Chinese Cities Curb Car Sales

In three years as a car salesman, Rooney Chen had never pulled an all-nighter. Then came June 30. At 9 p.m. that Saturday, after all 57 showrooms at the huge Race Course Automall in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou had already closed, the municipal government announced that to rein in congestion and air pollution it would cap the number of new vehicle registrations at about half of last year’s total and suspend new registrations for July—effective midnight. Caught by surprise, car retailers recalled their staff to sell to hundreds of buyers packing the sprawling collection of dealerships the size of four soccer fields.

“June 30 was the first time in Guangzhou’s history the mall’s dealers ever worked through the night,” Chen, 28, says as he looks around the almost-deserted dealership where he sells BMWs. “Those three to four hours of mad, frenzied buying are now over.” Sales were considered to have beat the deadline as long as payment was received by midnight, even if the paperwork stretched into the wee hours.