Travel as a political act with Rick Steves
Cars made by the Chinese company JAC Motors are exposed to a dealership to Antonio Scorza AFP Getty.
Reports from Lima, Peru and Bogota, Colombia †В.
At first, Lima taxi driver Mario Segura was disgusted by the idea of buying a Chinese car that he had doubts about the durability of vehicles, service and resale value.
But word of mouth positive assurance that spare parts are plentiful and, of course, unbelievably low prices won him over.
Little by little, I heard favorable comments, said Segura, speaking in a Chery showroom in the district Surquillo He had planted up to 12 000 in cash for a new Fullwin XR sedan, half the cost, he said, of a comparable Fiat or Renault it took a long time to decide, but I'm not risking.
So is Luis Luna, a doctor just in Lima after working for several years in Argentina, he had planned to purchase a Japanese used car Until he noticed billboards touting brands Chinese cheap and listened to his parents insisted that the coup tires at a JAC dealership, one of dozens of Chinese brands sold here.
We realized for the same price as us to pay for a crummy used car that inspired no confidence, we could have a new Chinese car with a two year warranty, Luna said as he finished the paperwork on his new 16,000 JAC B-Cross family wagon, I am quite convinced that this is the right decision.
Testimonials like buyers can be heard in Latin America these days, where Chinese cars with unfamiliar brand names like Great Wall, JAC, Brilliance and Sinotruk are selling like hot cakes Chinese cars were introduced in Peru in 2006 and now one to six new cars sold here is a Chinese brand.
No fewer than 90 Chinese car manufacturers to choose from, according to the Automobile Assoc trade group of Peru The Chinese auto industry has yet to undergo the winnowing process that, over a century of competition, has reduced the US auto industry to three main players.
The main selling point of Chinese brands is, of course, the price of new Chinese cars typically sell for half to two-thirds the cost of a European, US or comparable Japanese vehicle, said Guido Vildozo, an expert in the automotive industry with consultants IHS automotive in Lexington, Mass.
What makes Chinese cars much cheaper starting with the work, said Vildozo, noting that a typical Chinese autoworker makes 300 to 400 per month, a fraction of the 2000 to 3000 wages that Mexican workers are or 5000 to 7000 per month as auto US average worker.
Another price advantage, said Jian Sun, a partner with AT Kearney business consultants in Shanghai, just reverse engineering, or design and mechanical imitation, that many Chinese carmakers use competing models to save at the expense of designing new models from scratch.
Chinese manufacturers entering the market as Latin American incomes are rising to unprecedented levels, the boom hunting global commodities decade filtering to a consumer class expansion.
Augusto de la Torre, Chief Economist for Latin America at the World Bank, said the middle class now includes the region 30 of its population of 570 million, up from 20 in 2002.
In Colombia, where the economy is thriving on global sales of its oil, coal, coffee and bananas, the increase in disposable income is particularly dramatic economist of the Bank of Bogota Camilo Perez said economic output per capita has almost doubled in five years, last year 6700 average of 3,400 in 2006.
So it is no surprise that car sales are accelerating new units sold last year in Colombia reached 325,000, an increase of 28 in 2010 new car sales in Peru totaled more than 100,000 last year, up 26 in the previous year.
According to Scotiabank, Brazil scar sales pass 2 8 million in 2012, up 4 last year, but in a much larger population base than those of its neighbors.
The expansion of the new car market is what attracted Chinese automakers, who see Latin America as a ground for his plan to conquer the global auto market in the coming decades According to AT Kearney, China exported 800,000 cars last year but hopes to increase that number to 2 million in 2015 and 3 million by 2020.
Emphasis Latin is also explained, AT Jian Kearney said, by the fact that Chinese manufacturers are not yet ready to cope with the US and European markets, which are more demanding in quality standards and emission Competition is less intense and the regulatory restrictions are lower in emerging markets, he said China and these regions share similar road conditions, emission control and safety standards.
The Chinese domestic car market, where sales reached last year about 18 million vehicles, is the largest in the world, far exceeding that of the U S where about 12 8 million new cars and trucks was sold in 2011.
Many buyers, like Antonio Benevides, a theme park worker of 26 years in Bogota, own for the first time in early December, he bought a new Chery QQ model for 9000, the cost of a Renault he compared two thirds.
This difference in price is what put a new car within my reach for the first time, Benevides said while driving his car off the dealership lot near Bogota's international airport I heard they hold well together, they are cheap to use and, as you can see, they are not bad looking.
Special correspondents Leon reported from Lima and Kraul from Bogota.
In Latin America, Chinese cars are gaining buyers, latin america, Chinese.
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