GM is building minivans in China, for Chinese consumers, and doing a highly successful business.

The minivan costs the equivalent of $5,000 and gets 43 miles per gallon in city driving. This is the same GM that developed the Hummer.

The negatives for these minivans? They hav only one quarter of the horsepower of American vans, which means sluggish acceleration. You know how we Americans love to "floor it" when the light changes and beat out all the other cars. Testosterone rules.

The other downside was the thinness of the padding in the seats, compared to the plush American models. Seems that Chinese drivers are perfectly capable of placing a pad under their bottoms to improve the seating if they wish, without paying thousands extra for the luxury of padded leather bucket seats.

The irony is that the manager who developed and marketed this Chinese minivan has been separated from GM and is now living in obscurity in Kentucky, perhaps plotting his next assault on the idiocy of consumerism.