The Rise of the Dragon

I was eating breakfast a couple weeks ago in a stately “western style” hotel in Zhongshan China with a nice Chinese gentleman I had met the day before in the hotel lobby, Mr. Liu.  Mr. Liu is a very successful business-man in the lighting industry.  We chatted about business, life, politics, family, America, the United States compulsion to “bail-out” and BMW cars.  In fact we talked a lot about BMW cars.  Mr. Liu used to be a Mercedes driver, but has since switched to BMW.  His question for me was, “what kind of power does a nice car like a BMW give a business person in face to face interactions.”   Or in other words, “are people impressed and or more interested in doing business with me because they I have a nice car?” Good question.  He even went further and told me that because of his BMW ownership he was able to apply for a BMW credit card.  His second question was, “would using my BMW credit card when paying for meals with clients be impressive to them.” Another interesting question.

Asians have an obsession with Mercedes, BMW, Bentley, Rolls Royce and other nice cars.  It all comes down to face.

I like a handsome new car as much as the next guy, but I don’t have a lot of personal experience driving nice cars.  However, I do remember back in high school when my friend Luke Morrow got a brand new Honda Civic V-TEC us guys definitely thought he was cooler, and the girls sure did!

So my answer to Mr. Liu is, yeah,  your BMW is probably not going to hurt, and yes, it probably will help.  Your BMW credit card?  I am not sure what my opinion on that one is just yet.  Anybody have a thought on this one?