Yet the bottom rungs of that ladder have largely disappeared since then. The
reliability of used cars has increased and financing and warranties for them
have become widely available. This has pushed many economy cars out of the
market.
The toughest part of building a car comes in making thousands of little
tradeoffs: designing one part a little thicker or stronger and a neighboring
part a little thinner or lighter.
This is all done with the goal of tuning the ride and handling to Western
levels -- often more an art than a science. Chinese auto executives concede they
are far behind in this process, known as systems integration.
"You're not talking about something malfunctioning, but the look or the feel
is not right," said John Humphrey, a senior vice president in China at J. D.
Power and Associates.
Moreover, much of the current cost advantage enjoyed by Chinese automakers
because of their cheap labor will inevitably melt away as they improve quality
and buy better catalytic converters and other technology to meet American safety
and emissions standards, said Mike Jackson, the chairman and chief executive of
AutoNation, the biggest car dealership chain in the United States.
China's many state-owned automakers and their auto parts suppliers appear to
be stumbling as they try to modernize, partly because they are so heavily
subsidized by the government.
At the Fast Gear truck transmission factory in Xi'an, for example, robots
with flashing lights carry truck transmissions a couple hundred feet as workers
add parts to them. Though a conveyor belt would work just as well -- as would
cheap unskilled workers pushing trolleys -- the factory's management takes pride
in the spanking new robots.
"In this factory you can hardly find any workers," boasts Qian Qunzhu, a
deputy director of the factory.
The more typical Chinese factory, however, resembles the Geely plant here
where Mr. Ai works. One of his jobs is to use a hammer and chisel to widen or
narrow the brake light aperture and other spaces on unpainted, freshly welded
car frames so that the cars will fit together properly when fully assembled.
"The hard part," he said, standing beside a short row of car frames that
needed his attention, "is to get the gaps just right."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/automobiles/18chinacars.html?hp&ex=1161144000&en=ccfb13d524318fe3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
