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.