Chinese auto producers have exceeded everyone’s expectations. In the last year, they managed to produce a record of over a million cars – in only the first three months of 2007. Of the 1.3 million that have been manufactured in mainland China since the beginning of 2007, 1.28 million of them have already been sold. This is an increase of over twenty five percent since last year.

While China’s car production industry has yet to reach the standards of global automobile producers, there is no doubt that China’s increasing strengths in the automotive industry present a force to be reckoned with. Of the near 577,000 sedans produced by China so far this year, already 567,000 of them have sold – a sales figure that is up already by 44.47 percent from last year.

This is something of a miracle, considering the fact that it has happened overnight. Of course it makes sense that China should become powerful. They do, after all, have the world’s largest population, numbering at over a billion denizens.

In the early ‘90s, the only car one ever saw in China was the Santana, a car that was made in China by Volkswagen. The Santana was available in three colors: red, white, and black. Not a whole lot of choice for car owners in China back then; but then again, very few people could afford to own a car in those years.

All that has changed with the launch of several Chinese automobile manufacturers, who have begun introducing more affordable models in to the local market, not to mention the upward surge in China’s economic development since the year 1990. Nowadays, car ownership in major Chinese cities is no longer the distant dream it once was – it has become a reality that many are able to afford.