Buyer beware

Yesterday i was shearing sheep for a bloke who's an engineer in CHCH,he was telling me that he had gone to see a mate of his who owns a car body repair business,while he was there he took him over to show him a one year old great Wall 4x4 that had come in for a panel replacement,where the panel was attached had not been painted,just bare steel that was already badly rusted,this is really bad news for this moter vehicle company as the repair guy reckons that this particular model will only last about five years before the rust condemns it off the road.
Its a question of whether its only this vehicle thats been poorly built and not that whole range of Great Wall 4x4's but either way i wouldn't contemplate buying one,more so now after hearing this.........

These hit the headlines when some models only scored 2 stars in the ANCAP safety ratings . One model does get 4 stars out of 5 with a score of 25.48/37.00.

Can't say I'm surprised. I know a tradesman who has a Great Wall ute. Many people locally are observing with interest to see how it goes for him.

igor;443438 wrote: Can't say I'm surprised. I know a tradesman who has a Great Wall ute. Many people locally are observing with interest to see how it goes for him.

Should run a sweepstake long he has it[]

Hawkspur;443433 wrote: These hit the headlines when some models only scored 2 stars in the ANCAP safety ratings . One model does get 4 stars out of 5 with a score of 25.48/37.00.

whoo, thats not good is it!!

RichardW;443449 wrote: whoo, thats not good is it!!

No... there was some talk about why we let such low safety rated vehicles be imported.
Usual answer: buyers problem.[}]

Hawkspur;443466 wrote: No... there was some talk about why we let such low safety rated vehicles be imported.
Usual answer: buyers problem.[}]

I understand that blocking the importation of vehicles with poor safety ratings could harm our "terms of trade" (foreign trade agreements, etc) with the countries where these vehicles are made.
So, to improve our access to export markets for our export produce (they will decrease tarrifs on our exports if we allow their vehicles to be imported, etc), our great illustrious leaders pass the costs of crashes involving poorly rated vehicles onto the people of NZ through increased ACC, insurance premiums, and the "social costs" of road accidents?

I wonder what would happen if ACC do what they did for motorbikes and started charging higher registration levies on vehicles with poor safety ratings? (might make a new ute buyer question why the on road costs are twice as high for the cheap ute, etc)

I also understand that a few decades ago, Japanese cars had a poor reputation - "Jap C%4p!" etc. However, the Japanese car makers lifted their game and now they make very good vehicles. I expect that the same thing will happen with Chinese car makers, given time and appropriate market feedback...

Cheers

A friend had one, i only ever saw him in it a couple of times, as soon after he bought it (new) he was always driving a courtesy ute due to it being back in the shop for one thing or another.

kai;443522 wrote: A friend had one, i only ever saw him in it a couple of times, as soon after he bought it (new) he was always driving a courtesy ute due to it being back in the shop for one thing or another.

Haha - why should Chinese cars be better built than the Chinese made Fridges, freezers, washing machines ...

kai;443522 wrote: A friend had one, i only ever saw him in it a couple of times, as soon after he bought it (new) he was always driving a courtesy ute due to it being back in the shop for one thing or another.

Sounds a bit like Kiwirail with there Chinese made locomotives