Geely MK 2013 News

Chinese cars were tipped to dominate the budget-car class and challenge established brands in half the time it took Japanese and South Korean companies - but the bubble has burst before it's properly inflated. After some early success since becoming the first Chinese brand to go on sale in Australia, Great Wall Motors has hit reverse and its Chinese peers are struggling to get into first gear.Official figures for the first five months of the year show Great Wall Motors deliveries are down by 35 per cent compared with the same period the previous year in a record market that is up by 4.5 per cent.Other Chinese brands such as Foton have also had a stalled start. After announcing big plans two years ago Foton has sold fewer than 300 pick-ups in that time.Budget brand Geely has still restricted its sales to Western Australia and Chery's small cars have been stymied by newer competition from established brands. Chery sales are also down by 35 per cent.The Chery J1 hatchback was the cheapest car in Australia in almost two decades when it went on sale with a $9990 drive-away price in 2011, and is now available with a "pay half now, half later'' deal.But it too has failed to rock the sales charts. ''Sales have slowed for now but they will recover,'' says Daniel Cotterill, the spokesman for Ateco, distributor of Great Wall Motors and Chery passenger cars and the Foton truck range.''It's been frustrating for us and the dealers to not have more new models available to us as quickly as we would like."'The other challenge for Chinese car brands is that mainstream marques such as Suzuki, Nissan and Volkswagen have all responded with quality cut-price contenders priced from $11,990 to $13,990 drive-away. "In some ways we are a victim of our initial success,'' said Cotterill. "Other mainstream brands have had to come down in price to compete with us.''Other hurdles: more than 20,000 Great Wall Motors and Chery vehicles were recalled in August 2012 for having asbestos components in their engines. Chinese cars tend to earn poor to scores in crash tests (between two and four stars when the modern industry norm is five stars).But the companies hope to have a reversal of fortunes with a number of new generation Chinese vehicles made to international standards due in local showrooms in the next two years.''There are new models in the pipeline,'' said Cotterill.''We are confident in the ability of the Chinese to respond the Australian car market and boost sales.''This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

Geely’s EC7 sedan, a 1.8-litre sub-$16,000 car that could hit Australian showrooms by September, is the second of the maker’s vehicles to become available in Australia but, says importer John Hughes, the most vital.“This is an important car for us because it comprises all the safety and quality features we demanded,’’ he says, “the EC7 is the result of a lot of hard work - in Australia and China - to bring affordable cars into the country. And I think it’s a fantastic effort, in terms of looks, features, safety and performance.’’But it first needs an acceptable safety rating.  Mr Hughes expects the EC7 to get a minimum of a four-star crash rating by NCAP-standard tests completed early this week in China by Geely.“We’ll take those test results, when they are made available to us, and then offer 10 cars to ANCAP for its own evaluation,’‘ Mr Hughes says, “if they don’t tests them, I’ll pay for testing myself. It is so important that we get this right. Safety is a very high priority for buyers and we want to get the highest level possible within an affordable price range.’’The EC7 will be the first car from Geely’s national distributors John Hughes Group to meet Australia’s car safety standards, including the electronic stability control.John Hughes sells the Geely MK1.5, a small sedan or hatch, in WA only. It does not have ESC as standard and retires from the market at the end of this year.Australia will import two Geely EC7 sedans, all with a 1.8-litre engine, five-speed manual transmission, six airbags, electronic stability control and alloy wheels.The “base’’ model has leather upholstery and a four-speaker audio and the luxury models adds a sunroof, Bluetooth with six speakers, sat-nav, reverse park sensors and an electric driver’s seat. weaThe car has a three-year or 100,000km warranty with a five-year driveline warranty.Mr Gailey says the Geely products meet European emission standards for waterborne paint and have high pedestrian safety scores.The EC7 could be followed by an SUV version. But Australia won’t get the bigger EC8 model because it is not made in right-hand drive.John Hughes and CAD director Rod Gailey joined eight Australian dealers to view the Geely and ZX products at the Shanghai motor show.Geely will provide the importer with its mainstream sedan while rival Chinese company ZX will continue making utes for the Australian market.