Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 268 Cars from Those Years

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Because the Omega A entered China in the 80s and became popular, Opel officially entered the domestic market in 93. However, it did not perform well in China. They did not know that Chinese people do not care about design and quality when buying things. Although they produced the most fuel-efficient car in the world and the car with the least wind resistance, it was really useless in China. In the end, they withdrew from the market in 2015.

In its 21 years in China, Opel's only achievement has been to promote the Buick brand; most Buick cars sold domestically are actually Opel vehicles manufactured under the same brand. To avoid direct competition with Buick, Opel completely abandoned the low-to-mid-range market, becoming a niche brand within a niche market.

Xiao Wei's dad pointed at the Kosica and asked, "How much does this cost?"

Xiao Wei thought for a moment and said, "This car is called a Kosica, it's a brand called something like Chevrolet, and it costs over 400,000 yuan a new car."

Xiao Wei's dad pointed to number 100 and asked, "What about the black one?"

Xiao Wei said, "That's a German Audi, an Audi 100. This one seems to cost less than 400,000."

When the Audi A100 first entered the Chinese market, it was considered one of the two major luxury cars alongside the Toyota Crown. The government purchased large quantities of it, and its price once exceeded 600,000 yuan. Later, FAW (First Automobile Works) began assembling and producing the Audi A100, which brought the price down. In fact, the Audi A100s produced in China at that time were all downgraded by the Germans; they lacked ABS, airbags, and a sunroof—a consistent German approach to the Chinese market.

Later, Japan started doing the same thing because they found that there wasn't much of a reaction in China; people just bought and hyped it up, and profits increased significantly. The strategy of modifying a model and slightly altering it to sell as a new, high-priced car series in the Chinese market was first pioneered by the Germans. For example, the Audi 100 was transformed into the A6L, even though the A6L in China still shares a platform with the Passat but has a completely different price. Then the Japanese learned from them and even surpassed their predecessors.

Before 1986, imported cars were not expensive; a Cedric only cost 120,000 yuan, and a Volga from Eastern Europe cost only 30,000 yuan. Because imported vehicles consumed a large amount of the country's limited foreign exchange reserves, and the RMB depreciated significantly, starting in 1986, imported cars were subject to heavy taxes, leading to soaring prices and indirectly causing large-scale car smuggling in the early 1990s.

Xiao Wei's father smacked his lips and said, "Why are foreign things so expensive? They're better than ours, aren't they? How much does a Jiefang truck cost?"

Hao Xiaodong, smoking a cigarette, said with a smile, "You can't say that. A car and a truck can't be compared. This one looks more expensive."

Xiao Wei's dad said, "Don't we have cars ourselves? Shanghai, Hongqi, and that Peugeot, right? And the BJ Jeep, the Yunque, aren't they all cars? Why is there such a big price difference? Are foreign cars just better?"

Xiao Wei said, "We learned it from others, and besides, it's shipped all the way from abroad, so of course it's expensive."

Xiao Wei's dad nodded and said, "That's true, the shipping costs alone must be a fortune. Which one is yours? This red one? I remember you opened this one yesterday."

Xiao Wei said, "Yeah, I'll drive this one. Xiao Hui likes the blue one."

Xiao Wei's dad asked, "What about this black one? What's it called? Oh, oh what? 100? What does 100 mean?"

Xiao Wei thought for a moment and said, "I don't know either, that's just their name. This is for you and my mom to use from now on, and Liu Hongliang will be your driver."

Xiao Wei's mother said, "I don't need it. Forget it, wouldn't it be infuriating to have hundreds of thousands of yuan sitting on me?"

Xiao Wei's father was happy and said, "We've already brought the child back, are you just going to leave him here if you don't need him? That would be a complete waste."

Xiaowei's mother said, "You're just tending the boiler all day, and I run the canteen. We're right here in this yard, where else would we go?"

Xiao Wei said, "It's just the beginning. You won't need to do it anymore. When the pig farm opens in the spring, my dad will have to go there. He can't do it without a car. You should go out and take a look around when you have time. Check on things here and there, and the restaurant over there. Lao Xia has to go to work, and Xiao Hui will go back to Fengtian at the beginning of the year. I have other things to do, so I can't stay here and keep an eye on things every day. That means you two old folks will have to travel back and forth. How can you manage without a car?"

After hearing that it was dangerous to operate a boiler, Xiao Wei decided not to let his father do it anymore. He planned to have his father manage the pig farm instead, which was really just to give him something to do so he wouldn't be bored all day.

Xiaowei's mother looked back and forth and said, "We don't need all of these, why bring back so much?"

Xiao Wei laughed and said, "The restaurant is buying groceries and hauling goods over there, and the food factory over here will also be shipping goods next year. Will they be using sedans to do that? This big one is specifically for carrying people. We'll be getting quite a few people in the future."

Xiaowei's mother looked at the seventeen-seat bus and said, "This bus is big enough; it could run a large passenger bus."

Xiao Wei's dad said, "Are you just going to park the car here like this?"

Xiaowei said, "Let's park the car in the garage, and the bread can be parked in the old building when Xiaohui gets up. We can talk about it later." There's still a quarter of the first floor of the old building that's vacant, more than enough to park a few cars.

As they were talking, Sister Shang and the others from the food factory came in, chattering away. It was unclear what these women were all talking about all day. As usual, Guan He handed Hao Xiaodong two large lunchboxes.

Sister Shang stared at the cars for a moment and asked, "Boss, where did all these cars come from?"

Xiao Wei said, "The ones that came back yesterday are all ours. In the future, we'll use the big one to pick you up and drop you off at get off work for deliveries and such." Right now, these people all walk to and from get off work. Those who live far away have to walk forty minutes, which is really tough in the dead of winter.

The group of women cheered, and Sister Shang said with a smile, "That's great, thank you, little boss."

Xiao Wei said, "No need to thank me, just do a good job."

Sister Shang said, "I need to order some cardboard boxes and some plastic boxes. Where will we put the products once they're produced? Right now, production is small. We can sell a little over there and send some to the market, but that won't work in the future." For the past few months, they've been in the trial phase, producing some products and then selling them to restaurants. Sister Shang has also contacted a few stalls in the market to act as agents, but this is definitely not a long-term solution.

Xiao Wei said, "Okay, I'll contact them right away. By the way, Sister Shang, do you think it would be feasible for us to set up a few counters in the market or shopping mall?"

Sister Shang smoothed her hair and said, "It's doable. We'll do it ourselves? But then we'll need to hire people; one stall can't be run by just two people, right?"

Xiao Wei said, "I'll ask around, I haven't decided yet."

Chen Hui walked over from behind, yawning, and said, "Let's have someone sell them on our behalf first. We don't know what's selling well or not, or the sales volume. Just have someone sell them on our behalf. Let's try selling everything we can here and see how it goes. We'll decide what to do next once we have a better understanding. Anyway, there are only a few days left before the New Year. Oh well."

Xiaowei's mother reached out and patted Chen Hui on the head, saying, "Lazybones, hurry up and wash your face and eat."

Chen Hui chuckled and ran towards the kitchen.

(End of this chapter)