My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 770 This Heavenly Eye Must Be Accurate
It's a bit outrageous, but not that outrageous.

After the National Auto Expo held at the beginning of the year, Wei Dong learned that there were already private car companies.

It was a type of vehicle with a square steel tube welded to an iron frame, and the entire body was made of fiberglass. It was roughly the same level of vehicle as the later old people's mobility scooters.

They even dare to do business at the auto expo.

Then there were two coastal car manufacturers that were unclear about their business model, and they also claimed to be private car companies that assembled cars using imported parts.

When Wei Dong saw the assembly level, which far exceeded the production process of the Cherokee plant, he knew it was definitely a ZS car.

Therefore, all the proper and high-end car manufacturers are state-owned, even those that were converted from military vehicle repair companies or workshops are considered state-owned.

Joint venture car factories are even more exclusively state-owned.

Even 30 or 40 years later, Wei Dong had never heard of a joint venture private car company.

But in 1987, nothing was impossible, and anything could be tried.

The person from the Economic Commission had already made it very clear to Wei Dong that they were well aware of the problems with state-owned car companies.

The country spends its most precious foreign exchange reserves to buy a bunch of imported cars, and spends extra money to buy blueprints and technology, all so that these car companies can improve and innovate, develop and imitate advanced models, and upgrade to modern industry.

Can't do it.

The state-owned model inherently lacks the ability to innovate itself.

It is only suitable for transplantation as a whole to serve as the ballast of the entire country's industry.

Billions of dollars in foreign exchange have been spent without improving the manufacturing sector.

They were forced to establish Sino-foreign joint venture car companies.

Joint venture car companies that have to spend foreign exchange to produce every car are actually facing a lot of problems.

What kind of domestic car company is it if it can't even achieve complete localization of parts?

So when Wei Dong suggested trying a private joint venture car company, the person from the Economic Commission immediately said it was worth a try.

Didn't he encourage Weidong to start a private bank back then?

These days, there's nothing you wouldn't dare to do; the only question is whether you'll end up as a capitalist after you succeed—that's another matter entirely.

The same applies to Chrysler.

Because Wei Dong happened to appear at the right time.

The CEO who sat in the middle during the meeting later became extremely famous, and was revered worldwide as a business god.

87 was a watershed year for the deification movement.

He just led Chrysler to an unprecedented turnaround, bringing the automaker, which was on the verge of bankruptcy a few years ago, to profits of more than two billion US dollars.

For a time, they were the most popular.

That might explain why he treated the official from the East with such arrogance and coldness. He hadn't met with the one from the Economic Commission before, and now it seems he was just putting on airs.

Perhaps it was because he was in his sixties and nearing retirement that he became obsessed with fame and various records.

They care more about their glorious achievements and exploits, which can be boasted about in biographies.

After Rang Weidong and Qin Yuye were invited to visit the nearby Chrysler dealership, the remaining few people began to discuss and hold a meeting.

There's really not much to say about the car.

Chrysler also owns the Dodge and Jeep brands.

There are three brands in total, with only a few main models.

Two Dodge models.

The Dodge 600 is a low-cost model that sells in large quantities. It's a three-box sedan that costs between $8,000 and $10,000, somewhat like the Santana. This is the model that the delegation from the State Economic Commission came to discuss.

It was the main driver of Chrysler's sales of over two million vehicles last year, accounting for 60-70 percent of the total.

The real money was made from the Dodge Caravan, which Wei Dong bought two of from Chen Wenliang in Hong Kong.

There was no other car model like this on the market, so it had no competitors and monopolized the entire market segment. As a result, it sold very well at 12,000 to 15,000 yuan per unit.

With sales of 400,000 vehicles, Chrysler is a profit engine and the core driver of its potential profit of over 2 billion this year.

When Qin Yuye saw this, her beautiful eyes lit up as she looked at her husband, as if to say, "You have such good taste!"

If we're going to import it, let's make this model.

Wei Dong shook his head slightly: "Didn't you hear what he said? A star model has no competitors. I guarantee that other manufacturers will launch similar models soon, and the sales of this car will plummet!"

Right? The parking lot security guards know very well that MPVs will always be a niche vehicle, and there has only ever been one star model that has remained popular for a long time: the Buick.

There are quite a few Japanese car models, with many ups and downs, but I've never seen this Dodge in Shangzhou. Weidong only chose it because his family has too many people coming and going, so he was forced to buy a seven-seater minivan. Otherwise, he could only buy one of those small vans in Jiangzhou.

Therefore, we shouldn't bother with models that are destined to fail.

Qin Yuye immediately believed the sales expert: "Oh, are we really going to help them resell to North America?"

In the 1980s and 90s, no joint venture car company ever sold cars back to Europe, Japan, or the United States; it was something they didn't even dare to dream of.

But forty years from now, people in China will wonder why it's not possible.

“Why not give it a try? Because without exporting, we can’t solve this damn foreign exchange problem. What do they do with the RMB they sell in the mainland? They still have to exchange it for USD. So why not encourage them to produce cheap and good quality OEM cars and sell them to the world?”

Qin Yuye couldn't help but take her hand: "You're amazing!"

From a young age, she admired Qin Zhiming for daring to surpass most Hong Kong businessmen and boldly sell jeans back to Citibank as a brand, instead of just manufacturing and selling them as an OEM.

It's crazy to make cars under your own brand and sell them back to North America. Currently, only Japan has done it, and their contract manufacturing is already incredibly impressive.

I really admire men who dare to be pioneers.

Wei Dong was secretly pleased and continued his analysis: "Chrysler also has two models that take the luxury route, one a two-door sports car and the other a luxury sedan. They are definitely not suitable for the domestic market. But when you went to buy a car that day, why did you choose Lincoln instead of this one? They are both around $30,000."

Opening the car door, it looks pretty good, especially the button-style soft leather sofas, which are very comfortable in both the front and back rows.

Qin Yuye thought for a moment, then looked again and chuckled to himself: "The front seats are a bit too far apart..."

Oh, even two separate seats, no matter how comfortable, didn't catch her eye.

To Wei Dong's surprise, this was a selling point: "Huh? Anyway, there must be a reason why it's not selling well, but if it's produced in our area and the price is lowered, wouldn't it definitely sell better?"

Qin Yuye had just listened to the English introduction: "I don't think they'll lower the price. This is their pricing strategy. Lincoln and Cadillac are the most expensive, around 30,000 yuan, and with various options and paperwork, it's close to 40,000 yuan. This flagship model is around 20,000 yuan for the regular version and 30,000 yuan for the top-of-the-line version. With its soft leather seats, soft suspension, lots of chrome trim and electronic features, they have to maintain this image and won't lower the price easily. This way, they can focus on selling other models and making money."

The tricks behind this brand's products were something Wei Dong didn't understand as well as she did.

But after listening, he nodded: "The remaining two Jeep models, the small Wrangler and the large Cherokee, needless to say, we already have the former, the big toy is not suitable for the current domestic market, and the latter already has a joint venture factory."

With only six main models, Wei Dong's choice was simple: "Either they move all of the Cherokee's parts production lines there, making the mainland factory a full-fledged OEM for Cherokee off-road vehicles worldwide, or we help them manufacture luxury sedans, making the profit margin even larger."

At least up to this point, Wei Dong hasn't yet set his sights on the Dodge 600, the cheap car that the Economic Commission wanted to buy.

But since he was the distinguished vice president of the Asian branch and a customer who dared to discuss whole-package OEM manufacturing with the company president, the accompanying account director would definitely recommend that the VIP couple drive around and try out any of these models, and even bring out the latest test vehicle in the backyard to experience it.

The three Taoist priests and nuns, now dressed in casual clothes, could only sit steadily at the small table in the car dealership, reminding each other to calmly drink the very bitter "tea".

This is when Wei Dong started to frown.

He saw the new version of Chrysler's luxury car, a new version that hadn't been officially released yet, and he felt a strange and awkward feeling as soon as he saw it.

This finally brought back a memory of a very ugly car he had seen in a parking lot. It seemed to be from a few years after the turn of the century, and it looked strange, like a new-era tortoise-shell car. The brand was Chrysler.

At the time, all the security guards at the Shangzhou Tax Bureau compound were astonished by that unusually shaped car.

They, who have little education, are amazed that such a design can be manufactured and sold.

Even now, going back to the 1980s, Wei Dong has seen many imported car models in Beijing, and even more models in Citibank and Tokyo. Even though there are differences in old styles and aesthetics of the times, there are generally limits.

That car, however, felt unlike anything ordinary people would recognize, and this one in front of us also had that quality, though it wasn't quite as extraordinary.

The rear half of the roof is wrapped in genuine leather, which may be considered part of the current American luxury car style and is barely acceptable, but it is definitely destined to be eliminated in the future.

Why is the rear window of my car almost vertical?

The shape of this car is as strange as some children sleeping with their heads flattened from a young age.

Opening the car door reveals a luxurious yet somewhat colorful interior decorated with mahogany, lacking any understated sense of opulence.

In short, none of the products that sold well later were like that.

This brought back Wei Dong's previous assessment: that a car model destined to be eliminated by the market was imported into mainland China at great expense of human and material resources, only to have its failure lead to the failure of the mainland's automotive industry to upgrade—that would be a grave sin.

I was already shaking my head inwardly.

Once he actually drove the car out, he completely rejected his previous line of thinking: "We can't take this car. We can't help Chrysler produce luxury cars."

Qin Yuye quickly asked why, saying it felt very comfortable.

The new model features a full row of three-seater front seats, making it natural to want to rest your hands on the back of the seat and adopt a relaxed posture to fully experience this typical Citibank car.

Moreover, once Wei Dong was on the road, the chassis responded with a soft, swaying sensation similar to that of a boat as the road surface undulated. In addition, the sofa-like seats filtered out the vibrations, making the ride quite comfortable.

Rang Weidong's theory is: "Luxury cars are like Rolls-Royce, which cannot be measured by ordinary cars. But in the future of mass-produced luxury cars... only Mercedes-Benz and BMW are left. These American cars are destined to have no future. Why should we follow them to our doom?"

He was very certain about the FAST telescope in this era, and he absolutely could not make the wrong choice.

(End of this chapter)