Chinese cars are getting better & it wont be long ( within the next 10 years at most ) until some long established vehicle manufactures will get a rude awakening with more credible choices for consumers.

Chinese cars used to perform poorly in Euro NCAP safety tests in the past. Two new Chinese cars ( ORA Funky Cat & WEY Coffee 01 ) won best in class awards from Euro NCAP when tested last year.

The UK and for that matter the rest of the World needs to greatly reduce its dependency on manufacturing from the far east

Most manufacturing from here has gone. People are used to cheap prices for Chinese goods, but someone/something in the chain will be suffering. I'd rather spend more for quality, keep those items and have them repaired when broken but those days have seemingly long disappeared. I have a Morphy Richards food mixer from the 70's which is still working. Granted, it's a single electric motor but it's still impressive.

Saying all that, I am typing this on a Lenovo ThinkPad which are superb machines and can be repaired/uprated easily if needed so not all Chinese products can be tarred with the same brush.

I would not buy a Chinese car on human rites policy.

What human rites do you have in mind - cremation, sanctification, ... ? :-)

....I would not by a Chinese car on human rites policy........

Foot binding was banned in 1912. Nor do they practise childhood genital mutilation, a still commonplace and painful primitive rite in 'western' countries and widespread in so-called 'developing' countries.

I try to avoid Chinese where there's a choice but it's not easy. We still have a decent choice of cars in Europe (accepting there will be Chinese components) and that's where my money would go.

Imagine being in a pub (or anywhere) and when asked replied you drove a WEY Coffee 01...

The problem is that country has little distinction between private companies and the state. We are not competing on a level playing field and when that country is hostile to us

That is true. Has it ever been? The Japanese car industry had Government money put in.

The US have huge venture capitalist supporting their industry. How did Tesla get its money?

I have seen a long-standing family owned Suzuki dealership sell up, hope this is not a pattern?

Wasn't very impressed myself as we had not that long got our Ignis!. But I guess there is quite a lot of overlap between the Vitara/S-Cross and the smaller MG SUV's, being positioned as more affordable choices. It may well be the case that either MG or Suzuki said you can't have both?. Having said that, the same dealer also has Kia, albeit in a separate building next door (Suzuki and MG shared the same showroom up until Suzuki left).

I know ORB had problems with his MG ZS, but one of my customers (and ex bus driving colleague) has had his now for must be at least 3 years now and he seems very happy with it (came out of a Lexus is).

Yes some problems there. MG have introduced some novel features eg no key. You have to realise modern EVs are a very complicated beast. Bound to be some teething problems. I bought an early Mokka-e. Now mines been flawless but the owners forum has some tales of woe I can assure you.

Its what the manufacturer/ dealer does to fix them and make sure the issues don't reoccur that counts imo. I suggest you withhold judgement on the MG4 for a couple of years. Bound to improve the quality and next year a bigger battery with longer range is coming out. That will make it a tempting choice.

Most new entrants to the UK car market over the last few decades have started with a competitive advantage to exploit - usually price. Tesla a bit of an exception exploiting technology (EV).

Skoda and the Korean brands started with basic, low tech, good value, cheap cars. Their value attracted buyers.

Increased quality and performance followed in subsequent new models. They now match longstanding European manufacturers in quality, performance, reliability and price.

I have no doubt the Chinese will repeat the process.

Well-my mobile was made in China and it’s brilliant. It’s called an IPhone.

Quality manufactured goods can be made anywhere now - China is the most used as it's tends to be the cheapest or nearly cheapest but also because of the ease of getting all the materials/parts and distribution.

I love reading Chinese to English translation when reading instructions on some products, years ago we bought an electric bike that had to be put together by an experienced human…

That picture of an airport information board that started appearing on social media a few years ago I think was in China:

"Flight delayed for some reasons"

:-)

I saw an Ora Funkycat on the M5 this evening. It looked alright, certainly better than the Hyundai Ioniq 6 I saw the other day - that looked liked someone had left it leaning against the radiator.

I would consider a vehicle made in the Republic of China Taiwan but not the Peoples Republic of China. It is generally a bad sign when a country has ‘Peoples’ in the name, ironically.

You must have a hard time buying almost anything given the enormous proportion of goods manufactured in the Peoples Republic of China, including many of the best known and expensive UK brands.

Vw sales are collapsing in China, and it was their biggest market.

If you search online there is a recent speech from a top volkswagen boss stating that they desperately need to save money, as " the roof is on fire" and this was a final warning.

Apparently VW group has 150 Billion of debt and needs to spend another 200 Billion to update its factories for an ev future.

Not keen on buying anything Chinese, they are threatening Taiwan and seeking to dominate the worlds economy as well as being a major polluter.

They are a major polluter due to the ammount of items they produce for us here in the West though.