If yo live in China, you can buy the new Baojun 630, a $7,000 four door sedan set to go on sale early next year, in partnership with SAIC, General Motors' Chinese affiliate. And to get into bed even tighter with its US partner, SAID bought up slightly less than one percent of the new GM stock that was released last week. That may not seem like much, but only a handful of people or companies bought enough stock to get near the one percent mark of the new GM stock.

It's the latest effort by the Chinese central government to push auto use into its mainland areas. In fact, GM already has a factory in Shanghai which produces Buick cars. There are plans for 100 new Baojun dealers during the coming half year - if the auto industry isn't thriving in the US, it certainly seems to be doing well in China.

Is the Chinese market small potatoes? Hardly. Last year GM sold more than 2 million vehicles in a single year in China. Still, the new $7,000 car was designed in Korea at GM's facilities there, so GM is spreading the work around.

It all makes you wonder how come we can't get a $7,000 car out of GM here in the US?