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Bling Reigns at the Beijing Auto Show

Big grilles, flashy interiors and luxury SUVs dominate in China.

By Claire_Martin Apr 26, 2012 11:54AM
Toyota Qin Photo via Youtube.Oversized chrome grilles and luxurious interiors with gold or gold-plated accents -- in other words, bling -- are the emerging hallmarks of this year's Beijing Auto Show, which runs through May 2. From the Victoria Beckham special edition Range Rover Evoque with mohair floor mats to the flashy red Aston Martin Dragon 88 Limited Edition (named in honor of the Chinese Year of the Dragon), the emphasis in Beijing is on flashy luxury. 

“It’s all about face,” David Goggins, an executive with FAW-Volkswagen, told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s about how you show off.”

The Geely Excellence Emgrand, made by the Chinese automaker Geely Automobile (which owns Volvo) is a good example of the grille trend. "The Geely’s grille is somewhere between an evaporative cooler and an enormous Norelco shaver, with huge semicircles of vertical chrome pushing ... through the sheet metal," Dan Neal wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

But there is a practical component to what's debuting at the show this year: SUVs are plentiful. Jeep, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Ford all presented new vehicles in the luxury SUV category. And prominent grilles, popular in the U.S. in the 1950s, do actually have a practical application in traffic-clogged urban areas in China: dominance on the road. Drivers tend to yield the right of way to more prestigious vehicles.

Given how important the Chinese auto market has become, these design elements could end up trickling down to U.S. vehicles. Already, the Buick LaCrosse has felt the China influence. The back seat is exceptionally spacious, a design element geared toward the Chinese market, where car owners often use drivers. Even though Americans are less likely to hire chauffeurs, the big back seat stuck in the U.S. version of the car. Whether Beckham's mohair makes the leap to America, however, remains to be seen.

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