In Beijing, 90% of New Buicks Purchased with Cash

[brandon184]

Beijing 2010: 90% of Buicks in China bought for cold hard cash — Autoblog

In the United States, the vast majority of new car sales are financed. Very few people buy cars for cash. Precisely the opposite is true in China. Over 90 percent of new car sales are conducted for cash. When we say cash, we are not just talking about paying in full at purchase time with a check, but actual stacks of cash. Customers will typically walk in with a large bag or case filled with bundles of Yuan. The largest Chinese note is 100 Yuan, so imagine paying up front for a $40,000 (about 280,000 Yuan) LaCrosse. It's a very peculiar phenomenon.

Another factor that's different in China is the number of sales per dealer. Shanghai GM has 385 dealers around the country including 17 in metropolitan Beijing. The one we visited sold an astonishing 2,513 cars in 2009. Among the other dealers in Beijing, Shanghai and other large cities it's typical to sell over 2,000 cars per year. Those are the kinds of numbers that make even Toyota dealers in the U.S. look like laggards when they sell 1,000 cars a year. In contrast, American Buick dealers typically sell less than 100 cars a year.

[Toadman]

90% of all new car purchases by asians in the USA are all-cash transactions. They love Toyota and Acuras. Nissan and Honda not as much. Trust me on this one.

[tony_j15]

it's an emergent market. This phenomenon shouldn't be unexpected.

[Atomic Rooster]

I wonder where they are going to get all the gas needed to fuel the ever increasing number of cars on the road in China?

[tony_j15]

central asia, africa, canada, south america. The same places we do.

[tony_j15]

as if we don't do the same thing.

[tony_j15]

We don't.

bullshit

[tony_j15]

apologies. I thought we were discussing slant drilling in general.