Last month Honda shipped its first Chinese-manufactured cars to markets in Europe. This week the company announced that next spring it will send its Acura luxury brand to China. Elsewhere in China, GM assembles Daewoos from kits made in Korea and brands them Buicks. Earlier this year, Volkswagen moved to stabilize prices of its Chinese automobiles not by cutting stickers (the U.S. Big 3 approach) but by streamlining operations (kaizen rather than cut-rate?). Given that brand names are in play and manufactured goods flow in both directions, it’s safe to say that China has joined the global auto industry.

Let’s not forget Malcolm Bricklin, father of Subaru and the Yugo, who announced that he would instead sell the Chinese-built Chery in the States. Partnering and finance problems might block this particular deal, but the Chery’s entrance to the U.S. is inevitable.

What impact will cars from China have on the world market? Let’s comparison-shop in the U.S. where 2004 GM products fetched an average $20,659 and Toyotas, many made in North America, averaged US$26,514. Consider labor rates: U.S. autoworkers earn an average $36.68/hour in wages and benefits, while the Chinese assembly worker gets $1.96 per hour. With some of its cars made in the U.S., others in Europe ($49.78/hour in Germany), and some in Honda CHAC’s low-cost factory, you can expect Honda Corporate to dollar-cost-average labor costs across countries to keep prices stable. On the other hand, unless the recently floated yuan goes way up against the dollar, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a $7,000 Chery minicar next to the gas grills at Costco.

However, entering the U.S. market won’t be a cakewalk. Expect that cars from China will probably inspire the same raised eyebrows as imports from Korea and Japan did 20 and 40 years ago, respectively. A case in point: Just last month a mechanic friend repaired an immobile Chinese Vespa clone. He found that the manufacturer used the same color and gauge wires throughout the bike’s electrical systems. Our friend spent hours tracing the wires until he found a ground going where it shouldn’t. He contrasted this low-tech but very low-cost approach with the U.S., European, and Japanese approach of using purpose-built, color-code, specially connected wires for individual functions so debugging a problem means plugging in a specialized sensor. But that Vespa clone was then, not now. We don’t expect to hear that many horror stories about cars made in China, knowing that Honda/GM/VW/etc. have brought their manufacturing lines and expertise to China and that local firms like Chery have engaged foreign expertise and distributors.

While Honda and other brand names will use their marketing and distribution networks to sell Chinese-made cars in the west, new Chinese brands looking to go it alone will need service manuals, marketing materials, websites, and a host of other information translated into the languages of their target markets. The big question is whether these newbie auto exporters will look to specialists in the States — suppliers like Tweddle and Detroit Translation Bureau — or whether they’ll take a chance on local language service providers. Unless the U.S. specialists have branches in China, we’ll assume Chery will use Chinese agencies to produce their owners’ manuals.