Buick Town East

The 2007 Riviera concept car that was born in China.

Flint Expatriates has written about China's love affair with Buick before:

"Of course, G.M. isn't exactly picky when it comes to lovers these days. The automaker is as desperate as a balding, recently divorced, middle-aged guy hanging out at the White Horse Tavern with an unemployment check burning a whole in his pocket.

And today The New York Times has a good piece on how G.M. ended up designing the new LaCrosse in China. Clifford Ghetti writes:

"But today’s commercial imperative is more compelling than nostalgia: sales of Buicks in China first outpaced sales in the United States in 2006, and the margin is considerable today. For the first nine months of 2009, for instance, Buick sold 312,798 vehicles in China; in the United States, it sold 72,389.

"In 1997 General Motors established two joint ventures with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in China. One was for manufacturing. The other venture, for design and engineering, is the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center. The center has done the engineering to adapt various G.M. global models for the Chinese market."

Read the entire article here, and go here for an interactive graphic on the new LaCrosse.

Show Some Respect

Youngsters in one Chinese province are forced to pay homage to the almighty auto. This didn't even happen in Flint during the boom years.

Sharon LaFraniere of The New York Times reports:

All the students at Luolang Elementary School, a yellow-and-orange concrete structure off a winding mountain road in southern China, know the key rules: Do not run in the halls. Take your seat before the bell rings. Raise your hand to ask a question.

And oh, yes: Salute every passing car on your way to and from school.

Home and Away

Sable Pelt says:

I'm glad you saw the NYT's article on the Chinese government's interest in electrical vehicle production. The point that is important to draw from this article is it is further proof that EVERY other country in the world supports their automobile manufacturing base. I was reading an article yesterday on CNN talking about whether we should care if GM dies and not surprisingly the majority of comments on the article stated that we should absolutely let them die and cited capitalism as the reason because that is an American core value. I like capitalism as much as the next guy, as it is the main reason for the standard of living that we presently enjoy. However, we should also realize that the rest of the world is not playing by the same rules. The Germans, French, Japanese, and Chinese all support their auto industry more than the US does. And I'm not talking about bailout money, I'm talking about financial support for research and development, and healthcare costs, just to name a few.

The debate that rages in this country about the pros and cons of saving the auto industry is a valid one. Nobody wants to put good money after bad as they say. A viable business model and a plan to return to profitability without government help is not too much to ask. However, we need to understand that this downturn in volume is like we've never seen before (for EVERY carmaker) and when volume comes back, and it absolutely will, the players left in the game will reap the rewards. And they will take their profits home with them - whether it is Detroit or Tokyo.

China Gets Electric

The news just gets better and better for domestic automakers.

Keith Bradsher of The New York Times reports:

Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that.

The goal, which radiates from the very top of the Chinese government, suggests that Detroit’s Big Three, already struggling to stay alive, will face even stiffer foreign competition on the next field of automotive technology than they do today.

“China is well positioned to lead in this,” said David Tulauskas, director of China government policy at General Motors.

Running from Trouble

First is was Japan, now China is feeling Michigan's pain:

"Government statistics show that 67,000 factories of various sizes were shuttered in China in the first half of the year, said Cao Jianhai, an industrial economics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. By year’s end, he said, more than 100,000 plants will have closed," reports Don Lee of the Los Angeles Times.

"As more factories in China shut down, stories of bosses running away have become familiar, multiplying the damage of China’s worst manufacturing decline in at least a decade.

"Even before the global financial crisis, factory owners in China were straining under soaring labor and raw-material costs, an appreciating Chinese currency and tougher legal, tax and environmental requirements. When the credit crunch took hold — prompting Western businesses to slash orders for Chinese goods and bankers to curtail loans to factories — many operations were pushed over the edge."

Lust to love

China loves Buick.

Or, to put it another way: 中國愛Buick

In fact, the communist nation may be the only country that truly appreciates the car that used to be built in Flint.

"Buick is one of the most well-known automobile brands in China, with more than 1.7 million Buick owners," according to a recent G.M. press release. "Last year, Buick sold more than 300,000 units there and more than 567,000 worldwide, a 17,000-unit increase over 2006. Buick has a strong history in China, where Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a Chinese revolutionary hero, and Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, both owned Buicks."

Wait a minute. Sun Yat-sen — the man who said "An individual should not have too much freedom" — drove a Buick? Who knew?

Pu Yi's Buick, still running strong at a parade in Changchun of Jilin Province, China, in 2007.

Of course, G.M. isn't exactly picky when it comes to lovers these days. The automaker is as desperate as a balding, recently divorced, middle-aged guy hanging out at the White Horse Tavern with an unemployment check burning a hole in his pocket.

Buick has already re-introduced the Park Avenue in China only, and recently completed a deal with China to sell the Enclave, a so-called "luxury crossover." The Buick China website even features a fantasy sketch of a Chinese skyscraper built in the shape of the Buick logo.

For Buick, this sounds more like lust than love.

The Far Eastside

Flint rises from the ashes as a high-tech automotive manufacturing center...in Changchun, China.

People's Daily Online reports:

Changchun, the capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province, is speeding up efforts to build a comprehensive auto industrial park.

An inauguration ceremony, marking the beginning of the construction of the Everpower Automotive Industrial Park, kicked off recently in the Changchun Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Officials from the Changchun municipal government and Jilin provincial government, executives from local auto and component makers and financial institutes, and representatives from auto industrial associations, attended the event.

The auto park is expected to sharpen the competitive edge of Changchun, a famous auto city in China.

With a total investment of US$300 million, the auto park will cover a land area of 690,000 square metres, focusing on manufacturing special-purpose vehicles and truck chassis.

Thanks to Jim Holbel, Haskell Community Center bowling shark, for this item.