[vdvpj]

Hi guys,

I've been traveling through China for a little over 3 weeks, visited major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. I didn't go there for 'car spotting' but it did manage to see some nice cars, such as a Lamborghini Aventador Miura Edition, a McLaren 720s, I drove a Ferrari California T through the streets of Beijing and was driven in a Mercedes-Maybach.

[harris69]

Why would someone even own a car in china? That traffic looks like hell.

[alex2364]

Originally Posted by harris69

Why would someone even own a car in china? That traffic looks like hell.

And it doesn't look like hell in any major US city?

[harris69]

No major city in U.S compares to Beijing, but I see what you are saying. To each their own i guess..

[BzsBimmer]

Have you been in LA? Lol

[Mingwan]

I’m surprised you did not see more exotic cars. Theres a lot of stupid money in those areas.

[harris69]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

Have you been in LA? Lol

Nope! Never been...I am from a small town....Although I have been to some big cities but can't say I have experienced anything too bad.

But how does one experience the joy these beautiful cars bring in bumper to bumper traffic? Seems to me there is hardly any room to open up these cars.

[clee1982]

just like if you're in northeast US, drive out, though you have to driver further out...

[clee1982]

Originally Posted by harris69

Nope! Never been...I am from a small town....Although I have been to some big cities but can't say I have experienced anything too bad.

But how does one experience the joy these beautiful cars bring in bumper to bumper traffic? Seems to me there is hardly any room to open up these cars.

try nyc...

[harris69]

Originally Posted by clee1982

try nyc...

I hate NYC traffic.

[clee1982]

Originally Posted by harris69

I hate NYC traffic.

Welcome to the club, don't know a single person who like nyc traffic...

[EstorilM240]

Cool video. Nice to see some views of the scene there.

A few things stick out to me about the Chinese car culture from the last ~2 decades:

1) The MASSIVE speed of development has meant that the median age of vehicles is very new, probably 6 years or so, while the US averages about 11 years old. Lots of new (and potentially corrupt) money = showing off this way

2) Because of import and pollution restrictions, there are basically no older/classic performance vehicles like the S2000, first gen NSX, MKIV Supra, older Lamborghinis/exotcs, etc.

3) The country went from heavily manual (you used to have to take your learning and license test in manual) to heavily automatic-buying in less than a decade.

4) An example of how difficult it is to transfer news across borders. One of the most recent times I visited, many people were complaining about a newly imposed "cannot ENTER intersection on YELLOW" law. Which is basically impossible according to the laws of physics, unless your intersection has one of those green-light count downs (many do). Western media picked up on this heavily:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.d6bee2753c09

http://beijingcream.com/2013/01/chin...ing-very-well/

Yet, apparently this rule changed again, as supposedly confirmed by local drivers/Chinese language media, but no one in the Western media has picked it up. So if someone just Googles in English they will never find out about the ground truth.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Originally Posted by harris69

Why would someone even own a car in china? That traffic looks like hell.

The Grand Tour did an episode in China, it was very interesting. They build 6000 miles or motorway a year.

Heres a clip, if you can watch the whole episode as it was very interesting.

[Darth One]

North American cities like LA and NYC have atrocious traffic, but they are an order of magnitude better than the most congested cities in Asia. In Delhi, Hong Kong and Manila, i’ve been in traffic that took 2+ hours to go 1-2 miles.

And yet those cities all have a decent-good car scene/market for nice cars. The one unique thing about China is that they have all these car makers that rip off European and Japanese models, so it’s entertaining to see knockoff Macans and X5’s roaming around

[harris69]

Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Man

The Grand Tour did an episode in China, it was very interesting. They build 6000 miles or motorway a year.

Heres a clip, if you can watch the whole episode as it was very interesting.

Looks very interesting. It's amazing what China has accomplished in the last 30 years- truly amazing..

[TSM330i]

Originally Posted by Mingwan

I’m surprised you did not see more exotic cars. Theres a lot of stupid money in those areas.

+1

The Chinese charge incredible import taxes on anything that isn't made in China. A Porsche Cayenne TT is $300K!

[angelr]

Originally Posted by Mingwan

I’m surprised you did not see more exotic cars. Theres a lot of stupid money in those areas.

They like Mustangs a lot, when I was at Pedders we were selling tons of suspensions for them. Our China locations also did well with 4x4 product.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Aren't the car in china like double the price to than what they are in NA

[clee1982]

so is lots of place in Asia, at least Taiwan used to be like that the pre-WTO days, it's still quite a bit higher, thought not just as high, but at least in Taiwan, usually they come much closer to full load as standard