Chinese Risk Buckets

Yesterday, I went car shopping with two friends in Cape Town. Sadly, it wasn’t for me – that day may not come around for a while!
Anyway, my friend was on the lookout for a decent second-hand hatch back in the R100 000 – R110 000 price range and it was the Daihatsu Sirion and Toyota Yaris that stood out as early preferences.

But this little piece of writing is about neither of those cars. Rather, it’s about the state of the Chinese vehicles that far too many people are buying at prices that seem wonderful. Over the course of the hour or two we spent looking at cars, I inspected the state of several Geely’s, Chery’s and something called a Zotye Nomad that was as hideous as its name suggests.
Some of these Chinese cars were new; some were two or three years old. But the standard of their construction was truly shocking. The Nomad, for example, was virtually new and yet had a rear hatch door handle that was barely attached to the body of the car. No man!!!
A brave poke or two around a Chery QQ revealed panel gaps large enough to accommodate a small child’s arm. Inside, without touching a thing, one could easily see the poor quality of the plastics and fabrics.

The cheerful-looking but miserably-built Chery QQ

But by far the most shocking of the lot was what my friend referred to as “the C-Class Corolla”… in looks only, of course. Yes, I speak of the Geely CK small sedan. It really does very closely resemble the previous generation C-Class from the front and the previous Corolla from the rear. And yet, the thing still looks terrible.

Geely's CK - nastier than ever after a year or two of use

But it was the way this relatively new car had aged that most turned me off. The seatbelts looked as if they had been dipped in urine, so yellowed had they become in colour. The “leather” seats looked as if they had been stitched manually by someone’s demented grandma, so shoddy were they put together. The dash looked badly weather-beaten and bits of plastic around the interior were cracked. An early 90s Ford Laser parked nearby looked stunningly finished by comparison.

All of these observations seem plainly obvious to the casual eye and yet, these Chinese toys are still selling. The general public seem unable to look past an attractive sticker price and standard electric windows, instead missing out on the fundamentals that make a decent motorcar.
Furthermore, poor crash test ratings, stability issues and unstable braking systems have been reported for many of these Chinese vehicles, demonstrating that the lack of engineering integrity runs far deeper than some cheap knobs and plastics. Even more frightening is that these are family saloons and small hatch backs bought by young families and students looking for little more than the best possible deal.

Quite simply, it’s up to the few of us in the know to get the word out and make sure our friends and family make wise purchasing decisions. I predict it’ll be at least another five years (perhaps even more) before the Chinese even start to approach European assembly standards and until then, it’s best we all steer well clear.

Top motoring highlights of 2010

A flood of recalls from some top manufacturers and an industry-crippling metal workers strike were amongst the less-than-memorable motoring events that made headlines in 2010. Well, that and the continuing existence of the Chrysler Sebring Convertible…
But none of these misfortunes were enough to stop these significant motoring highlights from making waves last year.

BMW 1 Series M coupé

Like any “M” BMW, months of fuzzy illustrations of what the 1 Series M Coupé may look like preceded its eventual launch late in 2010. This is the car that BMW fans could barely wait for – finally, a genuinely compact BMW with an M badge attached to it is a reality. The M3, great as it is, has become so large and pricey that it is out of the reach of those who would most pride its ownership.

The 1 Series M Coupé comes with some nicely beefed-up bodywork, a 3,0-litre, twin-turbo motor and some nifty weight-saving technology, all to realise a claimed 0-100km/h time of 4,9 seconds. Official pictures released by BMW show the M parked alongside the original M3 and if the greasy bits under the skin emulate the original as noticeably as the design does on the outside, get ready to see some bloodied noses from the likes of Audi in comparative road tests everywhere.

Budget cars in SA (Vivo and Figo)

Although not as cheap as the Citi-Golf and Tazz, the new Volkswagen Polo Vivo and Ford Figo have done much to plug the QUALITY budget car gap in the local market with two proven, good value propositions. Proven, because the Vivo is of course based on the hugely successful previous generation Polo and the Ford Figo on the previous Fiesta. While the Vivo rules on the sales charts and is South Africa’s current top-selling passenger vehicle, it’s the base model Figo at a tad over R100 000 that is the quintessential example of a modern budget car: great value, spacious, well-built and with all the important equipment fitted as standard.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

Not very long ago, Mercedes-Benz would be the last of the German brands to be named as a maker of a seductive, well-balanced and shatteringly fast super car. Yet, in the SLS AMG, it has achieved all of this and more.

The design is breathtaking and despite exquisite use of the original 300 SL’s Gullwing door design, the new SLS forsakes that car’s comparative daintiness for all the aggression and anger of a typically modern super car that could easily star in the latest hip hop music video – and the sound of that gigantic V8 would be the one bagging the Grammy.

On another positive not, a revived local passenger vehicle market saw an increase in sales of 23% for the first three quarters of 2010. A significant shift to smaller cars as consumers are forced to downsize has seen buoyant A- and B-segment activity – a good sign for the aforementioned Figo and Polo Vivo, both of which should see even stronger numbers being moved in 2011.