Chinese consumers in no hurry to buy as cars keep getting cheaper

Beijing

BILL Shen wants to upgrade his eight-year-old Citroen to something fancier, maybe an Audi or a BMW. But the Shanghai resident is in no hurry. Cars keep getting cheaper.

Facing the slowest growth in new car sales in four years, dealerships in China have chipped away at retail prices in the past several months. Now discounts of at least 30 per cent are being offered in major cities on hundreds of models. Audi's top-of-the-range A8L luxury sedan, originally listed for 1.97 million yuan (S$440,000), is now going for 1.28 million yuan, according to Autohome, a popular car-pricing portal.