In Beijing, official government vehicles tend towards the ubiquitous black Audi A6 — the classic Chinese bureaucrat car — or perhaps BMWs and Mercedes, all with tinted windows and aggressive personal drivers forcing through way through the gridlock.

The Canadian ambassador to China has turned heads with his official car for a different reason, according to The Globe and Mail newspaper. 

When David Mulroney posted photos of his silver Toyota Camry hybrid on the Canadian embassy's official Weibo microblog (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter), "the reaction from the Chinese Internet was something close to shock. Especially when he explained that even cabinet ministers in Canada only have a budget of $32,400 for their official car," the Globe said.

According to the Globe, one Weibo user commented (using Mulroney's Chinese name, Ma Dawei): “Ambassador Ma, a Chinese mid-level cadre wouldn’t lay an eye on your car!”

More from GlobalPost: Canadians abroad ply their embassies with weird questions

Mulroney explained on Weibo that in Canada, only minister or deputy minister-level officials have government-subsidized vehicles.

"I provided the information because we get a lot of questions about how we operate at the embassy, what rules govern our work, and how much money we spend. This information is all readily available to Canadians who ask," he told Global Times, a state-run newspaper.

2011 has been the best year for the auto industry since 2008, and analysts are optimistic that 2012 will be even better.

According to J.D. Power and Associates, total sales will reach 12.7 million vehicles in 2011 and 13.8 million next year, USA Today reported.

Chrysler has been especially strong this month. So, too, have Hyundai and Kia. All three posted sales gains of more than 30 percent in December, according to TrueCar.

That trend has held for much of 2011. 

“December’s sales rate was a continuation of the rather slow and steady recovery that now symbolizes 2011,” Jesse Toprak, Vice President of Industry Trends and Insights for TrueCar.com said in a statement.