Putting a BYD U8 spin on bride's poignant parting ritual

A fleet of good cars is usually a part and parcel of a wedding ritual today, normally led by an expensive limousine whose value affords onlookers a good subject for speculation.

Given the perceived pecking order in terms of prestige, the pride of place is, as a rule, reserved for high-profile foreign brands like Mercedez-Benz, BMW, Rolls-Royce, or Bentley.

Even FAW's premium Hongqi brand falls short of such an honor.

The recent debut of Aito M9 SUV, co-developed by tech giant Huawei and Chinese carmaker Seres, with its amazing self-defined rear light pattern matrix (imagine a "Double Happiness" display), lifted hopes as to its candidacy for the accolade.

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Imagine the surprise when this place was instead snapped by BYD's SUV Yangwang U8, thanks to wedding service companies' shrewd spin on the brand's ability to execute a U-turn right on the spot.

Probably unbeknownst even to the original designer of the car, this feature has been exploited in ingenious interpretation of a time-honored wedding ritual.

Tradition has it that a bride about to leave her parents' home is expected to show reluctance, even shed tears.

According to some wedding service providers, the poignancy of the parting could be well recreated in reenacting the scene of "yibu jiu huitou," nine backward glances in taking one step, a role superbly suited to BYD's U8.

An online post told of the story of an entrepreneur in Jiangsu Province who recently sent a fleet to pick up the bride for his son. There was no shortage of well-known international brands in the fleet, but the leading Yangwang U8 was the undisputed focus of attention.

When the bride was seated in the conveyance priced at over 1 million yuan (US$140,000), the limousine kicked off the journey to her new home, slowly, only to come to a halt a dozen meters away and, lo and behold, the majestic U8 pulled off a 180-degree turn on the spot, in a gesture symbolizing the bride and the groom's thanks to the bride's parents, for all the pains of bringing her up.

Then the same move was repeated eight times, at an interval of a dozen of meters.

The bride's father, in his 50s, was so touched – likely put in mind the sight of the newlywed actually taking the trouble of stepping out of the car and prostrating before him – that he cried with abandon.

The wedding company has certainly given an innovative spin on a custom that is probably open to debate – in some parts of the country brides are told not to look back – but BYD is probably looking forward to another year of roaring sales.