The Brilliance (or Lack Of) in Chinese Automotive Design
Posted by Stephen on
June 25, 2007
Well, I just got back from my tour of Hong Kong and Taiwan. It seems so cold here after sweating up a storm in 30′ish degree weather and sunny skies over the last few days of my stay. I’m trying to get adjusted to the time again and have a ton of stuff to unpack. In the meantime, here’s a little something I found regarding China’s entry into luxury cars.
The Brilliance BS6 is China’s entry into the luxury automotive market. It looks pretty good from the outside, and seems well put together. Well, looks are deceiving. Check out this video of crash testing done in Germany. The video is in German, but the point seems to come through clearly…
The Brilliance BS6 is not so brilliant afterall. It did so horribly that it was barely passable in testing and unless you are suicidal, I couldn’t see anyone that valued their life driving it. The thing crumpled up like a tin can! I was wondering why I didn’t see any of those cars around Hong Kong or Taiwan. If Chinese people won’t drive their own make of car, then that’s gotta tell you something. Especially in Taiwan where red lights and the lines on the road are merely “suggestions”. Yikes!
After having been in a recent car crash myself, I’m thankful that I wasn’t driving around in a Brilliance BS6. The fact that the car even got ONE star after performing so horribly is the real “BS”. If I’d been in that car in my head on collision, I’d probably be crippled from the waist down as the front end of that car crunches into my lower body, crushing both my legs. I wonder what the insurance premiums would be like in a car like this?
Source: Autoblog
You even said you…
You have to understand how us Chinese operate.
Our crash tests are done simulating a parking lot environment involving parked cars and other inanimate objects such as concrete poles. Sometimes we throw in a slow-moving elderly person to demonstrate the vehicles ability to “slide” pedestrians out of the way. It’s perfectly safe for most of us
there’s no space in china for a “safety” cage . . . if a car crashes, it needs to crumple to occupy as lil space as possible for cars to pass by!
A distributor in my country was selling these cars but after they saw the tests results from that crash test they immediately pulled the plug on it lol
Glad I drive a big ass SUV.