Orient Express

Sun Yat-sen, known as the father of modern China, drove a Buick. So have many other major figures in China's history.

While the General Motors Corp. nameplate is struggling in North America, Buick is a powerful brand in China, favored by the country's elite.

When GM began negotiating with China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) in the 1990s to jointly build vehicles in China, officials quickly expressed their preference for the Buick brand, says Troy Clarke, president of GM Asia/Pacific (GMAP). The joint venture began building Buick Regals in 1998.

This at least starts to explain why GM is making heady progress in the Asia/Pacific region while it is swimming in red ink in North America. In early January, GM announced its sales in China rose 35.2% in 2005, to 665,390 units, allowing it to overtake Volkswagen AG as the country's No.1 auto maker. Its market share rose 1.8% to 11.2%.

But GM sales are soaring in most of the Asia/Pacific region, as well. Last year, GMAP sold more than a million units for the first time, four times what it sold just five years ago, Clarke says.

Thailand is the only pickup truck market outside the U.S., and the auto maker cannot keep up with demand there for the compact Colorado.

What's more, subsidiary GM Holden Ltd. is a solid No.2 to Toyota Motor Corp. in the sizzling Australian market.

“(The Asia/Pacific) market grew at about 6.5% year over year, and our sales grew about 20%,” Clarke says.

While GM has been selling Buicks in China since 1998, it just introduced Chevrolet a year ago. GM also introduced several Cadillac models to China in 2004, but in very low volumes, less than 1,000 units annually.