I’m starting to understand Xiaomi’s naming conventions but it’s a mess, especially coming from a marketer’s point of view. I ordered the Note 9, which is superior to the 9. So far so good. But what I’m getting is not what’s called the Note 9 here (or in any export market, from what […]
Tag: SAIC
GM and Ford keep falling down the top 10 table
It’s bittersweet to get news of the Chevrolet Corvette from what’s left of GM here in New Zealand, now a specialist importer of cars that are unlikely to sell in any great number. And we’re not unique, as the Sino-American firm pulls out of entire regions, and manufactures basically in China, North America, and South […]
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Autocade reaches 20 million page views
Above: The 4,243th model entered into Autocade, now on 20,008,500 page views: the Maxus G50. Autocade’s passed the 20,000,000 page-view mark, sitting on just over 20,008,000 at the time of writing, on 4,243 models entered (the Maxus G50 is the newest), an increase of 101 models over the last million views. As it’s the […]
Z cars
I did say I’d blog when Autocade hit 4,100 models, which it did yesterday. Proof that the hundredth milestones aren’t planned: the model was the Changan Zhixiang (長安志翔 or 长安志翔, depending on which script system you prefer) of 2008, a.k.a. Changan Z-Shine. A less than stellar car with a disappointingly assembled interior, but it did […]
Could this happen one day at GM?
The MG line-up in New Zealand. Could it be part of a bigger portfolio of brands later this decade? In the context of what has happened with Holden, and Peter Hanenberger’s thoughts on the direction of GM, I wonder how far away we are from seeing these headlines: Cash-strapped GM sells passenger car brands to […]
The death of Holden
GM pulled out of Russia and India, so with hindsight, those of us Down Under, with a far smaller total population, shouldn’t have thought we were particularly special. Even where GM remains, such as South Korea, there’s a broken model range, with a big gap where the Cruze used to be. It’s becoming […]
Baojun doesn’t scream ‘premium’ and ‘next-gen tech’ to me
I have to agree with Yang Jian, managing editor of Automotive News China, that Baojun’s new models ‘obviously’ failed to reverse the brand’s sales’ decline. It is obvious given that the vehicles are priced considerably above the previous ones, and despite its next-gen tech, there’s no real alignment with what Baojun stands for. […]
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We’ve been here before: foreign-owned media run another piece supporting an asset sale
Clilly4/Creative Commons I see there’s an opinion piece in Stuff from the Chamber of Commerce saying the Wellington City Council should sell its stake in Wellington Airport, because it doesn’t bring in that much (NZ$12 million per annum), and because Auckland’s selling theirs. It’s not too dissimilar to calls for the Council to sell […]
Selling Opel: what’s good for China is good for General Motors
Above: The Opel Astra K: on the roster. I’m not so sure that GM going into talks to sell Opel and Vauxhall to PSA (Peugeot–Citroën) is that big a surprise. We obviously hold a lot of nostalgia for these brands, and it’s only right that we perceive GM as selling its family jewels. Opel […]
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Why the next Holden Commodore will have a traditional boot
Above: The Holden Commodore SS-V, facing its last year of manufacture. The current wisdom appears to be that when the Holden Commodore VF leaves production in 2017, it’ll be replaced by the liftback version of the Opel Insignia B. After all, the only big sedan Ford Australia’s offering in place of the now-defunct Falcon is […]
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