Chinese Spurn Unprecedented Car Discounts Amid Slowdown - Bloomberg
Facing the slowest growth in new car sales in four years, dealerships in China have chipped away at retail prices in the past several months. Audi’s top-of-the-range A8L luxury sedan, originally listed for 1. 97 million yuan ($317,000), is now going for 1. 28 million yuan, according to Autohome , a popular car-pricing portal. “Prices are getting lower all the time, even as cars are getting better,” said Shen, 37, who works for an auto parts company. With the Chinese economy flagging, and government curbs on car registrations and stock market volatility deterring would-be car buyers, the auto industry is pulling out unprecedented offers to drum up sales. Their success may be reflected in industry sales figures for July slated for release on Tuesday by both the Passenger Car Association and China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. “This round of price cuts is the worst in China’s auto industry history in terms of the number of models involved and the depth of the cuts,” said Su Hui, a deputy division head at the state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association and a... Interest-Free Loans Besides discounting prices, carmakers and dealers are offering incentives such as subsidized insurance, zero down-payments, interest-free financing and boosting trade-in prices, according to brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.... Source: www.bloomberg.com
