Author Archive
BMW readying ‘beggar edition’ X1 SUV for China
How do you say poverty specification, i.e. the lowest possible specification of a car in Chinese? Well you call it 乞丐版 (Qi Gai Ban) which translates into beggar edition. The X1 already weighs in at under 300,000RMB for the base model in rear wheel drive model only, the 2.0T jumps in at 360,000RMB but all [...]
Housekeeping: The Problem With Being Popular
CCT is popular. Many people like it, a minority don’t. Personally I hardly ever remove comments, the only comments that get removed are comments that: a) Actively attack other members, going beyond the realm of gentlemen-like discussion and into personal attack b) Irritate the admin, me, or other writers with personal attacks. Conflicting opinions are [...]
To Avoid Paying 10RMB Highway Toll, Driver Bites Toll Guys Ear Off
What’s 10RMB? Its $1.50USD, but to this man it was obviously worth fighting over. In August 2011 Wu Hua Xian Tong Yuan’s Toll booth had a case of violence against a toll booth worker, one driver, in a bid to avoid paying a 10rmb highway fee bit the ear of a worker and escaped from [...]
BMW launches new 125i 1-Series in China
BMW proved a point in the Chinese market, they successfully demonstrated that Chinese will buy premium small cars. For the longest time small cars equaled cheap cars in the Chinese pysche, BMW’s introduction of the MINI range, and later the 1-series range through the market on its head. Small cars selling for the same price [...]
Landwind’s New SUV Spied, Using 1.5T and 8 speed gearbox
Landwind’s SUV offerings have been weak to say the least, their first product became the poster boy for poor Chinese quality cars in Europe and derailed any plans for a Chinese automotive invasion of the EU in the short term. Landwind went back to the drawing board, their X8 SUV came out but obviously it [...]
VW Lavida Hatch Spy Shots Reveal Golf Contender
There used to be a British company that had multiple models that competed with each other throughout their product range, that company was called British Leyland. VW seems to be entering BL territory in China with its multitude of products that overlap and outright compete with each other, the Lavida is up against the Bora, [...]
Eterniti Gets First Sales at Beijing Auto Show
Eterniti, the British auto maker, sold its first 4 cars at the Beijing Auto Show last month according to a press release issued by the company. The Artemis SUV had its Asian debut at the Beijing Auto Show and seemed to resonate well with Chinese consumers, despite the price tag being in excess of 2.10 [...]
Next Generation Jetta NF to Hit Production Lines Soon
How many Jetta’s in China? It’s a good question. First of all you have the mark 2 from 1984 which is the ultimate heir to the Jetta nameplate, later FAW-VW introduced the modern mk4 version which Euro’s called the Bora and Chinese did too, although China got a Bora R version which used the then [...]
Chery A3 getting mystery facelift
Chery’s A3 has been a rallying point for the company, the Italian designed hatch and sedan showed that Chery was moving away from odd designed vehicles and trying its best to keep up with the automotive world’s latest design trends. When the A3 aired it was arguably the best looking Chinese hatchback on the road, [...]
Guangzhou Fiat’s Viaggo to Launch in September
One car that we didn’t actually report on during the Beijing Auto Show last month was Fiat’s fantastic looking Viaggo. A while back we reported on rumors that Fiat’s forthcoming Chinese compact sedan was a facelifted Dodge Dart for the Chinese market, we weren’t entirely wrong, the facelift was a little bit more substantial than [...]
Buy a GMC Sierra Denali, get 5 tons of fuel for free
Back in 2009 strange beasts started to appear on Chinese inner city roads. At that time luxury car sales were just picking up and it seemed that everyone and their mother had a Ferrari or Lambo in their garage, so people wanting to stand out from the crowd opted for trucks, full size American trucks. [...]
Geely Offered to Take a Stake in Subaru to Assist with JV Plans
From Reuters: Volvo’s Chinese owner offered to take a large minority stake in the Japanese maker of Subaru cars, an offer – never accepted – that illustrates its ambition to expand business in China and around the world and gain more technology to improve its own cars. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter [...]
One Country, Two Accords
The Honda Accord has been given its final update ahead of the introduction of a new model in 2013, the latest updates have been leaked out via spy photos shown below. Honda’s 8th generation Accord has been a success in the Chinese market, the 9th generation model is likely to follow in its footsteps although [...]
Five Trends At the Beijing Auto Show
On April 23rd the curtains to the 12th Beijing Auto Show were finally lifted. In a 13 year historic low for the Chinese auto industry, it was going to be a difficult show, what could the show bring to us as consumers? What new technologies would be on display? What difficulties would be overcome, what [...]
Ford Sales Up 24% in April
The new generation of Ford Focus is taking the claim for boosting Ford’s China sales by 24% in April 2012. Ford has striven to introduce and widen its product range for the Chinese market over the past 6 months, the move is likely to pay dividends as sales are likely to continue to increase this [...]
China Auto Sales Up in April, Down in First Quarter
China’s auto sales were up year on year in April by 5% according to sales statistics released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) at a press conference yesterday afternoon. Sales reached 1.62 million vehicles in total in April alone, but sales during the first quarter were down 1.3% with sales reaching 6.4 million [...]
SouEast’s Fighting Plan: More Cars
SouEast Auto in Fujian province seems to have coasted along for the past few years on the back of its own self developed Lancer which uses the sixth generation Lancer platform that Mitsubishi kindly handed over to the company via their joint venture. The two have been in a partnership for a number of years [...]
Peugeot 3008 China Model Unveiled Via Spy Shots
SUV’s + China = Big Business. This is the formula that product managers at ever OEM car manufacturer in China use before introducing new models, its a sure fire formula, unless you work at Honda and you suggested launching the Crosstour. PSA are finally waking up to the Chinese crossover bandwagon that has been ruling [...]
Chinese Media Excited About BMW X7
The Chinese automotive media are excited, they are an easily excitable bunch, but this time the prospect of a BMW X7 has really riled them up. The BMW X6 is a popular SUV in the Chinese market, the squashed looking all wheel drive vehicle has become a popular model for those that wish to show [...]
Global Auto Forum Confirmed for September 6th and 7th 2012
The Global Automotive Forum is quickly becoming one of the ‘must attend’ events in the Chinese automotive calendar behind the car shows, the two day event is now entering its third year of operation and is improving year after year. This years forum once again brings international auto industry leaders together in Chengdu, significant speakers [...]
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