Chinese knock offs.
 

What do you guys think about them, saw this article today and it got me thinking.
http://autos.aol.com/article/general...23130309990001
I can see how it would potentially destroy our market but at the same time if someone has the money they're going to buy the authentic.

Hmm...it's kinda different with cars than with bags or jewelry. These seem to be almost exact replicas only difference is VERY similar badges and actual features. I didn't know they could go as far as similar badging... It would definately destroy our market because if someone could get a suv that looked like a X5 and not cost the X5 money, they would literally make a killing and take BMW down with them. would really be a monopoly if they had the crash tests and reliability that the originals have. But in the end, some things you just have to get the original. My real question is would this hurt the American auto makers or just the "high" end import/luxury makers?

I feel the same way about these cars as I do about Chinese rip-off after market car parts, they suck! There is a reason they can sell them for less. This is mostly because they don't have to invest the money in R&D or quality control. While this may mean a hole in your $100 header after six months, imagine what it would mean for an entire car built like this! In simple terms, think of these cars as OBX brand vehicles.

if china made a bmw i can bet you it would be extrememly easy to spot 100 flaws in 30 minutes, especially just looking at the quality of the materials

u can see the differences just by this little photo
http://cdn.digitalcity.com/ch_autos/x5_122407kn2
different lights
wheels
body parts are 100 percent identical
door handles arent painted and are probaly made out of plastic that has been recycled 20 times

do you think they are gonna drive the same way too? didnt think so

edit- i remember seeing an article on a new chinese auto manufacturer and their test ratings for safety were horrible, im pretty sure the car just turned into a pancake, and the engine probaly went into the passenger area, i cant find the article but i know they arent exporting them because they wont pass anyones standards. im sure the car will control the population over there

i remember seeing this months ago and some of the bigger cars had 1.8L motors in them- so it's really not a true comparison

Everything is not always the same, which is usually the case with a copy. Yet another reason against these!

buy a car painted with lead paint...

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

i cant think of one product thats made in china thats anygood, except fireworks, but they are usually crappy anyway, and no1 else makes them that i know of

i dont think this would "destroy" the auto market in the US at all, nobody who can afford high end cars would buy these

any1 with a brain wouldnt, they would be worse than kia's and daewoos, they might last 20k miles if you were lucky. i wouldnt be surprised if your wheels fell off driving down the road, not that they would even allow these cars to be imported to america anyway.

they can buy hyaundais and kias that look like mercedes and jaguars though.

american automakers take "inspiration" from their competitors all the time...

what market doesn't take "inspiration" from competitors? If something is working, you use it.

These cars will most likely never be sold outside of china, and the quality I'm sure is not up to par with that of even chrysler in the 80's.

do you have a problem with Hyundai's??

hahaha, are you defending these Chinese companies or just being devil's advocate?
It's theft of intellectual property and total garbage. The imitations will work as budget automobiles (for a few thousand miles, at least), but not be anything like whom they copied. Did you see the logo comparisions?
http://sunboar.files.wordpress.com/2...s-byd-logo.jpg

Kind of reminds me of that wheel company called Ro... oh, nevermind.

Devils advocate. Companies blatantly steal from other companies all the time. What works for one will most usually work for the another. If one company has a popular design for a shoe, you can bet another company will take that design, change it just enough and sell the product. I'm sure the same thing has been happening through out human history.

I really don't see what the big deal is though, China is producing lower quality cars that resemble high end car... who cares. At best these products won't make it out of China and we'll never have to worry about the poor build quality.

It'll never affect us, nor will it affect the companies these guys are ripping their designs off of. Someone that can't afford an X5 and can afford the knock off still isn't going to buy an X5 if they bought the knock off. And someone that can afford the X5 isn't going to buy the knock off anyway...

Exactly.

iFone!
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5179

lol

for the most part yeah i guess, im not a fan of them (not saying my car is the greatest) i do give them credit for building them better nowadays, i remember back in the 90s when they were peices of ****

all i was saying was hyundais and kias try to make their cars look like mercedes and jaguars

I<3 my daewoo. Ha. Perfect daily.

This is how most beginning auto industries operate. Japanese cars in the 60's and 70's to a large extent were just cheap direct copies of American designs. Hyundai's in the 80's and 90's were essentially cheap copies of Japanese design. Given the Chinese seem to have set their sights a little higher copying BMW and other's, but that is what most non-Western automaker's do when they start off. Even many of the Western automaker's started out by copying each other and they all still copy succesful industry trends. For instance, why do some Mercedes have a "Bangle butt"?

Building a "good" car is an incredibly complex thing to do. Especially if you have to build it to meet Western emissions standards and crash safety standards. If you have never done that before, the easiest thing to do is to copy someone who as already done it.

This is nothing new in the automotive world, although what the Chinese are doing is a little more blatant than what was done in the past. As long as these cars aren't being exported, into markets with stricter copy right laws, the Chinese won't change. One of the battles that is going on right now is to import Chinese cars under the brand name "Chery" with models that look incredibly similar to Aveo's and Cobalt's. GM has been fighting against it for years now and is apparently winning. Although at the end of the day, they will only have to change the brand name and logo, not the car designs.