View Single Post
Old 05-03-2007, 04:19 PM   #13 (permalink)
Bravada
GMI Europe Correspondent
 
Bravada's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Posts: 11,365
Re: China Car Market Explodes, Buick Excelle sales up 64%

Yeah, I was expecting to see at least either the Sail, the Lova, the Regal, the LaCrosse or the GL8 in the Top 20...

But, OTOH, we have to remember most of the vehicles on the list are either cheapo local products (like the FAW N3, which is actually the ancient early 1990s Daihatsu Charade) or outdated models sent for retirement in China - e.g. the "Jetta" and "Passat" are not the the actual Jetta and Passat most of the Western world gets, but the heavily-rehashed second-gen Jetta VW is making there "ever since" alongside the Santana (remember that one?), while the "Passat" is actually the "Passat Lingyu" - a previous-gen B5 Passat after a facelift that included some elements from the Skoda Superb, itself based on the previous stretched Chinese "Passat". Those Volkswagens are made by the FAW-VW joint-venture, which holds the rights to most traditional VW nameplates in China, while the modern Volkswagens are made by Shanghai-VW and, due to the above circumstance, bear different names (the current Jetta is "Sagitar" and the current Passat is "Magotan" - Chinese reportedly find the latter name appealing).

Taking into account that the Chinese Hyundai Elantra/Avante is the previous model, the Excelle is perhaps the highest-ranking "contemporary" model on the list. Given that it probably costs a few times more than the QQ (and I guess the Focus, Camry or Accord are even dearer), it is not that bad. I think that the table best shows how fragmented and segmented the market in the PRC is.
Bravada is offline   Reply With Quote