Explaining the Chinese Car Industry and Chinese Cars
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The Qingdao car show didnt get the bevvy of Geely concept cars that were shown at the Beijing Automotive Show, instead, Geely wheeled out the Geely Beauty Leopard (Presumably they drove it in with bags over their heads)
We all know that Geely is quite capable of producing some good looking cars as of 2007 and 2008, so why do they continue to push this Frankenstein monstrosity? Please, Geely, kill it and bring out anyone of the superb looking coupe prototypes that you’ve teased us with!
The Ben Ben is an excellent little run around, its also pretty safe as we found out from its crash test score. The recently launched Ben Ben sports features a two tone paint job; usually black on the roof and pillars, with any other color everywhere else and the addition of some other ’sporty’ accessories such as black alloy wheels.
What can we say? We can see where Chang’an were going when they wanted to make a Ben Ben sports, but it looks like the design budget was a little on the very low side. The black wheels actually look smaller than the wheels from the regular Ben Ben and the two tone paint doesnt really float our boat, although, perhaps it works for Chinese consumers as we’ve seen a fair few of these on the road.
The Chang’an MPV (above) is a pretty car, its got 7 seats, its loaded with tech (inc DVD and GPS Nav), its a 2.0l engine paired to a 4 speed auto, and best of all, its 130,000rmb. Not bad, eh? Now that the good is out of the way, lets take a look at the bad.
The interior plastics are quite harsh, and are of cheaper stock. Around the bottom of the center console where the drink cup supports meet the silver (see top picture, on right) plastic of the dial surrounds, the lower tan plastic is very soft, and does not reach all the way to the silver leaving a large gap between the two.
The door insert plastic is rather poor quality as well, especially where the the plastic meets the left hand corner of the door - it appears to have been gnawed into shape by an angry beaver. The dashboard plastic feels rather hard as well, and looked to be a different shade of black to the other plastics in the car, although it may have just been wiped down by a cleaning guy.
Overall the Chang’an Jie Xun MPV is pretty decent quality, the leather seats are spacious and comfortable, the seating position in the drivers seat feels like you are sitting in a large sedan, its easy to forget its an MPV.
At the price Chang’an are charging for the MPV, we’re surprised we haven’t seen more of them about, it easily beats the competition with its tech and comfort levels. The only thing left to do, is take it for a spin!
China Car Times is currently at the 2008 Qingdao Car Show, possibly the biggest car show to be held to date in Qingdao. Many of the vehicles that were preseant at the Beijing Auto Show are in Qingdao today, including the MG and Roewe range. We’ll keep you updated and in the loop as the day goes on!
Russian automaker, Automir, and Chongqing based Lifan autos have signed a deal worth 160million USD to deliver the Lifan 520 sedan to the Russian population. The deal is one of the largest deals for a Chinese maker in the Russian market. Over the next three years, Lifan will be busy sending 30,000 Lifan 520’s over the border in CKD (complete knock down) format for the Russians to reassemble.
Lifan is aiming for sales of 8000 units in the first year of operations in the Russian market, and a further 40,000 units per year by the year 2010. Lifan clearly has very high hopes for the Russian market.
The Qingdao Auto Show opened yesterday here in China Car Times county. Everything that was at the Shanghai Auto Show is at the Qingdao auto show and as usual, China Car Times will be there with our panties in our hair. From Monday onwards, we’ll keep you updated!
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