Chang-an’s mid size sedan spotted out testing

The problem with self developed mid size sedans from Chinese auto makers is that they lack the branding ability and marketing ability to push their vehicles from being economy boxes into mid size sedan fighters. Only Brilliance and Roewe appear to have the ability to make a mid size that sells but they started in a different way as they started by making expensive cars and then made economy cars, its easier to go from high end to low end than it is from low end to high end. Chang’an have so far been focused on building small economy cars that sell in the thousands each month but they have not yet made a mid size fighter to rival Chery’s Riich G5 or Geely’s Emgrand EC7/8 series.

The below Chang’an sedan is based on the CD101 concept sedan that we have seen before at the Shanghai and Beijing Auto Shows, the sedan is likely to launch in early 2012 and will be powered by a 1.8L, 2.0L and also a self developed 1.8T engine. As with all Chinese mid size sedans they will launch first with a manual gearbox and then launch an automatic later, note that most mid size car manufacturers usually launch with an automatic only and then only offer manuals on the low end models. Are Chinese companies failing to understand their target consumers, or are we?