A Chevrolet spokesman told us: "The QQ results are horrific. China clearly isn't ready to sell cars in Europe."

understatement!

 

Can the Chinese legally copy the Matiz?

 

there are not copyright laws in China.... anyone can take apart anything and start building and selling its exact copy in china and in China it is legal.. see where I am getting at? ..

it is with exports that they will have trouble, as other countries do have copyright laws.

PS: Matiz aka Aveo had horrific crashtest itself.. why on earth would the chinese want to copy that for a small car

Igor

 

The Chinese car industry is still too premature for competitive markets like Europea and the U.S. It will take at least another decade or two before it gets to where Daewoo is now and maybe another decade after that to get to Hyundai's current quality level. It will be a long, long time before I would even consider buying a Chinese car.

 

Chinese:

Daewoo

EDIT:
They Show a VW Golf Or VW Jetta Mk4 In The Thrid Picture^^^^^

 

oh .. wait .. OK tso Matiz is the car BELOW the Aveo/Kalos... now i get it ... nevermind.

Igor

 

Goes to show you that when it comes to cars, it's not ok to go with the generic brand I suppose it's really no surprise; the company itslef is built on a philosphy of corner cutting. You can't expect Foakleys to protect your eyes as well as Oakleys, can you?

 

couldn't find any photos. oh, well. china will eventually rip off all of the automakers over there. the 50/50 partnerships are a joke. mark my words, we will be kicked out of there and they will take our technology. our guys will go crying to washington about how unfair this all is and will ask for a government bailout to cover the losses. china doesn't care about us. they just want the goodies.

 

It's a copy of the Chevy Spark, not the Matiz.

 

Here is a link to some photos. Will this thing pass U.S. crash tests?



http://paultan.org/archives/2006/02/18/chery-qq-crash-test/

 

Holy crap! This is why you should never copy cat, they usually are NEVER as good as the real thing!

 

What, no crash pics?

 

Here is a link to some photos. Will this thing pass U.S. crash tests?
http://paultan.org/archives/2006/02/18/chery-qq-crash-test/

Wow, that a-pillar simply folds up in the middle. Ugly.

 

Um, ouch.

Very ouch.

 

It's a copy of the Chevy Spark, not the Matiz.

Umm, the Spark and the Matiz are the SAME car, under different names depending on the market (Matiz in Europe, Spark everywhere else).

Anyway, very very sad tale on the PRC's part. I wonder if the LEGAL licence-built Taiwanese version (if there's any) would pass. Oh, wait, I forgot - GM only sells Buick, Opel, and Cadillac in Taiwan!! Never mind!

 

I don't see how anything about this news is "shocking." Most of us predicted that the Chery et al would struggle with quality and crashworthiness, especially initially. The Chinese can do a good job manufacturing some items - Lenovo ThinkPad laptops come to mind - but when they attempt to be the low-cost provider, often times you get what you pay for. You will not pay a lot for a Chery, and you will get a death trap POS that probably will not last 50,000 miles.

 

At least these babys will take strain away from the hospitals. They can just cart the bodies to the morgue.

 

Man, they even ripped of Daewoo gauges! Show a little originality boys!

 

there are not copyright laws in China.... anyone can take apart anything and start building and selling its exact copy in china and in China it is legal.. see where I am getting at? ..

it is with exports that they will have trouble, as other countries do have copyright laws.

PS: Matiz aka Aveo had horrific crashtest itself.. why on earth would the chinese want to copy that for a small car

Igor

What a load of rubbish. China does have those laws but you try keeping tabs on 1.3 billion people. They say they bought the design from Daewoo and GM have backed off on the legals so who knows. It is real hard to buy an illegal DVD in Shenzhen now, in fact its nearly mpossible. They are cracking down but they still have a long way to go in the 3rd largest country.
I was doing some inspecting at a Chinese factory on friday and they complained that we had not yet given them a specific letter of authorisation to use our symbols. The message is getting through- but it will take time. The more of us foreigners that are here the better the chances.
Taking thins apart and copying them also goes on in America, it goes on in Australia - it goes on everywhere. Ask Daimler Benz about variable speed wiper for instance!!!!! A patent or copyright is only worth the money you have to defend it.

 

By the way I also find the crash results disturbing but then I am a bit selective of what I get driven in here and the QQ has always been on the blacklist - even the Matiz looks flimsy the QQ more so.

 

The Chinese car industry is still too premature for competitive markets like Europea and the U.S. It will take at least another decade or two before it gets to where Daewoo is now and maybe another decade after that to get to Hyundai's current quality level. It will be a long, long time before I would even consider buying a Chinese car.

I believe you highly, highly underestimate the chinese. They will leapfrog leaps and bounds in quality and probably forge their way to the top similar to Hyundai now. I would cut your estimates in half in terms of where they will be. I think they will learn alot quicker than Subarau or any other company because of all the access to I.T. and all of the 50/50 partnerships that are ongoing in China. I won't be surprised if they kick us out one day in the mid-future and then turn around and sell their copycats in America for 50%+ off current same car prices.

From a consumer standpoint I hope I'm right, its better for customers. From a Pro-GM standpoint I hope I'm wrong. How do these test results compare with the Chevrolet made same car (matiz?)?

Lastly, how does a company in china copy our vehicles even if they take them apart, how do they create the tooling to manufacture such parts, its not like a car is a generic thing to make, it seems pretty complex relatively speaking to make.

Kheiron

 

The overseas partners have been a bit cunning here. They import some parts with technology they don't want to transfer yet. The Chinese have hit back by hitting those parts with excessive duty. It is an interesting spar.

 

Hmmm...Bricklin is planning on bringing Chery over here pretty soon, will they figure out safety by then you think?

 

I saw in the Shenzhen Daily paper this morning that China is to start its first independent (of the makers) vehicle crash tests this week.. They are starting with the Nissan X-trail. The test facility is called "China Automotive Technology and research centre Beijing. We will see if it makes a difference.