Beijing Preview: Roewe 550

[samkung]

Everyone remember Rover, and remember SAIC was trying to buy in, at the last min, Ford decide to buy off the Rover name from BMW, hence the SAIC created that "Roewe"

People laugh at their first 750, which is the same car as the Rover 75 but maybe things has changed now, and they are serious about their Roewe brand.

















From:
http://auto.sina.com.cn/news/2008-04...40366332.shtml

More Pictures: http://www.autoblog.com/photos/roewe-550-live-shots/

[AndrewGS]

I must say, I like it! It's good to see real Chinese automotive talent.

[hotrod747]

Very classy! I like it a lot!

[DirtyMoney]

That is nice.

[samkung]

Originally Posted by AndrewGS

I must say, I like it! It's good to see real Chinese automotive talent.

In fact, its a collaboration between the Brits and the Chinese, some of the design work was done in England.

[paul8488]

As usual, we can all see bits of many different cars in that, but overall, it's a very nice design and not an exact copy of anything/. I could see that being a solid challenge to Skodas 'affordable luxury' corner of the market.

[Toto]

WTF?

[chinamonty]

Looks interesting -especially the binacle.
I still think we need to look at the dashboard as a whole and ask -why is it there and make adjustments that make sense. Really you just need a pod for the binacle one for the passenger glovebox and air bag and the rest can go in the centre. Then you can do some real redesign inside.

[void.crusader]

Originally Posted by Toto

WTF?

Actually makes perfect sense - I'd rather know my exact speed, especially with all these cops around, than trying to estimate it using some 160-mph speedo. I wish more mfrs would understand that.
Big tacho is great and they covered navi screen from sun rays - perfect.
The only gripe is that I would do with less colorful icons.

But overall this car is WOW!
Chinese are running fast for sure ... but we need to see crash test results.

[GMC72]

Originally Posted by Toto

WTF?

My thoughts exactly. It looks like it's from the 80's or 90's.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by void.crusader

Actually makes perfect sense - I'd rather know my exact speed, especially with all these cops around, than trying to estimate it using some 160-mph speedo. I wish more mfrs would understand that.
Big tacho is great and they covered navi screen from sun rays - perfect.
The only gripe is that I would do with less colorful icons.

But overall this car is WOW!
Chinese are running fast for sure ... but we need to see crash test results.

Even the solutions from the 80's look far better.

[Slideways]

Looks really good, and surprisingly original. I like the nav placement, I was just thinking about how I could get navigation in the instrument cluster of a classic car. I do think the rest of the instrumentation is a little to colorful.

[void.crusader]

Originally Posted by Toto

Even the solutions from the 80's look far better.

I don't think that it looks better at all, color scheme is dull and digits are smaller.

In 80's cars had much lower top speed. Nowadays working range of analog speedo is barely a half, it's just not comfortable anymore.
Some manufacturers put only three small markers between 40-60 mph and 60-80mph and that's it. I like the idea of digital speedo comeback.

[GrandPrix08]

I think this is by far the best looking Chinese car to date. The rear kinda looks like a modified VW Jetta and the front kinda looks like Chrysler Crossfire, which is NOT a bad thing. I love the interior, though I do think some of those stuffs could have moved to the center instead, since it looks rather busy.

But overall, this is really looking great, I'll say, if they can perfect the safety to match with the competition, I would love to see this cruising in North American roads, for it has a pretty good size(I don't like small cars so), and it has looks to go with it.

Oh one more thing, now the Chinese even have the push button start, when will we see it comming to any AMERICAN make?

[Toto]

Originally Posted by void.crusader

I don't think that it looks better at all, color scheme is dull and digits are smaller.

In 80's cars had much lower top speed. Nowadays working range of analog speedo is barely a half, it's just not comfortable anymore.
Some manufacturers put only three small markers between 40-60 mph and 60-80mph and that's it. I like the idea of digital speedo comeback.

Even in the 80's I could drove easily over 200km/h on the Autobahn. My navigation system knows the speed limit of most streets and give me a visuell and audio feedback when I drive to fast. In 22 years I got only two speeding tickets, not bad ey.