Kyle's Corner (FYI) What You Give and What You Get

The Chinese market is all the rage with manufacturers and especially automakers. Given the tight and challenging market conditions, automotive CEOs are salivating at the 'profits' to be had in the East. After all, what are the CEOs to do as their automotive backs are up against a wall (the Great Wall)?

GM entered into a 'joint' venture to build minivans with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and Liuzhou Wuling Motors. The Wall Street Journal reports that GM's Wuling partnership has been a large success. It was GM's technology and experience that helped transform Wuling from a small local car maker into a market leader with over a million vehicle sales in 2010. Of note is that Wuling now exports some vehicles to South America as well as the Middle East. Next, the minivans will be sold in India as GM has an established network in the country.

GM gets a low cost Chinese vehicle platform and China gains technology and the clout of a U.S. brand - a win-win, right, right? Not so fast.

In the Wall Street Journal, Michael Dunne, an expert on the Chinese automobile sector states, "...the endgame of that joint ownership won't be good news for GM and other foreign players: 'China has made no secret of its desire for national firms to dominate the domestic market; this is part of that process.'" Furthermore, China eventually wants to dominate all automotive markets.

What is the moral of the story? Let's keep it short and sweet. Successful relationships work best when there is an equal amount of what is given and what is received.

The question is: What will be the outcome of this automotive relationship? If the answer is not so good, is it rational to engage in such self abuse?

Indeed, we should all be thankful for our good relationships, autos included!

Kyle Busch is the author of "Drive the Best for the Price..." He welcomes your comments or car questions at his auto web site: www.DriveTheBestBook.com . Follow Kyle on Facebookand Twitter.ws