China's Great Wall woos Brunei drivers

THE number one selling car in China for 2009, Great Wall, is hoping to make their mark in the Bruneian market with four current models.

Luqman Hakim, the branch manager of Great Wall Motors, owned by Worldwide Motor Sdn Bhd, told The Brunei Times that seven units had already been sold during the first week of March.

"Cost is our main concern and Great Wall is quite cheap compared to other brands, especially Chinese brands. Our pickup trucks have won the award for number one selling pickup in China for 12 consecutive years," said Luqman.

He believed that in comparison with his competitors, they are the cheapest in the market in the same range with the Great Wall Sailor, which goes for less than $20,000 and the more exclusive Huver at approximately $25,000.

Luqman said their most popular model, Sailor has already been phased out in China - a new model will soon be launched.

"We usually compare with other Chinese cars and they are loaded with features. Japanese cars have all the features with added cost but for Chinese cars, it has all the features without charging customers for it. That's our main selling point," he said, adding that they are cheap, with no down payment and an attractive monthly rate.

The manager assured that even though the brand is from China, they are equipped with Japanese and German technology, an example being the Hover which has a Mitsubishi engine with German braking technology.

"The cars are just as capable as any other, equipped with safety features like airbags," Luqman said.

All four existing models are large, hence Luqman has already plans to launch a smaller model, Florid by the middle of this year.

"A smaller entry level model will be here by end of this month and will be launched later. That model will be the cheapest so far ranging from approximate $15,000 to $17,000. It will have a copy of Toyota's 1.5 litre engine," he stated.

Towards the end of the year, Luqman said they are getting different specs for the Huver, a diesel engine and an automatic transmission.

"That will be the key point for our sales, the main factor now is our cars are manual. So, with auto transmission, we will definitely sell more units. I believe that if it is auto, we would be sold out by now," Luqman stressed.

Great Wall also has plans to participate in a carnival this year, where Luqman said will have more attractive prices and maybe lucky draws for purchase of cars in that period of time.

"The response has been positive so far for people who came in to test drive cars and they have a good feel about the cars," he said.

Great Wall Motor Company Limited in China currently has 14 existing models established in 1976 and initially manufactured only trucks not producing a sedan until 2008.

The Brunei Times