Comments on: German luxury marques boom in China

By: observer

observer — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:52:35 +0000

At least sales are up for the large car German brands in China as they have taken a battering in Germany. Germans are shying away from their karge car manufacturers Audi, Merc, BMW with sales down by up to 30% year on year.

Would explain why BMW cant get their FWD small 1 series into production quick enough.

By: Neo Utopia

Neo Utopia — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:01:37 +0000

Chinese will buy German way before anything Japanese, luxury or not. Its also more exotic and has more kudos to show how much they have financially achieved. In time I would think Chinese made Audis, or any luxury car for that matter, be of a very similar standard to German made cars, especially as more robots are used in construction.

By: AAA

AAA — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:57:55 +0000

I was in China a couple of weeks ago and there were lots of A8L’s, S600L’s, 750iL’s.

By: The Realist

The Realist — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:39:57 +0000

BM, I don’t want to have to start calling you Pauline Hanson again…

By: The Realist

The Realist — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:39:07 +0000

They certainly are – provided they have quality supervision they can produce world class products. BHPB and Rio Tinto’s ventures with steel fabrication shops are evidence of this.

By: The Realist

The Realist — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:37:27 +0000

The A6 and A8 I was transported in was built well, I really couldn’t tell the difference – and the A8 did have more gizmos than what I’ve seen here in Oz, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were options here.

By: Bavarian Missile

Bavarian Missile — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:16:35 +0000

Chinese Audis arent anywhere as good quality as German stuff, even the Chinese themselves say that !

Our factory in China has Hondas, 5 Chinese built and one imported,totally different quality !

By: Bavarian Missile

Bavarian Missile — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:12:35 +0000

pfffffffffffffttttttttttttt !!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:38:04 +0000

That’s quite interesting. Though, we can’t all honestly think that EVERYTHING that is built in China is of low quality, that would be stupid. They are clearly just as capable of manufacturing high quality products as if they were made anywhere else in the world.

By: Shak

Shak — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:35:49 +0000

One of my previous teachers used to frequently visit Shanghai on business trips and he would always hire either an A6 or A8. When he arrived back home he used to brag about how our Audi’s were to overpriced and that the quality was brilliant if not better than what we get from the Germans downunder. he said they hav access to many more options and the cars somehow fell more solid. This was only a year ago that he went.

By: Nobody

Nobody — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:01:54 +0000

Realist, I believe most if not all the Audi sedans sold in China are made by Chinese companies in partnership with VWAG (correct me if I’m wrong). Did you notice any quality difference?

I’ve been in an A6 last time I was there but that was an older model, it seems to be pretty good quality. Also the VW’s there are seen as more reliable then Toyota’s and are well priced comparatively. Though I don’t know this firsthand, it’s what the locals tell me but I wouldn’t be surprised.

By: The Realist

The Realist — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:29:24 +0000

In a trip to Shanghai last year all I was driven in was Audi A6s and A8s. They had a huge portion of the market compared to BMW and MB.

Volkswagen are certainly doing well over there.