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August 27, 2008
Top Six Chinese Knock-Offs
By Jen Dunnaway
Editor
Ever heard of a Great Wall Coolbear? That’s their weird and delightfully Engrish name for a fake Scion xB from China. And the Dongfeng EQ2050, below, is proabably about as burly as a toilet-paper roll. MonsterAuto has published a rundown of the six most hilarious Chinese bootlegs, along with a video explaining how the cheap imitations pose a real threat to the automotive marketplace (don’t miss the video of the Chery crash test, during which "the dummy became so entwined with the wreckage of the car that he had to be removed piece by piece"). Apparently the Germans are pretty angry about the blatant BMW and smart car plagiarism, and are talking about bringing copyright infringment charges against Chinese automakers. But the Russians are stoked, and are even volunteering to be the test market for China’s new generation of tin-can knock-offs. Lucky them!
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miamicars
Nov 20, 2008 at 8:30 pm
If they want to copy cars and sell them to their own people who cares. Assuming they ever pass safety and emissions standards, these cars would never compete directly with the car they are copying anyway. Its one thing to sell knock off watches, ipods, purses, another to sell knock off cars.
Highspeedhijinks
Aug 27, 2008 at 1:25 pm
God dont these people have a single original thought in there head !!
Rob
Aug 27, 2008 at 12:39 pm
What’s really funny is have a look at the side mirrors on the Hummer H1 Clone. They are identical to the original? Looks like the came out of the same parts bin. Don’t know what they were thinking?
Son Of a Beach
Aug 27, 2008 at 11:18 am
Clones shmones. That just shows a lack of originality, which is a GOOD thing. What is cause for concern is the lack of quality, engineering, and safety, that crash test was positively horrifying. Any Russian who buys a chinese car is a fool, but then again, Russians have demonstrated foolishness before.
7urtle
Aug 27, 2008 at 5:29 am
so what. russia and arab countries have been doing this for years with mercedes. but in retropec they were still safe
Adam
Aug 27, 2008 at 4:23 am
The entire Great Wall Motors (GWM) lineup is older Toyota knockoffs, including the Cool Bear (xB/bB) and the Florid (xA/ist). I believe GWM purchases the dies and tools from Toyota once the company has decided to discontinue a model.
GTwildfire
Aug 27, 2008 at 2:57 am
It’s not a matter of honor, respect for others’ efforts, recognition of international law or ethics… whoever created these simply have none of that. It’s all about making money by copying the looks of popular vehicles.
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They don’t give a rat’s ass about anything else… and they don’t know how to make decent cars. They sure as hall have no clue or maybe ability to come up with their own ideas.
SpeedCanHurt
Aug 27, 2008 at 12:52 am
It looks like a lancer got rear-ended by a jeep and the two cars merged…