I had just recently came back from China. I noticed that many of their cars are better than the US versions, but why? Some of you might not care, but Buick offers very nice cars in China. The Lacrosse is 10x better there, plus it's RWD. GM has a serious Chrysler 300C competitor on their hands if they would just decide to sell that thing here. For those who are interested in seeing how the Lacrosse looks like visit www.buick.com.cn
Also they have a compact car that does well, the Buick Exelle. Basiaclly it's a Suzuki Forenza (IMO underated car) with wood and GPS navagation. With a decent engine this could be a legit Mazda 3 comptitor. Plus since Buick is GM's "affordable luxury" devision, the Forenza might sell better here since the name is better.
For those of you that think the new Camrys' styling is a bit too in your face (especially the grille in LE and XLE trims), Toyota offers a different look for the Camry in China. Why doesn't Toyota make the Camry look this nice in their largest market? They sell more Camrys' here than anywhere in the world.
For more information visit www.toyota.com.cn I should warn you most of this site is in Chinese along with the buick link. However with a little luck you'll be able to find more information about these models.
Anyone ever heard of the Toyota Reiz? Released in 2005, it's the Cressida replacement. Absolutely beautiful car, what a shame that Toyota decided that Americans should get the Avalon instead. What are they thinking? The Reiz is RWD, couple that with Toyota's new 3.5 liter V6 and who needs the Avalon. Or instead of making the ES350 a Camry copy, they could have made some minor tweaks to the Reiz and dubbed it the new ES. Then atleast all Lexus sedans would be RWD.
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?s=5e2a868b8c25565a46a32eb0dc459450&t=108561
The link above has many pictures of the Reiz, best of all it's all in English!
I wonder if it's possible to change Toyota's mind in bringing the Reiz here. Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but maybe if enough people wrote to Toyota corporate, well you never know...