The Chinese Are Coming!!!

Not so fast. Really, don't go fast in their cars. Ever. You will most certainly die if you hit something.

Recently, AvtoRevu, a Russian "Car and Driver" if you will, funded independent crash test research on Chery's top selling sedan in Russia, the Amulet(pictured below). The crash test was a 64km(approximately 40mph) off set front crash test. On a scale of 0 to 16, the car earned a 1.7. Only one vehicle in the lab's 39 year existence fared poorer, a Russian built model that earned a 0 in 2001. According to the reveiw in AvtoRevu, the Amulet's front door sills "crumpled like newspaper" and "We have never seen such terrible deformation of a car's body." WSJ reports that AvtoRevu stated "...the test dummy became so entwined with the wreckage of the car that it had to be removed piece by piece."


Interesting. Chery, of course, claims the tests were funded by OAO Avtovaz, a Russian car manufacturer and Chery's largest competitor. According the to WSJ article, "Chery officials were present during the test, on April 27, but at the time they didn't cite any specific deficiencies in the procedure. A Chery representative said this was because they were there only as observers, and protocol precluded them from making comments." Furthermore, "The magazine, which paid the lab to conduct the test of the Amulet, rejected any claim of bias; it said the test was "200% independent," and says it has no affiliation with any manufacturer."

So Chery hired the commercial arm of the U.K. government's Vehicle Certification Agency to test the car at Chery's headquarters in Shanghai. The test was full frontal, not partial, ran at 56km, not 64km, the vehicle was equipped with an airbag and the crash barrier was less rigid. It passed. Shock!

I have an idea for the Chery execs, why not make a better car? A safer one perhaps? Your feeble attempt at a cover up is obvious, blatant, dangerous and irresponsible. The American public, nor our government, will never accept something as ridiculous as this. Good luck trying to make it in this market. As Peter D. might say, I think it's notgonnahappen.com.

In your defense, the Shenyang Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co.'s Brilliance BS6 sedan, which was tested last month in Germany, was described as "catastrophic."

Check out the video below. I guarantee you will be as shocked as I am.

HT: WSJ, Peter D. at AE