Chinese cars rotting in Rotterdam
What happens to cars that were Made in China then sold to a European distributor, only for the EU distributor to be banned from selling them? They sit in Rotterdam Port rotting.
Shuang Huan Auto planned to sell the SCEO SUV in Germany but a German judge put the slap down on any such plans due to complaints from BMW, you see the SCEO SUV is a perfect clone of the last generation BMW X5 SUV. Germany is of course a serious car building nation and anyone that dared to copy the nations finest Panzer Wagon was likely to get their wrists at least slapped, Shuang Huan got the Luger treatment. The German Courts ordered the SCEO’s to be destroyed as they infringed on BMW’s design, the distributor, China Autombile Deutschland Group, claimed that the two cars look completely different which is only a valid argument in case you are 1) Blind 2) Hoping that you can win a court case based on testicular fortitude. After the Judge had laid the slap down on on China Automobile Deutschland Group, Managing Director Karl Schloessl told Automotive News Europe that the CEO was a totally different car from the X5. “Even when you look at some BMWs and some Audis, there are similarities,” he said, the similarities of course being that both are German brands that produce vehicles with four wheels – everything else is different.
The below pictures were forwarded to China Car Times several days ago by an insider who was able to visit Rotterdam Port, one of the largest deep sea ports in the world for car import and exports. It seems that the SCEO SUV’s have been sitting out in the cold European sea air for several years. The cars were likely shipped to Rotterdam in late 2007 or early 2008, but with the German court putting the brakes on selling the cars in Europe its likely that a dispute happened between the German distributor, the port operator and Shuang Huan, with nobody taking ownership of the cars due to the cost of shipping them there in the first place, and the cost of sending them back its clear that Shuang Huan doesn’t want them and neither does the original distributor. Cheap Chinese chrome does not seem to fair too well in damp salty climates so the SCEO’s have lost their shine, and the engines are likely to be in a similar state.
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i am shocked!!!! offer those cars for discount price and sold of them, i will be first one to buy it for low price
i have a ceo from 2008 year in italy, it’s a very good car with mitsubishi engine
it’s stupid to compare ceo with original bmw, those people on court are really stupid, germany only lost much money on national taxes and other, i am sure there is enough chinese people in germany which will buy those cars
I am sure no Chinese person in Germany would touch one. There are few enough in the mainland who will!
They did pretty well when they first came out, but I am surprised if they are still making sales.
That’s true – many overseas Chinese would prefer to drive the real thing.
Three or four years of sea air, and lack of maintenance, is enough to do that level of damage?
Lord, they’d have not lasted more than a year in the UK climate then.
ill guess it would last about 3 months in Norway then
More like 3 weeks with the shitty roads we have here in Norway. It will shake apart.
I had a Chinese scooter… it lasted 4 days before the first serious malfunction. Followed by problems over a 4 year period. It worked perfectly only at 4-5 weeks in a row.
After it had done 4000km it was garbage.
And thats too bad. The scooter looked really good. And now I’m talking about looks.. not actual build quality.
They should not export stuff that is that bad. They kill the nations quality reputation.
I also had a Chinese snowblower, lawnmower and a quad. They ALL lasted less then 3 years.
So I had to buy a Polaris quad.. actually I bought one with 6 wheels.. I bought a Honda 125cc scooter and a Honda snowblower and a Klippo lawnmower. They have all worked perfectly. So I will probably not by a technical product from China the next 15 years or so.
Nothing like the feeling when your scooter breaks down 30km from home at night in the middle of fucking nowhere. And when that happens 14-15 times over a 3 year period… and the importer can not get the parts for 3-8 weeks every time.
@Vie; Yeh, the air in Rotterdam is so much worse than the air the other side of the water in the UK ?????
Worse air quality and even more changeable weather.
Add to that the number of yobs who will vandalise a car if its left sitting around and you have a recipe for disaster.
3-4 years in salty air will do that to many car parts. But seriously though, how does the author jump to the conclusion that “the engines are likely to be in a similar state.” Good story but poorly thought out.
In defense of Frank, what do you think is going to happen to an alloy engine that has been sitting for three years straight with not turning over?
Well,
they are similar to BMW on the rear but far more beautiful at the front, or at least less disgusting than the BMW models. Honestly the only BMW beaut is the Z4. But if you really try to force imports out, you will always find a reason. Coming to think of it there are German cars, which seem like a copy of the Tata Nano. Since I live in Germany, I can tell.
Well, but if we come back to China: The only thing that startles me is that there are actually copycats who would copy well established German or British design like the Mercedes E class or even the Mini!!?? This is easily the ugliest look you can ever get. You must actually try really hard to create such an abomination. If you can copy some unorthodox models like Audi R8 or Lambo Diablo, that’s shameless…but at least you have a good taste…
Chinese people must be suffering from inferiority complex if they think German car design is superior, because they are mostly not. They are technically advanced but not pretty!! They have never been and never will be…
my friend is importer of hummer brand, you can be surprised what the salt can do the car, simply destroy the color, rims…chromed parts, all was full of rust
Even here in the eyes of the chinese in China, SCEO by Shuang Huan is a garbage
because the germans want to keep the prices up they are slashing the workforces at all thier car plants including mini in england ,the quality of the brand is suffering because they are looking for a return for the GODS of share holding,,the chineese will get better at what they do and in the end they will get in ,,i would drive one into BMWs car park tommorow.
in a world market we should have a choice we should worry seemes the chineese have more freedom than us
BMW have car plants in china too ,so they want it both ways.