China 2003: Market up 37.4% to over 4 million, Changan Star and VW Jetta lead, Buick Regal up

The Buick Regal is now inside the Chinese Top 10 and #6 Passenger Car.

The Chinese new vehicle market continues on its gigantic year-on-year gains in 2003 at +37.4%, passing both the 3 million and 4 million annual sales in the process. The market goes from 2,954,986 units in 2002 to 4,058,929 this year… Volkswagen (+33.5%) can’t quite match the market growth but achieves two milestones this year: becoming the first brand to sell over 500,000 and 600,000 annual units, reaching almost 633,000 sales. Changan (+21.7%) stays in 2nd place while Foton (+44.7%) is up two spots to #3. Below FAW (+25%), Buick (+81.6%) scores the largest gain in the Top 8, cementing its position as the 2nd best-selling foreigner brand in China at #5 overall. Suzuki (+58.3%) and Honda (+87.5%) both break into the Top 10 for the first time at #8 and #9 respectively while Nissan (+51.5%) comes close at #11 ahead of Citroen (+22%).

The Changan Star (+22.9%) tops the models ranking for the fourth consecutive year with just under 285,000 units, followed by the Foton Forland (+44.7%) like last year. In fact the Top 4 is unchanged on 2002 with the Hafei Carry (+4%) in third position and the VW Jetta (+18.2%) at #4 and #1 Passenger Car. To this point, among Passenger Cars the VW Santana (+24.3%) stays in 2nd place, the VW Passat (+55.4%) is up from #5 to #3, the FAW Tianjin Xiali (+14.9%) remains #4 and the VW Santana 2000 (-2.3%) is down two spots to #5. The performer of the year is the Buick Regal (+141.1%) up from #14 PC to #6 and #10 overall. The Honda Accord (+77.9%) and VW Bora (+51.3%) also shine.

Full Year 2003 Top 85 All brands and Top 265 All models vs. Full Year 2002 figures below.