The Chinese car market demands tacky, blingy cars for people with poor taste. They want to show off so chrome and "sparkly stuff" is important.....Ive heard this from several reports about their car industry.
And I have been there many times in recent years. There are imbeciles with ridiculous cars, of course, but the vast majority of the show off cars are the same restrained German stuff we get here. A4/A6, 5 series, E-Class etc. And the odd Toyota Crown.
Then you have Lambo / Ferrari drivers of course but its no more bling than your average off the shelf Lambo / Ferrari. Because its the same car.
Just because you read it, doesn't make it true.
Yes, but the question is also whether the Germans would sell even more in China if their designs were less "restrained." It certainly seems to me that both BMW and especially Mercedes (not so much Audi) are already moving towards more "blingy" design. How much (if any) of that is due to Chinese tastes and influence, I don't know.
I've only been to China once, and remember a conversation with our native tour guide for the day. She was curious about life in Canada, and seemed interested in cars (particularly Rolls Royce). But it was one question in particular that had me speechless for a second: she asked "If you had a Rolls Royce in your driveway, would your neighbours be envious?"
It's funny, because the first thing that I thought was "No, my neighbours would probably think I was a douchebag, but I'd be too embarrassed to have it parked in my driveway in the first place: it's simply too ostentatious."
Anyway, I'm obviously no expert on Chinese culture, but I think it's fair to say that it's a little different from ours. (Or maybe it's not the culture so much as all the new wealth. I'm sure all the nouveau riche Russian oligarchs love their bling, too.) But since China is becoming such a huge market, I can't see how Chinese tastes aren't going to have an influence.
