The Biggest Flops in the Chinese Car Market

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The Biggest Flops in the Chinese Car Market

Everyone seems to think of China as potentially the worlds biggest car market, and potentially the most easiest market to sell to - ‘make it, bring it, and they’ll buy it’ seems to be the mantra of car execs around the world when they think about the Chinese car market, however, its not always the land of milk and honey. Some cars just wont sell in China, period.

China Car Times takes a detailed look at the top WORST selling cars in the Chinese market

10. Acura TL

Honda brought the Acura to China thinking it would explode just like it did in the American market, instead, it went down like the Titantic. It doesnt help that Honda brought it here, complete with a huge price tag and then didnt really back it up with any advertising. Acura are throwing out a price cut for August this year, but then expect a lot of dollar for the optional extras which come as standard on other cars priced in the same region.

9. Mitsubishi Galant

The Mitsubishi Galant, turned up fresh faced and ready to do some serious hurtin’ to the D segment of the market in November 2006 but has since been left red faced by its competitors. The Galant has sold a measly 4500 units in the first half of 2007, the

Toyota Camry sells more than double that per month in China.

Sorry Mr. Galant, you’re cheaper than the Camry, but you just suck.

8. Fiat Perla

Fiat seem to be going on a rage making all of these super minis for developing nations, we have no idea why do this, their

third world super minis

are more boring than news articles raving about

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao carrying his own umbrella (”he’s just one of us, look!”)

. T

he Nanjing Fiat joint venture agreement has been in trouble since day one due to its poor sales

which Fiat blames on Nanjing rather than blaming its bland range of cars. We say Fiat should bring its proper range of cars that it sells in Europe to China, make them here, and maybe you would more than one per day. The Fiat Perla is pretty much the Fiat Albea, but designed for the Chinese market (its a bit more rounded, we think), previously Fiat made the Fiat Sienna which is 20,000rmb cheaper than the Perla and looks very, very similar. If Chinese were going to buy the Perla, they’d be better off saving 20,000rmb and buying the Sienna. Fiat, probably due to excessive discounts or begging, manage to sell

300 Perlas per month.

7. Kia Rio

The original Kia Rio was most definitely one of the best selling cars in China, we bet it was Dongfeng motor corps bread and butter vehicle for a while. It was great, it was cheap, it was easy to run, it looked good, they can be easily modified, basically the Kia Rio reached all segments of the market - the housewife, the grandparents and the boy racer. The new Kia Rio seems to have changed all of that, its new design clearly implies ‘upmarket’ and the price tag clearly shows it. Dongfeng motor corp were hoping for sales of 5000 units per month, instead they’ve mustered less than 5000 sales since its market entry earlier this year.

6. FAW Vitz

The FAW Vitz managed an astonishingly low sales figure of 904 cars in the first half of this year (thats in China, a population of 1.3 billion) The FAW Vitz is pretty much a Toyota Yaris but with their own badging, the Toyota Yaris has had moderate sales in China, nothing great, but nothing bad. The FAW Vitz is up against the Chinese favorite, the VW Polo and the Peugeout 206 in China both of which are segment heavy weights offering a lot for a little. No wonder the Vitz bombed.

5. Suzuki Liana

The Liana is made by Changhe autos, and is no where near as successful as the Chang’an Suzuki Swift. The Liana looks great from the front, but it is ugly from behind. The Liana is up against other ’small station wagons’ in China such as the Nissan Livina (a Nissan Note derivative) which seem to sell a thousand times better than the Liana. Changhe autos sold 5,416 Lianas in the first half of 2007, which isnt a lot, considering the large discounts that Changhe offered clients. The problem with the Liana seems to be that most of the car parts are Japanese imports which keeps the price somewhat higher than its rivals. In June this year, the Liana reached an all time low of 308 sales.

4. Hyundai Sonata

The Hyundai Sonata has got to be one of the dullest cars on the road today, and its no wonder its on this list. We’re presuming the sales figures we have here are for the third generation Sonata which was an ugly, boring vehicle. The Sonata seems to have changed a lot in its fourth generation car, its changed into a car that China Car Times could actually be proud to say we’d driven. The fourth generation Sonanta has only just turned up on the Chinese shores so we cant comment on that particular model, but the third generation was introduced in 2005 aiming to knock Chinese consumers away from their VW Santana addiction, the boys at Beijing Hyundai failed, miserably.

3. Ford S-Max

The S-Max came to China with a bang, but seems to be getting off to a wet start. The S-max just wont sell, The Ford Focus on the other hand cant keep production up with sales demand. So why dont Chinese families grow with Ford, i.e. Childless married couple buy Focus, eventually have kids, upgrade to S-max? The S-max was awarded European car of the year, but that doesnt seem to persuede the Chinese consumers. You cant blame Ford though, the whole MPV market in China has been sluggish of late due to high the recent rise in oil prices,

people seem to be buying SUV’s in droves though

. Ford posted sales of over 2200 for the first six months of 2007, but sales fell to an all time low of 173 units in June though. To kick start sales, Ford is offering a discount of around 10,000rmb.

2. Toyota Prius

Despite their poor air quality, Chinese motorists don’t seem to be jumping onto the hybrid car bandwagon, if anything, they are shunning it like it was a leper. Toyota managed to sell a whopping (wait for it……) 176 Prius cars in the first half of 2007, let China Car Times repeat that again ‘

One hundred and seventy six sales

‘ Toyota has lost a lot of money on this particular model, but sales seem to be strong in other parts of the world. It seems China is the last bastion of true motoring where your Hummer is admired

rather than destroyed

.

1. Buick Park Avenue

The Buick Park Avenue rides again in China, after a large fan fare from both in China, and in the USA. The original Park Avenue was an American tank of a car made in the late 80’s for the US markets. The newer, more up to date Park Avenue for the Chinese market is based off a Holden vehicle and then with the aid of some creature comforts, it was reintroduced into the Chinese market. The trouble is, Buick used Tiger Woods as a spokesperson for the car, except, show any person here in China a picture of Tiger Woods and you’ll have them scratching their heads in less than 5 seconds. The Buick Lacrosse is a much nicer car.

[Giò]

Nessuna tedesca nei flop...

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ford s-max?

è cmq semi-tedesca