United States importers have some good advice for Chinese vehicle exporters - it's not necessary to be the cheapest on the market.

While most domestic car makers are keen to offer low prices to overseas markets, brand image should be top of their list, said Bill Fisher, executive vice president of newly founded AmAsia International Corp.

"China's low labor cost may give Chinese-made models some competitive edge, but the lower price should never be the only focus," he said.

Fisher is in talks with several domestic car manufacturers to import the first Chinese-made vehicles to the US market. But he is in direct competition with former colleague Malcolm Bricklin, who heads Visionary Vehicle LLC.

With over 20 years' working experience in Asian and Chinese markets, Fisher is definitely the right person to give advice to domestic vehicle exporters.

"The key point is to improve the quality and lift their brand image to maintain a high salvage value," he said.

Chinese car makers focus a lot of attention on price to lure buyers, as most domestic buyers pay cash. But in the US, more than 60 percent of buyers use car loans, while in Europe this figure rises to 80 percent.

So customers there care more about the cost of monthly payments offered by banks and auto finance companies.

For example, Fisher said, monthly payments for a Chery could be higher than those for Honda's Accord sedan if banks think the Chery's salvage value will be less than Accord's, helping the banks make more profit and avoid risks.

"As an importer, we hope to cooperate with domestic car makers to take part in engineering, design and distribution from the beginning to build a car of reliable quality that is suitable for the market," Fisher said.

"This could be a long-term effort, which I forecast will take at least three to four years to build up cooperation."

China's fast-expanding economy has boosted the development of the auto industry.

Last year, vehicle sales rose 25 percent to 7.21 million units, helping China become the world's second-largest auto market. This year more than 8.5 million vehicles are expected to be sold.

The nation also experienced a rapid rise in vehicle exports, especially for home-grown cars.

Intensified market competition with the influx of overseas giants, as well as looming overcapacity, prompted domestic car makers to seek foreign sales.

Chery Automobile Co Ltd, the Hong Kong-listed company, plans to boost its capacity to one million units by 2010, with 30 percent to be sold overseas.

Although Chery pins high hopes on its models, which are one-third cheaper than US brands, to fulfill an ambitious plan to sell 25,000 units overseas this year, the company scrapped cooperation with Visionary for a gradual improvement to quality, according to Visionary's Bricklin.

Landwind, an economy-priced sport utility vehicle made by Jiangling Motor Group, had to pass a second crash test before it could enter the European market after failing one in Germany.

Most Chinese car makers, including Chery, Great Wall Motor Group and Brilliance Automobile Co Ltd, have already started exporting models.

Brilliance China signed an agreement with HSO Motors Europe at the end of last year to export 158,000 of its cars to Germany over the next five years, becoming the first large-scale car exporter to Europe.

But higher safety and emissions standards prevented them from breaking into the US and west European markets. Current major export destinations are in Russia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

"Low price may be overshadowed on the mature US market because some second-hand models from big companies are also competitive on price," according to Frank Y. Chou, associate partner of Value Partners Management Consulting Corp.

"Selling the cheapest car is not a shortcut to brand image. Quality problems would ruin car makers, especially newcomers to the market," he added.

The Ministry of Commerce has also stepped up measures to rein in competition for car exports. From March 1, only authorized Chinese car makers, including manufacturers of components, will be allowed to ship vehicles overseas, as part of state measures to ensure a sound development for auto exporters.