While we’ve been accused of Western propaganda for airing the mind-numbing crash tests of China’s car manufacturers, we generally feel that these videos speak for themselves. And when I came across this disastrous crash-test video mislabled as a made-in-China vehicle, I was more than willing to give the original poster the benefit of the doubt: the truck crashes exactly like all of the other Chinese vehicles we’ve featured on the site. But it turns out that China isn’t the only nation capable of manufacturing a vehicle that turns itself inside out upon impact: the truck is acutally a VW! Click here for footage German engineering at its finest. Thanks for the catch, valek and Toshi.

Now, I’m not really meaning to compare Buick to David Hasselhoff. I’m sure the Lucerne has a lovely singing voice, and could eat a hamburger without requiring a car wash afterward. But given the aging demo the marque tends to attract here in the States, I have wondered why the company hasn’t been put out to pasture, like Oldsmobile. One of the big reasons could be that the Buick brand is increasingly associated with young people in China, and unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you know the domestic market there has huge potential for American companies. For more info, check out this video the General just posted from the Beijing Motor Show. 

You have to hand it to the Chinese—they know a good thing when they see it. But while their appreciation for cool cars may be above reproach, Western manufacturers aren’t really buying the whole "imitation is the most sincere form of flattery" thing. Mercedes-Benz was understandably pissed about the smart car knock-off which crashed the Bologna Auto Show, and over at Ariel’s headquarters, they’re probably still scraping the engineers who’ve gotten wind of Feiya’s Go Kart off the ceiling. Designed to mimic the company’s performance-oriented Atom, this rinky-dink version is more than two feet shorter than the original, and tops out a measly 58 MPH. Of course, what it lacks in power, it more than makes up for in crash-worthiness. Not.  Feiya Vehicle Company via Winding Road.

John’s already documented evidence of erratic behavior in Detroit from Chinese automakers, who seem to be stealing pages from the Jackass playbook to furnish the script for their NAIAS performance. I guess when you build cars that crush occupants flat in the course of otherwise non-fatal collisions, you need all the smoke and mirrors you can get. But wait’ll you see the vehicles the Chinese are showing! Jalopnik tracked down a pair of bulbous offerings from the Tang Hua company: the bizarrely-named "Book of Songs," which resembles neither a book or a song; and something that looks like a catnip toy, below, called the Detroit Fish. True to its name, the Fish is actually an amphibious vehicle as well as an EV, which automatically endears it to my heart. But to promote this strange creature, the enterprising Chinese are going to try to foist one upon none other than George W. Bush, for use as a runabout at his Texas ranch. I’m sure the prez will be stoked!