THE prices of imported cars have dropped by 8 percent on average, while sales have increased by 8-15 percent at car dealerships across the city, since China lowered the tariff on imported cars to 15 percent this July.

As the business is heating up, buyers will need to wait around two months, according to a report of the Shenzhen Economic Daily yesterday.

Car dealers also took chances by offering promotions to attract buyers. At some shops, the prices of Porsche models, such as Macan and 911 GT2RS, were dropped by 35,000 yuan (US$5,112) and 249,000 yuan, respectively. The selling prices of Land Rovers were adjusted to 688,000 yuan, while the price of a Range Rover 2.0T was lowered to 588,000 yuan.

According to the report, sales of imported Audi, Volvo, Lexus and Toyota cars rose by 8-15 percent. Sales of Lexus cars in China hit a record 15,000 in July, an increase of 37.5 percent over July of last year.

The price of the Volvo XC90 was lowered by 100,000 yuan after the tariff reduction, and Volvo V40 cars are being sold at less than 200,000 yuan.

In contrast, U.S. brand cars were given the cold-shoulder as China had taken counter-measures starting July 6, imposing a 25 percent tariff on cars imported from the United States.

The car dealers had to raise the prices of U.S. cars, including Tesla and Jeep, as a result of the tariff rise. The prices of Tesla cars were raised by 100,000 yuan on average. The Model S 75D was raised from 770,000 to 930,000 yuan, while Model X P100D surged 250,000 to 1.57 million yuan.  (Han Ximin)