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user-inactivated  ·  3086 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: VAG to give up aggressive expansion efforts, may start selling assets

Yeah, but it seems like a weird dichotomy when China is involved. On the one hand, car companies want to tap into the Chinese market as it's gonna be a huge source of untapped income. GM loves the fact that the Chinese buy Buicks in droves and newer companies like Tesla and Uber are testing the waters as well. On the other hand though, the way Chinese manufacturing companies and the Chinese government works rubs people the wrong way sometimes. For example some Chinese manufacturing company takes the specs that Ford gives them to make parts and uses the same specs to make identical off brand parts, from the same factory sometimes, and the government won't step in to protect Ford's IP.

That's why I used Bentley and Skoda as an example. I think if VAG sold Audi to a Chinese firm, Germans would flip their shit. Ford selling Volvo to Greeley was met with "mehs" but if GM sold GMC to Greeley during that same time, I bet Rush Limbaugh's rant would use up all of the oxygen in the western hemisphere.