Accelerating East - Autoline This Week 1604

China is a communist country with capitalist tastes and the money in the bank to prove it. That's why nearly all Western automotive manufacturers are now in the country importing, building and selling cars. But despite all this economic attention, Chinese consumers are still a mystery to many in the auto industry. Thank goodness for men like Michael Dunne who packed up and moved to China some 25 years ago. Over that quarter century this automotive consultant has learned plenty about China, its people and manufacturers like General Motors who brought its products east early on. This week on Autoline Michael Dunne joins John McElroy, Sharon Terlep of the Wall Street Journal and David Welch of Bloomberg BusinessWeek to talk about his book "American Wheels, Chinese Roads" and the exploding Chinese automotive market.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Michael Dunne
• John McElroy
• cars
• autos
• automobile
• China

[tomofnorthcal]

Very informative show, thx, Autoline.

[DocWolph]

@randyseck Agreed. Cadillac didn't have to sit on the CTS for almost a decade (since 2002) while making weak attempts w/ the XLR and STS, 2 cars that could've been great w/ improvements. They wasted a lot of time.

Lincoln kept throwing away good opportunities, like the Mark VIII and LS. If it wasn't right the first time, fix it. Now they have to start from nearly zero.

At times, I don't think GM, FORD, and CHRYSLER are taking their luxury marques seriously as their competitors.

[thepiuma]

Absolutely loved this, easy to understand and informative. Great episode.

[randyseck]

@DocWolph To be honest, Cadillac is still making a come back right here in America, just look at BMW and Audi and then at Cadillac, they have a long way to come, and Lincoln an even longer way....

[DocWolph]

Cadillac has no really big cars. Their focus seems fixed more on European acceptance but have not put the same kind of push on perception, capability, and variety that the German brands have/do. The CIEL can't happen soon enough and GM needs bigger cars like a "Fleetwood" (FTS?) and Eldorado (ETC?) and Seville (STS) again. They don't need to be aimed at Europe, but China. Same brand, different cars that fit in those markets. GM has the need and tech to make this work.