your product and less to do with where it is made, IMO.

This. Quite a lot of the stuff coming out of China has fantastic quality and I can't see why Volvos shouldn't be the same. If the company manufacturing in China cares about the quality then the quality will be good. On the other hand, if you spend £3 on a watch including shipping then you shouldn't be enormously surprised when it explodes. I suppose because of the sheer quantity of dreadful nonsense being produced (look up Big Clive on YouTube for a good look) we regard Chinese quality as being so poor when it's really the tiny amount money we're spending on an item and expecting it not to be utter shite.

Quality things are quality regardless of where they're made. You can buy shit with "Made in UK" proudly stamped on the base just the same.

[Pillock]

The MG6 and MG3 were built to a price because the last people that fondly remembered the MG name were all on state pension and couldn't afford a decent car.