• Impacted by various factors and difficulties, the development of the 2004 auto market has slowed down, with decreasing sales growth.
• The rapid development of sedan market has gradually become steady, which resulted from the following reasons:
  -Macro control had a fundamental effect on shrinking of auto market. A series of macro-control policies, such as the loan-scale control and delay of land use approval, made the growth rate of several major economic indexes, to which the auto market was sensitive, decrease significantly.
  -A long period of frequent and irregular price declines for autos negatively influenced consumers’ purchasing confidence, producing a “wait-and-see” attitude.
  -Fast development of credit and of new products, together with improvement of the consumptive environments in different areas in 2002 and 2003, helped fuel the hyper-speed demand growth of car sales in 2002-2003; these factors slowed in 2004.
• In 2004, Chinese consumers followed more rational consumption concepts, and more fully utilized the services provided by producers and dealers. It is reported that, what the car users and potential users valued most was “after-sales services” (955 of 1000).
• The 2004 price war stimulated not only consumers’ sense, but also producers’ “self-digging” capacity. New service modes and new cooperation modes need to be developed and tested.
• Chinese auto marketing was turning from extensiveness to intensiveness, from extravagantness to pinch pennies. This indicates the advent of a new Chinese auto marketing age which will embody the marketing value.

Research Plan – Problems and Solutions

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