Service: The not-so-secret to success

China's automotive market has once again proved to be one of the most unpredictable markets in the world. Seeing demand decline over the past several months and with inventories rising, even the most optimistic were beginning to worry about a downturn through the remainder of the year.

However, in August, usually the weakest month of the year, the seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate (SAAR) was the second highest on record at 16.98 million units per year, just behind the huge spike recorded in January.

A total of 1.28 million units of light vehicles (LV) were delivered in August, 19 percent higher than a year ago. Passenger vehicle (PV) sales rose 25 percent year on year to 919,000 units while light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales, much weaker, increased just 6 percent year on year to 359,000 units.