Chinese still buying cars – fuel efficient ones

GUANGZHOU, Guangdong Province – Seeing the jostling crowds at the Guangzhou auto show, it seems hard to believe that car sales have slowed in China.

Over two sprawling levels of a convention center here, flashy sports cars, minivans, SUVs, Jeeps, the odd concept vehicle, even RVs, beckoned people to imagine a shinier mobile lifestyle.

“We already have a small car, so we want a bigger car like a four-wheel drive,” said Tang Qing, a young well-dressed woman whose “small car” is a BMW.  “So the whole family can go out together.” 

“The GLK is the model I like,” she added, having just checked out that model of SUV at the Mercedes-Benz display.

Adrienne Mong/NBC News

The 2008 Guangzhou auto show draws huge crowds.

Tang exemplifies the young Chinese consumer over whom market researchers smack their lips.  China, according to one such survey, has more aspirational car buyers than any other nation in the world.  

And this desire for the trappings of a better life – combined with the growing means to realize material ambitions for the world’s largest population – has helped make China the biggest auto market after the United States.

For the past six years, the country has clocked more than 20 percent growth in domestic vehicle sales. Last year, 8.8 million vehicles were sold here. 

But this year sales have slowed considerably – owing to growing economic uncertainty abroad and at home. Analysts are forecasting growth of around 8 percent for this year. And Chinese carmakers are apparently apprehensive enough to have considered seeking a government bailout of their own. 

Against this backdrop, Tang appeared to be the rare luxury buyer the morning the NBC News team wandered through the auto show.

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