What We have Left China has Picked Up

For several years in the 1980s and 1990s there were two small entry level cars that were offered by American companies to be direct competitors to each other on an annual basis. These two were the Ford Escort and the Chevrolet Cavalier that competed on our market for several years during these two decades, both of which were true sales leaders for their brands. These cars were sought after because of the variety of body styles offered and the affordability of both of them. Now it seems the two have made their way to another market of the world to continue the battle for supremacy.

Imagine if you will these two models fighting on another continent at least twenty years after they were on our market you would get the picture of what’s happening now. Both of these models are still the entry level cars that are offered under these brands in China where the Fiesta and Sonic are not offered. This gives China a pair of cars from companies from the names we have trusted for year to be the cars that are offered as the entry level models before the Focus and the Cruze which are a step up.

The Chevrolet Cavalier will offer an excellent style that appears to be a smaller version of the new Cruze. This new version of the old name is 178 inches long, 69 inches wide and 57 inches tall which makes it smaller than the Cruze, but just as attractive. The power for this little Cavalier will come from the 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine that offers 109 horsepower while using a six-speed manual or automatic transmission as one that will be more affordable than the Cruze to be a great entry level car for the Chinese market.

Why would Chevrolet offer the Cavalier in China and not in the US? The Chinese market has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several years and is now the largest automotive market in the world. This makes it the perfect place to reintroduce a name that has been gone from the automotive world for some time. Not only did Chevrolet need to have this car offered in China, they needed to have a direct competitor to the Escort which has been in China for some time already. Now that the Cavalier is back this will be a fun fight to continue to watch.

Does this mean we will eventually see the Cavalier and the Escort back in our markets? Currently the resurrection of these two names in America seems unlikely because they are both only offered in China and both brands have entry level version of what they offer for use to enjoy in the Fiesta and the Sonic on our market. Having a second entry level car from either brand will cause too large of a saturation in the market for both of these brands and would not make for the right sales strategy for either brand.

Could we ever see these two cars come back to our market? It is possible, but there would either have to be models deleted from the lineup to create room for these two or we would need to have them come in to fill a specific purpose in each lineup. While we probably won’t see these cars come back to our market if you happen to find yourself in China don’t be surprised if you see names that have been popular in the past driving on the road in new forms that were never available to us in North America but are now a huge part of the Chinese automotive market.