Changfeng legion steps on USA

Robert Hallock 14 Jan, 2008 at 8:21pm ET Article published in Tech

There are some people called “Changfeng,” they have a legion, and they’re all up in the NAIAS’ business. With eyes like leopard.

Just so you know.

Comments

14 Jan 2008 ~ 9:52pm Leonardo What is it with the Chinese? They export everything from childrens' toys to motherboards to automobiles. Some of it is cheap quality, some of it is top of the line. By why do they seem to be too cheap to hire competent translators? The letter/announcement looks a lot like documentation I've received with computer components before - slipshod.
15 Jan 2008 ~ 5:38am Your-Amish-Daddy Man...I bet I could outshoot their best dude with an STI Eagle Custom in nine than he could with a Barret XM500 on his best day.
15 Jan 2008 ~ 8:56am primesuspect Agree with you, Leo. Hire a decent translator if you want to sell VEHICLES in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Like I'm going to feel good trusting my life to a company who can't be bothered to put forth the effort and money to translate their communications properly.
15 Jan 2008 ~ 9:11am CB The problem is that it's a lot cheaper to higher native Chinese speakers who know English than it is to hire native English speakers who know Chinese. It's such a huge difference (we're talking about the difference between the salary of a McDonald's worker and of a corporate middle manager), that the companies can't see the justification of hiring the one that would actually make it look right.
15 Jan 2008 ~ 9:19am primesuspect An automotive company had damned well better figure out a way to justify the expense. When you're trying to break in to a billion dollar product market, you need to spare NO expense.
15 Jan 2008 ~ 9:26am CB It's a management problem. The guys at the top might understand the importance, but the HR guy who hires the translator is only thinking about the budget for his own department, and if he can get 7 bad translators for the price of one good translator, that looks good for his department.

American companies are doing this with their programmers now. You can hire 5 programmers in India for the price of one programmer here. So what if each of them can only do the job half so well as the people who are in this country, being able to hire them so much cheaper looks a lot better at that level.
15 Jan 2008 ~ 9:36am GHoosdum I'm confused.

The Chinese auto manufacturers are savvy. They saw the difficulty that the Koreans had in the US. They've seen Daewoo's failure as a brand, then Daewoo's relative success as a manufacturer for the Suzuki models and Chevy Aveo. They've also seen the Hyundai transformation from bottom of the barrel to value leader.

They know they're going to have a hill to climb to enter our market successfully. They probably even know how to model themselves on the success stories of the South Korean manufacturers, rather than the failures. They'll probably enter the market faster, and with more initial success, than Daewoo and Hyundai did.

So why can't they produce any written documentation in comprehensible English? I really don't think it's a management problem. That's projecting American corporate values onto the Chinese; they really do seem to have more of an "employer first" mindset than a "me first" way of thinking, even in management.
15 Jan 2008 ~ 12:44pm GHoosdum Another Chinese manufacturer, BYD, decided to take a joyride through the auto show!
15 Jan 2008 ~ 2:07pm Leonardo

the companies can't see the justification of hiring the one that would actually make it look right

I can understand that mentality (money saving tactic) for a plastic doll or a cheap clock radio, but not for an automobile. The economy of scale in a multibillion dollar automobile manufacturing enterprise would render translation expenses as trivial. You don't want potential customers perceiving a new car brand as a glorified toy. It would seem to me that that a purveyor of automobiles would want to be perceived as technically proficient, modern, precise, and professional. Chinese management mindset. Well, I guess. Regardless of the quality of product, the public relations is primitive.

Now, with that said, if these cars are quality, it could be a real blessing to lower income households, college students, and so forth. If it's like the first series of Hyndais and Kias before they overhauled factory quality control, then....