The debut of the Buick Sail and the Xiali 2000 at the end of 2000, led to increased interest in car consumption within China. The State Statistics Bureau said that the price tag of 100,000 yuan, or some 12,000 US dollars, is regarded as an affordable price by a growing number of Chinese.
Along with more and more orders coming in for the Sail and the Xiali 2000, the car industry is seeing a new group of customers.
Shanghai General Motors said that the orders for the Sail have reached more than 12,000, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the total production for next year. Like the Sail, the Xiali 2000 has also seen unexpected orders coming from across the country.
Industry insiders pointed out that the reason for prosperous auto market is good quality and low prices on these new cars.
"In past years, China's auto market was protected by high tariffs, which lead to high prices of various vehicle products in the domestic market and in turn the potential of the auto market in China could not be fully tapped," said Wang Xia, secretary-general of the Auto Department, CCPIT.
Compared with the good sales of a more economical family sedan, the old-style car makers should rethink their production strategies to draw back the consumers' attention, and do it quickly.
However, experts stressed that compared with other major purchases, like household electrical appliances, the car prices are out of the range of most Chinese people.
CCTV (01/07/2001)
