According to Mike Rutherford in today's Telegraph (not found on-line), brand rating consultancy Brandfinance have produced a top 20 car brands on criteria including the company's financial strength, headed by Toyota still. Mr. Rutherford not only bemoans the lack of any British brands in the list(!) but notes that

SAIC of China has come from nowhere to 14th, not because it's doing anything significant in terms of product [(!) - my italics] but because its books are healthy.

so should we e-mail him the 2010 release schedule and Windy's list of 30+ SAIC brands?

As for "there isn't a single British brand - either home- or foreign-owned - in this elite league" maybe he should become a columnist on Andrew English's team...

Of course there is a good reason that "its books are healthy" - I think it has something to do with the literally milions of vehicles it sells every year along with growth rates in the hundreds of percentages.