Buy American, get Chinese engine

General Motors car engines were once the stuff of American legend. The Beach Boys sang, "nothing can touch my 409," about a powerful Chevy V-8. Oldsmobile owners in 1981 were so angered that their cars had been fitted with Chevrolet engines instead of Oldsmobile "Rockets," the subject of another hit song, that they successfully sued GM over the swap.

The company has since eliminated brand distinctions between engines, saddling them with names unlikely to inspire songwriters, like Ecotec, Vortec and Northstar. But some owners of the Chevrolet Equinox, a "compact" sport utility vehicle built in North America, might be surprised to learn the origin of the engine under their hoods — it's made in China.

Last year, China exported more than $12 billion in auto parts, up from less than $2 billion in 2002 — the majority to North America. The increase in exports has added to the problems plaguing North American suppliers. Most famously, Delphi, which is seeking to emerge from bankruptcy, has closed dozens of plants and moved some production overseas to become more competitive, including to China.

Soon China will be exporting whole vehicles to North America. Last year, Chrysler signed a deal with China's largest car company, Chery Automobile, to supply a Dodge subcompact.

One of the most important steps on China's long march to becoming an auto exporter was the little-noticed arrival of the humble engine inside the 2005 Chevy Equinox.

"This is the first Chinese-made engine going into this market," said Eric A. Fedewa, vice president for powertrain forecasts at CSM Worldwide, an automotive analysis firm. "It was an experiment to see if GM could use its facility in China to take costs out of a vehicle." Detroit News