rev up your engines, today I'm gonna talk about Chinese knockoff cars and are they
coming to a store near you anytime soon now understand Chinese knockoff cars
that are visual copies of famous cars like Jeeps
you have to understand a little bit about the Asian copying scenario overall
now the first big copiers in Asia were actually the Japanese and they aren't
like these modern Chinese knockoffs they didn't make things that look like the
other vehicles they made things that were the other vehicles as an example in
the 1960s I was into motorcycles went to a motorcycle shop a 650 BSA British
motorcycle right and it had won the best motorcycle in the show but the guy that
brought it had a wicked sense of humor it was actually a 650 Kawasaki which
Kawasaki had made so exact to the 650 BSA not a one-day Award for Best British
motorcycle in a show even though it was a Japanese motorcycle not sports
everything we're exactly the same interchangeable and fit it was such a
good copy that it fooled the judges who thought it was a British motorcycle but
you might say wow they're copying British Motor sucks maybe not such a
wise move well they weren't far beyond it with their own engineers this was
just to get them off the ground floor so they could start selling motorcycles now
we go to modern-day Chinese knockoff cars they're made to look like the
original cars that they're making a knockoff of but they definitely are not
copies for example in the past the Chinese company called Geely
they made the Geely GE which looks quite a bit like a Rolls Royce the ge went
for 30,000 pounds so while that was only thirty thousand pounds the Rolls Royce
that was copying that was a two hundred and fifty thousand pound car and you
really couldn't compare the two when it comes to how they run and driving their
speed but that isn't really the point the Chinese we're making something that
looked the same not the drove the same and cost so much
less that they can sell them that look looks like a Rolls Royce but
it's so much cheaper and you might wonder how can they get away with doing
this well there really are no international laws
on how things look, that's a real thin line there to prove what some artistic idea
came from hence the Chinese make a bunch of these knockoff vehicles and sell them
now they don't sell them in the United States yet they don't sell them in
Canada yeah the talk about moving in the Canada go but they do sell some of them
down the road here in Mexico a company called byk Chinese company make
something call the BJ40 it is an obvious ripoff of the Jeep Wrangler but
strangely enough last time I checked the prices you could buy two Jeep Wrangler
in Mexico for only about a thousand dollars more than this Chinese knockoff
now the Mexican market yes smart small in the American market and I doubt that
they would ever bring that fake Jeep into the United States I'm sure that
Chrysler Fiat would sue the heck out of them if they sold them here, the Chinese
actually make an insane luxury vehicle that their premier and all the bigwigs
drive around it's called the hongqi l5 and they cost seven hundred sixty
thousand dollars so they're much more than the Rolls Royce it's a very limited
production run the Chinese are now having more pride and some of their stuff so
they're making their own ultra luxury vehicle that costs a lot more than a
Rolls Royce but going back to the cheaper knockoffs the Chinese made a
thing called the land wind there was a direct copycat of the Range Rover but
while there ain't Rover started at 40,000 pounds his Chinese knockoff was
14,000 pounds they never sold in the United States they stole of an angler
cheaper price of the Chinese knockoff and you can tell by looking enemy look
pretty much the same they're nowhere near as fast it is the cars that cost so
much more money but they look the same the British sued them and won in court
and then Chinese had to take that off the market not selling anymore but
ironically enough here the Chinese is just taken over and bottom Tata the
Indian company bought Jaguar and Land Rover but now they got a venture with
the charity motors in China which is 50/50 they own half of the Land Rover
and the top tile owns half of the Land Rover so the Chinese just I guess they
got even by buying half of the company now the next copycat vehicle is the lifan
330 is a direct copycat of the mini very expensive parts and they're getting
higher in cost originally they're relatively cheaper not getting pretty
expensive so the Chinese have a little knockoff they started copying the minis
in 2008 and then when the minis facelifted in 2013 so did the Chinese
they facelifted there 330 to make it look even more like the new mini but so
far they only sell them in countries that have lack enforcement like Peru and
Russia got it they'll ever sell those things in the United States
now the next copycat is the BYD company in China they make the BYD i7
which is a direct copy of a Lexus RX but at least it's not a copy of the new one
it's a copy of the 2008 version Chinese copycat has a turbocharged four-cylinder
engine they look like them the insides no engines transmissions all that
stuff's completely different but they look the same now there's so many car
manufacturers in China now it's not a surprise that some of them have just
copied other people's designs as far as I can see the Chinese are designing
their own stuff they're gonna sell to the public I'll probably start selling
the United States at some point in time market forces here and they're not
really copying anybody there because they're gonna sell internationally
they're gonna realize that they can't do that are they gonna get in trouble with
lawyers I mean take their venture with Tesla they're gonna have the model
threes rolling out from China I guarantee they're gonna be selling those
things in the United States some point in time so the days of these copycat
cars I'm thinking that pretty numbered I mean really why would the Chinese and
I'll be making copycat Range Rovers when they're making the real thing in China
now I mean if you go back far off in time when I was young I already talked
about Japanese stuff no one's to buy that Jap junk that's out there it's just
garbage well the Japanese just kept making a better and better and better
and now look people look at Lexus as a real quality vehicle I can
certainly see the same thing happening in China over time they got new
automated factory state-of-the-art they can build fancier things than other
countries because they don't have a bunch of old worn-out factories they can
build them from scratch and they won't have to tarnish their image by making
copycats of certain cars because they know well those are popular will make
something that looks just like it will sell them because really the copy can't
stuff that's kind of a drop in the bucket really I read one company they're
hoping to sell 10,000 a year of these copycat ones in Mexico you know a very
small number of cars because really if I get big enough people would start suing
them it's just obvious you're not gonna sue the small guy he's not even
bothering you but when he gets bigger huh then they'll get him for all kinds
of patent copyrights they're gonna be making a Jaguar SUVs in China the Range
Rovers are gonna be made in China they'd be cutting their own throats willy-nilly
copying everybody else out there when they're making the real thing themselves
sure there's always that tempting bit the copy somebody I got a customer that's
got a fake Gucci bag is made in China and she showed me she put it next
to her friends that was a real one and you couldn't tell the difference the
stitching was exactly the same but it's got to get to a point where the Chinese
are gonna be a high enough level themselves that they don't wanna be
copying other people's stuff because they'll make their own and they'll stand
on their own so as far as I'm concerned these copycat stuff that's just a
stopgap for some companies to try to make some money quick you can put sheet
metal on anything you make anything look like something else if you really want
to take my 94 Celica it's really a Toyota Corolla it's got the same engine
the same transmission the same brakes the only thing is it's not a snazzy or
looking body so people like them it's not really a sports car it's a Toyota
Corolla can run forever but it's not a sports car and really if you look at
designs the way in the garden cars anyways they all pretty much look the
same the other day I saw a Mercedes that look like my wife's matrix that look
like a Ford Escape that I mean they're all looking almost exactly the same
these days with aerodynamic forces and making them smaller with
cylinder engines they really don't look all that different anymore but at least
now you know a little more about the history of these Chinese knockoffs and
although I've never personally driven one because they didn't bring them in the
United States they were certainly afraid of being sued they're people I know down
in Mexico they say hey they're ok cars you know cost less we're happy with them
I find it quite humorous I can't wait to see what the future comes on it 2
English companies mg and Jaguar they're both being made in China now by
Chinese companies and the MG they gave up with a sports car idea and they're
making little SUVs well Jaguars making little SUVs too in
China just like mg is making them in China the mg's are gonna be like $18,000
a lot of Jags are starting it like $35,000 so if they're both made China
and they both have English names on them I can't wait to see if one or the other
or any of them are successful in the actual market, so if you never want to
miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell