Interesting experiences. When you think about it, the Chinese have only started high level engineering about 20 years ago. Now they are fully self-sufficient on the supply chain. Pretty incredible short space of time. I remember when the Japanese cars first came out and they were panned as being made of recycling tins. Both the Japanese and Koreans took decades to catch up to European quality and the Chinese surpassed them at quality and refinement as well as the engineering and tech side. Ironically European manufacturers licence Chinese software for their EVs and autonomous driving stuff!I must admit that general reports of Chinese software reliability and consistency of behaviour was a factor in deciding against the IM5/6. While our Polestar had some initial instability, after 12-18 months it was extremely solid and a pleasure to use. The Megane and ID.3 have been near-faultless too, aside from the adaptive cruise control Reset/Set buttons in the Megane doing whatever they feel like each time (sometimes set, sometimes reset, sometimes nothing!).
I have to say that the Seal and Sealion 7 felt very premium inside and a league above the European cars we've recently sat in though - the Chinese do luxury very well.
In terms of door handles, we initially had problems with the Polestar 2 - but it did indeed turn out to be technique, as to open the door I was both putting my hand behind the handle and pressing the little groove with my thumb, giving the car contradictory instructions! Once you remember to put the hand behind the handle to unlock, and just touch the groove with your finger to lock, it was bulletproof. However that was easier as it didn't have flush door handles.
Tech and engineering is one thing. Ergonomics and debugging another. The Chinese still have some way in perfecting the last 2. Most important thing is customer experience. They seem to enjoy throwing out new stuff but it can be a problem on more distant markets where reliability and ease of use is more important that the latest tech. Case in point is Apple. the iPhone is seldom the tech leader, but it is solid, reliable, idiot-proof and intuitive to use; at least in Steve Jobs days. And so it was able to gain market dominance.
And I think the MG handover video I watched illustrates this point well. Despite a well made and presented demo of the key features, they actually had to add captions on how to lock the door using the door handle properly as well as add the fact the boot has a handsfree kick release. Schoolboy error not to mention it in the video!
