2010 Beijing: Is Fiat missing the boat in China?

[svgallery name=”09_Fiat_500″] By John LeBlanc One Western automaker that was noticeably absent from this year’s Beijing auto show was Chrysler’s new caretakers over at Fiat. This is the third time Fiat has skipped a major Chinese auto show, after taking a pass from the Shanghai show last April and the Guangzhou show in November. And […]

2010 Beijing: Audi stretches its flagship A8

[svgallery name=”2011_Audi_A8L”] By John LeBlanc BEIJING – China may be the world’s largest new car market, but no one wants to really drive here. Especially in the larger cities, like here in Beijing (population 22,000,000) or Shanghai (19,210,000.) The uninitiated are stunned by the telepathic confluence of cars, trucks, pedestrians, motorcycles, rickshaws and bicycles, where […]

Top 10: Future Collectibles

[svgallery name=”Top_10_Future_Collectibles”] By John LeBlanc A new vehicle — no matter how rare, technically exotic, historically significant, or blindingly quick — is an investment. In the short term at least. Who would have thought, however, back in 1953 that those first 300 hand-made polo white six-cylinder Chevrolet Corvettes would become one of the most collectible […]

2010 Beijing: BMW jumps on oxymoronic four-door coupé bandwagon

[svgallery name=”2010_BMW_Gran_Coupe_Concept”] By John LeBlanc BEIJING – In addition to a stretched wheelbase version of the 5 Series for the Chinese market, BMW debuted its Concept Gran Coupé, er, concept car here at Auto China 2010. If you haven’t guessed already, it’s a near-production version of Concept CS show car that was shown at the […]

2010 Beijing: The land where Saabs go to retire

By John LeBlanc BEIJING – It’s the first of two media days here at Auto China 2010. And while trolling the massive halls of the China International Exhibition Center, about an hour’s drive outside of China’s capital city, I stumbled across the ghosts of Saab past.

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