Dust-covered Buick cars, made by U.S. carmaker General Motors, are seen lined up on the Binhai docks...
Dust-covered Buick cars, made by U.S. carmaker General Motors, are seen lined up on the Binhai docks area in the Chinese coastal city of Tianjin, in this picture taken March 2, 2011. Car sales in China rose 2.6 percent in February from a year earlier, the slowest pace in 23 months, as a pre-holiday buying spree led to a subsequent drop-off in demand in the world's largest auto market. A total of 967,200 sedans, sport utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles were sold in February nationwide, the official China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Wednesday. That compared with 1.53 million units sold in January, up 16.2 percent from a year earlier, according to official data. After two consecutive years of breakneck expansion, China's automarket is expected to return to a slower but more rational growth pattern beginning this year. The scrapping of government tax incentives, along with local governments' initiatives to tackle ever-worsening traffic congestion, will help slow the once sizzling market. Picture taken March 2, 2011. REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS TRANSPORT)