1、Foreign Companies Eye Secondhand CarsAfter BMW， Audi， Mer- cedes Benz， Jaguar and Land Rover， another highclass car brand Lexus also launched its own secondhand car business. It is known that the secondhand car business is an important part of Lexuss “2013 Goals in China”. “Apart from promoting the
2、sales of new cars， the market of secondhand car market is also very huge. Since the value maintenance is an important factor， the secondhand car heavily rile on the brand image. Usually， the higher class the brand is， the more valuable the secondhand car is， ” said Zhang Zhiyong， an analyst in the a
3、uto industry. In last years Beijing Auto Fair， BMW has a special area to display the secondhand cars， showing its recognition of used cars importance. Zhang Zhiyong said that the profits from selling new cars are getting smaller and smaller， while the profits generated after the sale of new cars are
4、 getting more and more apparent to see. These include the maintenance and repair of cars， as well as the sale of used cars. “As the auto market is gradually getting saturated， the period of using new cars is getting shorter and shorter. Previously， a car could accompany a man for life， but now he mi
5、ght change a new every few years. This situation leads to the growing market of new cars. For people who cannot afford expensive cars， the secondhand luxury cars， whose price is two thirds or half of the original one， are still quite attractive， ” Zhang Zhiyong added. Vast Market of Secondhand Cars
6、Shen Rong， Deputy Secretarygeneral of China Association of Automobile Circulation， said that the trade volume of secondhand cars in April amounted to 1.6478 million units in the first four months of 2013， up 8.04% from a year before. The trade value was 88.497 billion yuan， up 19.51% from last year.
7、” He said that the trade of secondhand cars is going to make the new high this year. In addition， the cross-region circulation problem is possible to be solved. A nationwide universal market is a commonly-expected trend. “The income level of Chinese people is increasing. So is their consumption powe
8、r. It is in peoples nature to purse high-end and high-quality products， and more and more Chinese people are joining in this rank. Therefore， luxury cars with better cost performance become one of their main choices， ” said Li Yuheng， a senior consultant at China Investment Consultancy. On one hand，
9、 the secondhand car market favors Chinese peoples pursuit of less costly but better-quality things. On the other hand， it will promote the sale and upgrade of luxury car market. In addition， the development of secondhand car business is good for improving the profitability of manufacturers. Lang Lix
10、in， assistant general manager of Lexus China， said that China has a huge number of secondhand cars and will see the situation as in foreign countries ? more and more people choose the secondhand cars. In consideration of the market development， it is necessary to start the secondhand car brand accre
11、ditation as early as possible. Moreover， Lang Lixin pointed out that the development of secondhand car is good for the upgrade and enhance of brand value. BMW is among the first foreign automakers to start the secondhand car business in China. The head of its used car sale project “BMW Premium Selec
12、-tion” said that the German company is going to improve the construction of the network of secondhand cars， marketing and services in 2013. More shops will be opened and more dealers will be allowed to sell the used cars of BMW in the future. In addition， Ren Yukai， director of Audis used car busine
13、ss in China， said that Audi is to further promote the secondhand car brand and the development of network to improve the samebrand swap rate and the market share in the secondhand car market. In the 1st China Summit Forum of Automobile Development， Wang Xia， president of China International Trade Co
14、mmittee of Promoting Automobile Industry， said that the sales volume of cars in China increased by 13% to over 7 million units from January to April， 2013. The whole years sales volume is expected to exceed 20 million units. Meanwhile， he forecasted that China would have the largest number of cars r
15、unning on the streets in the world after 10 years. When the number of cars in China exceeded 100 million units and kept growing， the market of secondhand cars shows a great development outlook. But the current development pace is still too slow. In Li Yuhengs opinion， the high price of used cars dep
16、ress the market demand， and the blocked circulation channels also blocked its development. The secondhand car businesses initiated by luxury automakers are still bundled by several shackles and the irregular tax system shoved it out of the path of fast development. “On one hand， consumers in firstti
17、er cities prefer new cars； on the other hand， the price of used luxury cars is still too high for ordinary people to afford. So people would rather choose new and less luxurious cars. In addition， the development of used car retailers is so slow that they can not support the fast development of used
18、 cars， ” Li Yuheng said. Lower the Price of Used Cars From the beginning of this year， the Chinese government began a strict control of the governmental cars， which had a great influence over the luxury car market. In the first quarter of 2013， the growth rate of luxury car market in China was only
19、8.34%， much smaller than previous years. “In order to offset the loss caused by the more thrifty government， the luxury cars have launched greater discounts. The lowered price of new luxury cars will compress the living space of other brands， which will lead to the price decrease of the entire auto
20、market. In addition， this shockwave will touch the secondhand car market as well. The prices of used cars， especially used luxury cars， will drop in this year， ”said Lin Lin， deputy director of the No. 1 Car Data Center. “In addition， the governmental policies of controlling the sale and use of cars
21、 （for the good of environmental protection will also impact the price of used cars， ” Lin Lin added. Prior to that， Shanghai issued a document containing the standardized requirements for secondhand car deal contracts. The new file capped the price of license for used cars. Later， Shanghai issued th
22、e order that the acquirer of used cars license could not trade it out within one year. These measures caused the shrink of trade volume of used cars in Shanghai and the effect came out almost immediately. Guangzhou seemed to have the trend to follow suit. It held a conference to collect ideas about
23、restricting the entry of vehicles with non-Guangzhou licenses in this city. It will make Guangzhou join the rank of Beijing and Shanghai， and will affect the trade volume of cars in China， since many citizens have to give up their plans of pursuing cars with non-Guangzhou licenses（cheaper than Guang
24、zhou licenses）. Many dealers have already lowered the price of news， as well as used cars， to counter the possible impact， further showing that the limitation in purchasing and using cars in a city could affect the secondhand car market. Take Beijing for example： prior to the order of limiting purchase of cars in 2008， the average price of used cars in Beijing was 60 thousand yuan， and after that the price dropped to lower than 50 thousand yuan. “The influence is great， ”said a dealer.
