Three months after the Senkakus dispute led rioters to vandalize Japanese cars in China, Japan's leading automakers are luring back buyers with discounts and guarantees — but some dealers may take more persuasion to keep investing in their brands.
"Sales of Japanese brands plunged about a third at my outlets," said William Chen, whose family owns around 30 showrooms selling Nissan vehicles and nine other brands in the eastern city of Taizhou. "I would prefer safer brands over Japanese ones in the future."
More distributors than ever are considering quitting Japanese car brands even as showroom traffic and orders begin to rebound, the state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association said.