I'm a twinkie (ABC - American born Chinese and I'm married to an ABK - American born Korean) and have worked in Singapore, Korea, Hongkong, Taiwan, and China. Here's my thoughts.
As a general rule, Asians love brands, both in Asia and the american born. LV, Gucci, Prada, Coach are big names for the asian female. Us men obviously love BMW, Mercs, Infiniti, Lexus, Acura, etc. I'm willing to bet that our brand consiousness is mirrored by the members of this board.
As for Asia -
True about the pale skin, but it does not necessarily carry over to cars.
Korea - 95% of cars are domestic - Korean cars and Black. The duties to buy a foreign car is very high there, so its not just domestic pride at work. The rich will buy Mercedes, BMW. There were so many black cars in Korea that any other color just stood out. I saw a couple porsches here and there.
Hong Kong - Truly a luxury car capital of the world. Statistically, there are more rolls and bentleys in this city per mile than any other. The rich chinese know how to flaunt it. Cars of all colors - saw a lot of BMW, Mercedes, Porsches, Bentleys, Ferraris, Lotus.
Singapore - Also a lot of luxury cars - Rich city/state. Ferraris and Porsches dominate. There a good track that is right over the bridge in Malaysia and a lot of racers go there on the weekends.
China - Emerging rich. BMW is viewed as a younger brand and Mercs are the older luxury brand. Lots of controversy in the local media as to rich/poor communist vs capitalism. One article that came out a couple of years ago depicted a rich chinese woman in her BMW getting pissed at a turnip truck/cart on the highway. The turnip truck occupant were laughing at the rich woman and threw a turnip at the windshield. BMW woman loses it and runs over the turnip truck/cart and severely injures the old poor phesant woman. Article was obviously decrying against the rich & arrogant "BMW driver"
Japan - All sorts of cars & models that are not imported to the states. The rich & upwardly mobile love BMW & Mercedes (not unlike the states). Difference is that BMW and Mercedes are priced much higher. There is a view that the more something costs, the higher quality it is. Lexus has just been introduced as the Toyota luxury brand and initial results are very good. The racers and people who like to mod their cars drive white, otherwise, There was no particular affinity to white cars that I can remember. Hmm - Maybe I'll look for it again when I go back to Tokyo later this year. I distinctly remeber seeing a red Z06 Corvette in Shinjuku that stood out.
