Driving business

CHINA: Here are figures that should cheer up depressed car makers: in June, sales of automobiles in China were 48 per cent higher than what they were in the same period a year ago. With nearly 873,000 vehicles sold, June also showed the biggest monthly increase in three years.

For the first time, more cars were bought in China than in the US. Considering the strength of the Chinese economy, it is a trend that is likely to continue — only about 15 per cent of adults in China own cars. Foreign cars are selling well in the higher end of the Chinese market, while the low-cost cars are coming from Chinese car makers.

Some people compare China’s drivers today with Americans in the 1950s. The Chinese have a new sense of freedom to see the countryside as well as the country’s attractions that are difficult to reach by other means of transportation.

China's 1.3 billion people "are simply wild about cars", says Michael Dunne, head of J.D. Power and Associates , an auto industry group based in Shanghai. "There is the thrill of individual mobility, going from point A to point B in their own time, and on their own terms. But it's also an opportunity to declare and project their own success," Dunne told USA Today.

In China, owning a car is an opportunity to declare one's success.

Big cars are particulary useful as status symbols, which is good news for car maker General Motors. The company is famous for its big cars such as the Cadillac. GM, now owned 61 per cent by the US government, emerged from bankruptcy protection on July 10.