Would You Drive This???

March 31st, 2008

Submitted By: Erik Kvilhaug

With all this talk about the quality of Chinese products increasing at an enormous rate, I figured a good look at Chinese automobiles would be fun. Not much thought has been given to Chinese automobiles in the last few years as they have not be available on any kind of scale on US soil. There is not a single company importing these vehicles, might there be a reason?

Please watch the video before continuing……

Just a thought, but the drivers head is not suppose to go through the airbag and be stopped by the crushing force of the vehicles dashboard. This is not an ultra high speed test either, this was a replication of a 40mph crash into a soft object, such as another car. In all fairness that is not the first car company slated for importation into the US market. Auto-mogul Malcolm Bricklin (“credited” with importing the YUGO) has struck a deal with Chery Automobile Co. to bring 250,000 Chinese cars to market in the US. These cars have also had some crash tests performed in Europe, I will let you be the judge of how they did compared to the BS6 above.

Please watch the video before Continuing……

Oops the airbag went off after the driver was crushed by the steering wheel being pushed though the driver’s seat. This might be a cheaper way to get more cars into containers ships to make the journey from China to the US. Run them into a wall at 40mph and you can double space efficiency.

In all seriousness these cars are junk, so far Chery can not even properly steal a cars design from Chevrolet/Daewoo of Malaysia. These cars also failed crash test miserably, even compared to the sub compact produced by Daewoo for GM. Pictures of the difference between the two cars can be seen here, an eye openers, I would not want to be the driver’s right leg.

So I ask, would you drive these cars to save a couple thousand dollars? Another ten thousand dollars in debt seems to be worth being alive. I can only imagine that if these cars were allowed to be sold without crash testing, people would be lining up to get their next/first new car. It might just be time to invest in crash guards and steel bumpers for my truck. If the crash test are this bad, what are the rest of cars components like?

Entry Filed under: China, Pre-Departure