I know about at least three of them.
And the Nano is quite a big thing. Nevermind owning JLR...
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
BYD, are mainly know for battery solutions (many of there batteries can be found cheaply on eBay). Lately they are know for being one of the manufactures who pushes the Electric Frontier the most.
Proton, are most famous in mainland EU for owning Lotus.
Otherwise, it's an malaysian car group, who has in some years (don't know if they still do) produce licensed Mitsubishi cars rebadged as Proton (the previous gen. Colt i know the best). In the UK it's a budget brand, featured in Fifth gear with a "Le Mans" model. It was also a Proton rally car there was used in Top Gear in the battle between Top Gear UK and Top Gear Australia.
Samsung. Best know for shipping and their massive electronics department. I currently watch TV on a Samsung TV, my Girlfriend owns a Samsung Laptop, and my side-job (besides University) is selling Phones, also Samsungs.
Samsung in cars are less know, but is a brand who historically has always tried to break thru as an international car marque, like Kia/Hyndai/Daewoo, but never succeeded. They share technology and is owned by the Renault/Nissan group.
The Youngman group i must admit i do not know.
But Tata and SSangYoung do sell/marketing cars in other markets than the Asian, and therefor is more visible, and should therefor be known.
Also known as:
CTD and CrashTestDummy
Well done Brix. That is pretty damn keen.
I think that as an American, it would maybe be harder to know about those semi-obscure Asian cars sold in Europe than as a European knowing about American cars (American media imperialism and all that).
Admittedly, I know only a tad about each of the above brands.
I just wouldn't be so hard on NSX for not knowing about them.
P.S. I am not trying to antagonize you. I know you both here and on one of those other forums (that shall not be named) and value your input. I don't want to come across as a dick by mistake!
SAAB are begging the Youngman group for a loan at the moment actually.
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
26/26 44 sec
Ssangyong's claim to fame was their use of Mercedes engine....though admittedly I've only read about them on Taiwanese car magazine as they were exported to Taiwan...
Also to NSX's defense, there are brand worth knowing much more than that....car geeks or not....
Last edited by RacingManiac; 12-08-2011 at 10:45 PM.
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
Formula Student Championship 2003, 2005, 2006
www.fsae.utoronto.ca
Ssangyongs are exported here too, we have the miserable pleasure of seeing their ugly things roaming about the place.
Life's too short to drive bad cars.
For trivia sake...
Brand and country of origin....if you can read Chinese you already won...
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
Formula Student Championship 2003, 2005, 2006
www.fsae.utoronto.ca
Don't think of you as a dick .
I deeply respect your comments on this forum (do you use the same Nick on "the forum whom shall not be named"?), so don't fear that .
What i reacted most strongly to was that NSX chose to label Ssangyoung as a chinese brand in a post, instead of doing the "proper" thing and research about the brand before posting.
If only posters used 2x the time on researching before making a post, we would see much more knowledge and less posts based on feelings, and thru that become a much stronger and nicer forum! (unfortunately i haven't found a forum who can embrace this completely)
But my post was also meant a bit like a trap, as i don't bash out directly at NSX. If NSX sees himself like a guy with more than average car knowledge, i'm not bashing him as i my mind it would be ok not knowing about Ssangyoung. But if he sees himself as a "car geek" well then it's meant as a bash, and well placed, if i must say
Last edited by Brix; 12-08-2011 at 11:27 PM.
Also known as:
CTD and CrashTestDummy
Imma say you are throwing a semi-curveball and that is from the Republic of China (aka Taiwan).
For the record, I don't like calling it Taiwan, because that is not it's name, and screw the PRC.
I believe you are correct!
Although i can't remember the name! .
ROC and PRC, something most people don't know what is what!. But we must acknowledge the world societies decision of making PRC the "official" China.
But yes long live Chen Kai Shek (the dirty gangster as Pu Yi called him)
Also known as:
CTD and CrashTestDummy
Self-interest and money once again over-ruling what is right.
Not to say that politics in the RoC (especially just post-war) were great, but I think that even based on my limited knowledge of the RoC, it is a much better alternative than their mainland "friends" across the straight.
Any insight RM?
The brand is "Yulong" as its called now, they were building cars since the 60s in Taiwan, with lots of assistance from Nissan in terms of design and technical support. The logo doesn't look like that nowadays. My family had 4 of those over the years in Taiwan before getting a Toyota(for a long time, Japanese cars are banned from import to Taiwan, despite the fact that a lot of the "domestic" car makers in Taiwan were operating with technical partnership with Japan OEs). Now they still built their own car, as well as their version of the Nissan. But they also branched out to more subsidiary domestically as well as in China. Taiwan's auto industry actually has been around for a while, though export I think is limited to some other Asian countries and nowadays maybe to China(if not just building cars there for their domestic consumption...).
I call "Taiwan" for differentiation sake, trying to explain PRC and ROC to people just takes too long. As far as the place goes, the island is still called Taiwan....I do find it annoying as I like to identify myself as a Chinese person. But I am born and from Taiwan. Then some people likes to just ask "doesn't that make you a 'Taiwanese'?" Through Taiwan's domestic politics between the "Out of Province" people and "In Province" people, the latter like to identify themselves as the "Taiwanese". The difference between the 2 groups stems from the roots of them. The former are the decedents from the Nationalists who left China when the communist took over, the latter were the earlier settlers from China from mainly before the Qing Dynasty(but not just then, as over the years, historically probably as early as the First Emperor, there were people migrating to Taiwan). The latter do not like the fact that the former after they moved to Taiwan, basically runs the place(as it is the only land of "ROC" left in control out of the hands of PRC), and the early years from the 50s to the mid-late 80s, Taiwan was run under martial laws, with the Kuo Ming Tong(the Nationalist party) runs all of the show, and they have done their parts in suppressing the latter as they see the threat of China invading being an issue. However as Taiwan starting to make stuff(when you start seeing "Made in Taiwan" plastered on your stuff), people are getting better off and the living standard starting to rise, they realize that they need to go back to "normal", so they abandoned martial laws and held the actual free elections that continues to this day. However due to those years of "oppression", the primary opposition after the martial laws years is the Democratic Progressive Party(consists of many of the imprisoned, oppressed activists during those years), whose primary agenda was to promote Taiwanese Independence. But because they were seen as "extreme", they never held power in the early years. But after years of touting the Nationalist as being corrupt and incompetent, they finally won the election for president in late 90s with President Chen. However as you might know, he is now charged and proven guilty of the corruption charges, and is actually serving prison terms after 2 terms. During his time though, he did not declare independence as they often promised they would, as the reality of the Chinese relation and world politics is often much more complicated, but they went so far as changing a lot of how the history was taught and cut out lots of "Chinese History" out of the curriculum as they think its irrelevant as they are not "Chinese"...And through the playing up the "race card" of sorts within the domestic politics, there is now always a tension between the "out of province" folks and the "in province" folks....If you run into some immigrants from Taiwan, depends on their political lean, calling them Taiwanese or Chinese may or may not offend them...For the record, ROC(Taiwan)'s official language is still Mandarin "Chinese", we write in "Traditional Chinese" instead of China(PRC)'s Simplified Chinese(reduction in strokes and some simplification in character syntax and usage). The "Taiwanese" language some people claim to speak is a form of localized dialect evolved from the Fukian province in China, directly across the Taiwan Strait.
Thats a quick-ish version of the recent history of Taiwan....
Last edited by RacingManiac; 12-09-2011 at 08:21 AM.
University of Toronto Formula SAE Alumni 2003-2007
Formula Student Championship 2003, 2005, 2006
www.fsae.utoronto.ca
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