Comments on: A Cup Of Cha on the Chinese Car Sales Tax Adjustment

By: papadad

papadad — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:51:01 +0000

what is the specific tax reduction or increase ? Is it significant enough to even matter? Most buyers here are going for the foreign brands because the local brands are just not there yet in terms of service network (let alone quality, which I actually think is reasonably good now for several totally local brands like Chery, BYD,etc.

By: C240

C240 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:26:12 +0000

Another excellent move on the part of Chinese businessmen or entrepreneurs. Building small displacement cars and maybe giving “suggestions” to the government on how to protect the domestic car makers.

As for your statement on Chinese manufacturers trying to knock the Camry and Accord out of the midsize market, all I can say is good luck. GM and Ford have been trying to do that in North America for the past 20 years.

By: Jim Corty

Jim Corty — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:11:13 +0000

Ash,
Most of the time I agree with you, but what would happen if the Chinese started to import cars into the US and the goverenment decided to only allow gas guzzling cars? Let the market run its course…The price of oil will dictate what cars will be on th road…Just my opinion but…
You see I want To see chinese cars here.

By: joninchina

joninchina — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:21:16 +0000

Gotta disagree with you on this. Look at the words carefully - “it’s FLEET is more fuel efficient”. While I can agree with you if you compare individual engines to each other, let’s look at FLEET averages. Let’s compare 2 companies - Ford and Chery. At this time, what is the SMALLEST engine that Ford offers in it’s fleet? A 1.8 liter engine, which is used in the Focus. Now….what is the LARGEST engine that Chery offers? A 2.4 liter engine - offered in the Eastar (maybe also in the Tiggo). The MAJORITY of engines that Chery sells is 1.6 or smaller….and with the QQ still being a good seller that means a lot of 0.8 and 1.1 engines sold as well. SO, when you do a FLEET average, Chery will easily have a better overall efficient fleet than Ford will. Look at Geely - the largest engine they offer is a 1.8. BYD? A 2.4 (in the new F6 - the majority of their engines is 1.6 or less). And so on……hopefully, this new tax WILL encourage the foreign companies to start selling more fuel efficient models - and be a part of HELPING the environment instead of HURTING it. It’s already starting - Ford’s new Fiesta will have 1.3 and 1.6 engines, Nissan will start selling the March in China soon (I think a 1.3 engine for the March), Toyota now has the Yaris here…..I hope ALL foreign car companies will follow along the same path and give consumers here some real choices when it comes to compact/subcompact cars.

By: mark

mark — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:22:37 +0000

“They were only able to implement this policy because the local car industry has a natural advantage over foreign competition: its fleet is more fuel efficient.”

Really? I would say that most Chinese brand cars have poor fuel economy. Largely they are powered by old Mitsubishi stock or else if the engines are self designed they not up to world standards. As such they use more fuel than the equivalent sized modern engines by world class manufacturers.

OK I admit there is the odd exception like the Brilliance 1.8T and maybe you could throw in the MG Roewe 1.8T as well.