In the early 2000s, when the first Chinese cars began arriving in Russia, they were of monstrous quality. However, the owners of domestic cars learned that there are foreign cars of inferior quality than Lada, Volga and UAZ. However, over time, some Chinese manufacturers have improved the quality of their products and are now at the level of Korean manufacturers in the early 21st century.
Minuses
The biggest negative that manifests itself during the operation of Chinese cars is their low quality and low service life of units, as well as spare parts. In fairness, it should be noted that the main representatives of the Chinese car industry - Chery, Geely and Great Wall - are constantly improving in terms of price / quality ratio and are almost close to European and American brands. If we compare their quality with the products of domestic automakers, then it is no worse. At least in Chinese cars, the palate does not crawl through the gaps between the body panels and does not blow through the cracks formed. Legends about the monstrous quality of the Chinese are true only for smaller Chinese firms - Lifan or Higer, for example.
The second big disadvantage of Chinese cars is their low passive safety. Despite the fact that China has long been a member of the WTO, the entry to the European market for Chinese cars is closed. And the main reason is non-compliance with strict safety and environmental standards. If the environmental parameters can be relatively easily tightened, then the issue of improving safety requires a lot of efforts, which are not yet available to the Chinese. But the Russian safety standards, which have remained unchanged since the 1980s, pass as easily as our cars and jeeps.
pros
The main plus is the price. For money comparable to the cost of a domestic car, a wide selection of Chinese cars is offered. Moreover, the lineup includes sedans, crossovers, hybrids, and even electric cars. The design and level of technical equipment is not inferior to Russian cars and is very close to European and American cars of the same price class. The prices for spare parts and maintenance are in many cases even lower than those of our manufacturers. It is also captivating that the same car in basic and top-end configurations differs slightly in price.
Almost all Chinese cars are pretty practical. They have very large trunks for their class (this is important for someone), they are suitable for self-repair. Considering that all units are copies of units from well-known Japanese and European companies, the issue of the availability of spare parts is not worth it. In the absence of an original Chinese part on sale, it can be easily replaced with a similar Japanese, European and even Russian one.
Another plus is that Chinese cars are more adapted to bad roads and low-quality fuel than Japanese and European ones. The fact is that the road network in China is no better than the Russian one in terms of development and quality. The same goes for the quality of gasoline and diesel fuel. Therefore, the Chinese do not fail immediately after substandard fuel is poured into the tank. The carrying capacity of Chinese pickups and trucks is much higher than stated, since drivers in the Middle Kingdom often overload their cars in order to save money.
There is only one conclusion: cars of the brands Chery, Geely and Great Wall are a very attractive alternative to the products of VAZ and UAZ. And, it is quite possible, like the Koreans once, will eventually compete with cars in Europe, America and Japan.
