Complaints from customers are up over 21% from last year, relating mainly to tire failures, poor brakes and air-conditioning systems. The industry is still finding itself, yet this year alone has seen the introduction of 100 new models for China alone. Industry spokesman Fan Tianshun commented that “with smaller periods of investigation, development and tests, the new models will have, by all means, more defects”,
Car prices in China have dropped more than $1,000 on average over the past 12 months and are expected to dip further. According to Tianshun, consumers are more concerned about having a car with as many features as possible rather than having something that’s more basic but built to a better standard. This does not bode well for foreign carmakers who are likely to export cars from China to sell in global markets in the near future. However, the Chinese car industry is very young and will one day catch up with established western manufacturers, just as the Koreans have done and the Japanese before them.