Buick bucks the trend

[wildcat]

GM has made inroads overseas, especially with Buick in China. For a report from NBC, click here.

[Dsuupr]

Will this trend in China follow over to the US over the years?

[the_yellow_dart]

I spent 2 weeks in China in late April / early May.

It was interesting to see the Buicks there. In my entire time there I did not notice ONE automatic - even Costa Rica had a few. One strange decision is that these cars only say BUICK on the sides, on the back they all say SHANGHAI GM.

The GL8 and Regal were WAY more common than I would have expected - most of the cars here are TINY. The Regal was most commonly powered by a 2.5L HF V6. I think the refresh they got there looks more modern than the Regal that just went out here. It works. I also got used to the idea of the Buick Excelle while there. It's the Optra with Buick clothing. Six-spoke rims help the side profile. The upscale models actually had hood ornaments. Then again, so did upmodel 2000-era 323s (Proteges!).

VW is the big brand you notice on the road there though. They have owned the market there for years. The old boxy 80's Jetta still sells to cab companies there, meaning that the new Jetta is called the Bora. They also had huge numbers of the Santana, something I've never heard of before.

The Chinese brands are all there of course, but none really have prestige. The most noticeable one is Jin Bei, and they are mostly delivery trucks, little Chevette sized hatchbacks, and little vans similar to what Toyota sold in the 80's. Yuck. Their model names are RIDICULOUS - all of them were wither 8 or 9 digits of alphanumerics. The van was an HF for example, so the badge on the back literally said, with no breaks: "HF986234E" (numbers invented of course, but there were THAT MANY of them...)

Even the Chinese laugh at Geely. They all look like they're trying too hard. The QQ, their tiny hatch, advertised its engine sizes on the back. The GTs said 1.1, the base models actually had a badge on the back: "0.8".

Their driving is crazy. People don't leave the same safety cushions of space they do here. Braking happens last minute. Lanes disappear when there's too much traffic, and people just cram themselves in. If you're stuck in traffic and there's nobody coming, just drive around the problem on the wrong side of the road. Oh, and honk CONSTANTLY. Passing a biker with lots of clearance? Honk. Change lanes without signaling and then see somebody else do it? Honk. It's kind of like saying "I'm here" as opposed to "Hey a-hole!", so nobody gets offended when you honk at them in China.

Anyways, there are my automotive observations. Sweet trip overall.

[Sixty8panther]

Yellow Dart:

Your observations are interesting and almost ridiculous.

I know you're not exagerating because I've heard the

same things form several other people.

[Imaj]

Imagine what would the Enclave do to Buick's image in China!

[VenSeattle]

Imagine what would the Enclave do to Buick's image in China!

I hope we won't have to imagine. Hasn't it been mentioned that GM has plans to export the Enclave to China?.