Word: auto
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...debt to indulge themselves. Despite having lower incomes, Chengdu ranks among China's three largest cities in the number of privately owned cars clogging the roads. GM's sales in Chengdu grew about 40% in 2006, twice that of Beijing. Zhao Jinhui, vice president of Chengdu-based Eastern Kingo Auto Group, a large Chevy dealer in China, says that 22% of his customers finance their purchases, compared with only 5% nationally. "In Beijing, when they get rich, they buy cars; in Shanghai, apartments. In Chengdu, they buy both," Zhao says...
...fighting it out with 15, from Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen to local players like Chery. Tan provides all kinds of extras to keep Chengdu drivers in Buicks, such as handing out hair dryers, rice cookers and other gifts to car buyers and computer games to entertain those waiting for auto repairs. "A few years ago, customers would come in with bags of cash begging you to sell them a car," Tan says. Those days are over...
...Jaguar has, in fact, vastly improved since Ford Motor Co. bought the venerable English brand in 1989. According to the latest J.D. Power survey, Jaguar ranks on a par with BMW for long-term reliability--a respectable showing for a make that used to be the butt of those auto-repair jokes...
Some industry experts thought that Smith was justified in driving Perot away. Said Bernard Addo, an auto analyst for Manhattan's Argus Research: Perot may have been a skillful entrepreneur, but entrepreneurship and team management are two different things. Perot was hurting GM's stock by publicly bashing the company's management." Other observers were appalled at the buyout. GM officials got rid of Perot, contended Mary Anne Devanna, director of research at the Columbia Business School Management Institute, "to protect their own hides. Their careers, big bonuses and fancy perks all depend on maintaining the status...
...longer-term problem for oil companies is that the wild swings in petroleum prices are spooking the auto industry. After years of paying lip service to improving fuel economy, automakers finally seem intent on producing alternatives to the internal combustion engine. That was apparent at the Detroit auto show this month, where GM and Ford unveiled advanced battery-powered concept cars such as the Chevrolet Volt and Ford Airstream. Even if the Detroit automakers don't build those models - and they probably won't - they know they need to get higher-mileage vehicles on the road, be it hybrids, hydrogen...