let's make cars out of substandard materials then. and if you hit someone reverse over them a few times to make sure they be gone.and what if you are not hit by da che?

@Dazzer.

JVs can have some very modern and advanced models. Baoyun is however not a JV product but a sub company especially created to satisfy the GOC and not to make good cars that could be in competition with the JV product.

E-bikes cause less trouble.

i nearly knocked over by ebikes more times than i can count, cars just a few. probably more people killed on ebikes. another example of ' broad view'

if you've nearly been knocked over more times than you can count (6?) I think you are a dangerous pedestrian

@vicar a dangerous pedestrian? I take great care when crossing here due to the crazy mopeds but still every now and then one manages to fly out from nowhere, skim you and scare the s**t out of you.

You must be living in a confine to not have at least experienced this a handful of times.

I've experienced pedestrians walking right out in front of me when I'm on a moped. I think dazzer was one of them with his head down in a subway sandwich

better to ave yer 'ed stuck in a samich than up yer 'arris

The best way to verify a vehicle's reliability is to check it's resale value after 1-5 years. A resale value close to the car's original purchase price would usually indicate a reliable vehicle.

BMW for example, loses its value at a remarkable pace.

Others have commented on brands, so you need only research the purchase price and search online for used or second hand cars (er shou or 二手), to compare depreciation rates. Use the search engine baidu.com to search for used cars. If you need an online translator, use fanyi.baidu.com, as google is blocked in China.

Most foreign branded vehicles are made here, so you're basically paying for the brand, which implies higher quality, better service, better parts, (or in the case of BMW, higher face).

Welcome to Kunming. Trust your extended visit will be a pleasant and memorable experience and you'll make (and be) wonderful new friends.

And please don't feed the trolls.

@Michael2015
The resale value doesn't say much about reliability, it's rather brand or model value. You can get the most reliable cars on the planet, Toyota, cheaply.
You could compare it with apple products, even though it's just mediocre technology and quality, the resale value is still high.

Plus, BMW actually built good cars.

I cannot recommend to buy a Chinese brand car. Not even a JV brand. For one reason...it doesn't make sense....The price of a Chinese car is far under its production value. You can get a fully equipped big SUV for 10k UK pounds, that is impossible, even if the industry gets subsidies, it's still doesn't make sense. The money is pulled out somewhere, and my guess is safety.

Another reason is, that the tetris-cars they build, uses a frame from this brand, and engines from there, and the transmission and suspension from another brand. And that leads to malfunctions and problems. I heard stories of airbags not opening, suspensions failing, etc.
Even if you'd steal designs from other brands, and get a good engine and transmission, you'd still need years of testing and adjusting the model. That's why in the west, even JV cars take 6-12 years to develop. In China it's 4 if you are lucky but usually 2 years.

Most Chinese cars are deathtraps, they have a lot of active-safety features, ESP, Airbags, etc but thats just for the good look.
There is no passive safety, features. You are sitting in an eggshell.
If the airbag opens but you get pierced by you steering wheel and other parts, it's of no use.

So, if money is not a problem buy a foreign brand, [although they have ...in China... lower quality standards, than that of their western brothers] but you know that the parts fit and that they have been tested and found safe.

If you must go with a Chinese brand, get a car that is huuuuuuuge [safety], smallest possible engine [emissions and fuel price].

And for sure it has to have, high production numbers, for that specific engine, and transmission, for parts. And you will need them 'a lot', after 2 years.

Most Chinese brands only offer a limited 100k km or 1 year warranty [which is a joke] since most problems appear after 100k km and a year of service. So, they basically tell you, to f*ck off. The give you up to 7 years on the frame, but that is useless anyway, because pretty much all cars are built from materials that don't rot anymore.

So warranty is a no go. In comparison, western brands offer up to 7 years, on all non-consumable parts, if you get the inspections in their workshops or licensed dealer.

The only ever good Chinese brand was Qoros, a safe quality car, but as all good cars, quality isn't cheap.

The project failed, because we live in China, and cheap rotten crap is the best selling product.