China leapfrogs U.S. as No. 2 global car maker

[FarCenter]

George Leopold - Automotive DesignLine - (03/26/2009 9:29 AM EDT)


WASHINGTON — China surpassed the United States in 2008 as the world's second-largest auto maker and could overtake Japan as the top global car manufacturer in 2009, according to an industry watcher.

China manufactured 9.3 million cars in 2008 compared to 8.7 million cars in the U.S., iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.) said Thursday (March 26). It estimates that China will produce 8.7 million autos this year while Japanese auto production drops to 7.6 million.

"China during the last five years more than doubled its domestic automobile production, while U.S. manufacturing has declined by nearly 50 percent," iSuppli automotive analyst Egil Juliussen said in a statement. "China will have the lowest production cutback of any nation and will become the auto production leader in 2009," Juliussen predicted.

<snip> http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216400249&cid=NL_eet

[NewJeffCT]

1. How many are Buicks and VWs?

They're all over China...

[Ganja Ninja]

2. See ya at the bottom.

That's where we're headed.

[notadmblnd]

3. Duh... whe you disassemble our factories and ship them overseas

what do ya expect? Remember the Fiero?

[AndyA]

4. Keep buying imported crap, folks.

Soon there won't be anything left.

I don't own foreign cars. I realize some parts may be imported, but the company that built my cars is an American company.

I don't shop at Wal-Mart, and I feel good about it. I take pride in driving by Wal-Marts to go elsewhere to shop. I am not supporting their anti-employee policies. I am not supporting their harmful impact on local businesses. I am not giving them money which they will give to Republicans.

There used to be a thing in America known as pride. People were proud of their country, and they sacrificed for their country because it was the right thing to do. Today? Not so much. Americans are selfish, uninvolved, sheep who believe much of what they're told without question. Thank goodness this country's early citizens weren't so selfish...if they had been, we'd likely not have the freedoms we've enjoyed. (Which are being taken away from us because people are too lazy to do anything about it.)

[pampango]

5. Not too surprising. They have 4 times our population and are getting richer.

We've got what 5% of the world's population? Can't be #1 in everything unless the rest of the world is dirt poor which would hardly be an admirable goal.