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Comment by rlglwx | Hacker News Reader

Whenever you read an article like this ask yourself why it hasn’t happened yet. Geely, Great Wall and numerous other Chinese domestic brands have been operating for decades. Why haven’t they cracked the USA market?

The dealer network system in the United States.

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Hyundai / Kia cracked the USA market and built their own franchise dealer networks not that long ago. So it's clearly possible as long as you're willing to invest enough and eat the losses for a while.

KIA and Hyundai win at the International level in racing and or rallying. That is still the key to selling cars. Ask Mercedes, ask Ferrari, or even Ford. As the saying goes; Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday .

I know I'm Old school, and some day in the Future self-driving cars MAY dominate the highways... but (thankfully) that day is not today.

Kia had virtually no race cars in the US till 2011. Well after they were established in the consumer market. Rally races aren't statistically even a thing here (most US consumers know little or nothing about them).

Wait a second. You're talking to a real racer here (I own fire proof underwear) who loves marketing, sales and advertising. You don't have to win in the US market to be considered a real car company... But you Do have to be Competitive somewhere in the Global arena. Want to talk about selling tires? Or selling Fuel? This isn't my opinion--this is a marketing fact.

Mercedes is spending 300 MM this season to win in F1 just to sell cars. What are those Unheard of companies in China doing?

Oh BTW, I am always trying to seduce the younger gals and guys into racing ... here's a Peugeot at Pikes Peak. Enjoy !!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y20CLumT2Sg

The "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" cliche no longer works in the US market (which is what we're discussing here). Ask any car dealer. US consumers are barely aware of international racing and rallying series. Even Nascar has lost much of its audience and is no longer very effective as an auto marketing channel.

Ok then, I'll let them know they have to return the 4 Billion dollars from the Fast and the Furious frachise because no one cares about racing in the States anymore. Furthermore, since your contention certainly implies Americans have no interest in going fast, I will notify all the car and motorcycle manufacturers to stop producing blindingly quick models for sale here... no one cares.

Plus we're gonna save a fortune on speed enforcement on the roadways. I'm happy about that.

Oh man, and that's right--we better close all the indoor karting tracks, and my buddies who run succesful Racing Schools here should probably also look for another job.

Wait... will this also affect GTA related online gaming? Sure it will. IRacing too I bet. Shoot!

Oh well... it was fun while it lasted.

> The dealer network system in the United States.

So I get that franchising laws require dealers to be independent from manufacturers and they're up there with occupational licensing, but how exactly does that prevent a new manufacturer from entering the market?

I assume if you can raise a few billion to build a plant, kickstarting a bunch of new "independent" dealerships is just another line item you plan for...

Tesla just bypassed the dealer system altogether.

And Tesla sold how many cars exactly? The discussion here is about manufacturers trying to actually sell existing cars, not marketing department doing the PoC on sales.

Then why don't you see them in Europe either?

Probably due to strict safety and environmental regulations that gets stricter over time.

But I see many new Volvo cars here...

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