Cheap rip off cars

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Thats fair enough, i should of mentioned my mate does about 60,000k a year in the car so you could see why the boss would want something that has a good reputation.
 
I had one through the workshop on friday. It was a 2wd, not a 4x4, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised!:stop:

The engine was the petrol 2.4l Mitsubishi motor that's been around for over a decade, the gearbox had a name on it that I didn't recognise, and the diff again didn't ring any familiarity bells. However, the chassis appeared as good as anything I'd seen and the ride quality although a little harsh could have been offset with a tyre pressure adjustment.

Arguements against: the dash is made of hard plastic, you know the crap the series 1 and 2 Landrover Discoveries had that just will not stand up to Australian UV exposure! The front end is hideously Ugly (but you can't see that from inside, so unless you're very self coscious you may let it go).

I don't think these things will be a good long term vehicle, but for the $$$ they represent good value for the guy that rolls over their cars regularly.
 
Although I'm not sure I'd be trusting them on such a trip (yet), I saw two GW's crossing the Nullabor last week. I guess there is no reason not to trust them but I still much prefer my Nav.

Since going back in time and crossing the WA border I have noticed a decent number of Nav's on the road and although the figures of D22 to D40 seem to be fairly close very few of them seem to have canopies in preference for lids, maybe there is an untapped canopy market over here.

The one vehicle that has suprised me is just how many Isuzu's and Colorados there are on the road, I only have to travel 200 meters to get onto the freeway and can usually see atleast 2 in the time, I dunno maybe it's just the area. Around my place these things seem to have very small numbers but not here.
 
I don't think they should be allowed into the country. They are essentially a mid-90's vehicle with mid 90's crash ratings and emissions ratings. Mazda/Holden had to stop making their petrol 4 cylinder utes because they didn't meet emissions targets for most countries in the world, so how can a dirty old mitsubishi motor from the late 80's/90's meet our even more stringent emissions laws???

Yes they look ugly, and yes I hate cheap shit!

End rant.
 
It appears that whether we like it or not (and I choose not because I doubt I'll ever buy one), they are here to stay. Think I read somewhere a few months back GW will have another 4 models of car on the market by the end of 2010 and there is another company from China doing exactly the same thing into the aussie market by 2011.

Like someone else said Hyundai and the like did similar things years ago and maybe in time the GW's will be built to a better standard but until they are I can't see myself jumping in one, and especially not jumping in one to cross the Nullabor
 
Unfortunately Mr Paidamillionbucks CEO gets his million bucks because he decides to purchase a fleet of these unsafe, and ought-to-be-unroadworthy vehicles.

The vehicle authorities that allowed them in ought to be ashamed, but you can bet they don't give a hoot - they'd have been paid well to let them slip through.

Ooooooh, a conspiracy theory! Too bad it's probably right.
 
I agree the standards of these cars a bit low compared to others on the road but the GW Utes aren't the only vehicles with average ratings. Until Nav's get stability control they will never get more than 3 stars, Ivan (or whatever Hyuandi call it) and the like have really average ratings as well yet other Hyuandi's have reasonable ratings. It's not just one make or model that seem to get a free run onto the aussie market unfortunately.

Also if one was wanting to be really bitchy about the safety of all cars on the road one has to pick on older cars and cars that have never seen a mechanic in their life. I understand not everyone can afford a new car but owning a car isn't a right and those with them have a responsibility to keep themselves and other road users safe.

Compared to some of the bombs on the road these days I'd rather be hit by an unsafe GW than some of them. I used to think NSW and their yearly roadworthies was a good idea in weeding out some of the bombs but having got an old Corrolla on the road up there with 50% worn brakes, no horn and a hand brake that didn't have a cable even regular road worthies aren't worth crap.
 
Also if one was wanting to be really bitchy about the safety of all cars on the road one has to pick on older cars and cars that have never seen a mechanic in their life. I understand not everyone can afford a new car but owning a car isn't a right and those with them have a responsibility to keep themselves and other road users safe.

Older cars eh? Take your 2009 Nav for a Vic roadworthy at a mechanic you've never met right now and a six pack says it won't pass first go.:big_smile:
 
Is anybody familiar with the rise of the Post war Japanese motorcycle industry and the complacency shown by the British and Americans?
It is being repeated now through China in all facets.

Ha! and how many people scoffed at Hyundai when they entered the market in recent history?
The Chinese are coming. People are buying. They are sacrificing for profit to get a foot hold. They are copying founded ideas. Before long they will be the power. Its evolution.
 
And you know where the Fat Boy motorcycle got it's name?

Harley Davidson trying to relaunch itself back into the market after the Japanese dominance, it's a combination of the names of the two bombs dropped on Japan, Fat Man & Little Boy.

Bit of useless info............
 
Older cars eh? Take your 2009 Nav for a Vic roadworthy at a mechanic you've never met right now and a six pack says it won't pass first go.:big_smile:

Thats not overly suprising, it only takes one modification to make a car un-roadworthy. There is varying degrees of roadworthness but there is very few cars out there that will pass a complete road worthy new or old. But there is still more old cars out there that will fail the visual road worthy as the coppers drive past it on the road prompting them to take further action than there is new cars.
 
Thats not overly suprising, it only takes one modification to make a car un-roadworthy. There is varying degrees of roadworthness but there is very few cars out there that will pass a complete road worthy new or old. But there is still more old cars out there that will fail the visual road worthy as the coppers drive past it on the road prompting them to take further action than there is new cars.


It's a pot of gold for mechanics. It's in their best interest to find problems with a vehicle coming in for a roadworthy inspection because they can make money fixing it or re-inspecting the vehicle. You can almost be gauranteed that if there is something even close to being borderline, it will fail inspection so the mechanics can charge you to fix it. And who can blame them, the government's are basically giving them this useful business tool
 
It should be happening in ours, some of the dangerous electrical installations I see on a daily basis here in QLD is disgusting. Proof that self-regulation does not work. Simple, but highly dangerous mistakes, that a second set of eyes (electrical safety inspectors) would easily pick up. But that's a whole different story for another time/place.
 
Self regulating of road worthiness would be a good way to go. Things would be so much simpler for those fixing up cars if they could just tell the roads authorities that their cars were road worthy. Save all that precious time finding a dodgy mechanic to pass a car with no brakes and bald tyres.
 
Read this up on another forum.


A CHINESE-made ute that scored just two stars under the independent Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) when a seatbelt failed in crash testing has been recalled to fix the belt retracting mechanism.
The $23,990 Great Wall Motors V240 twin-cab – launched as the first Chinese vehicle on the Australian market in June alongside its even cheaper $19,990 sibling, the SA220 – was roundly criticised by road safety experts after the ANCAP result was made public.
ANCAP engineers reported the belt failure to the federal transport department, whose administrator of vehicle standards took up the issue with the importer Ateco Automotive.
The safety recall campaign was announced this week on the federal Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s web site which said the front seat belt retracting mechanism could fail to correctly restrain occupants under extreme loads.
The statement blamed a “manufacturing tolerance” for the potential failure of the seatbelts.
Great Wall Motors spokesman Daniel Cotterill today told GoAuto that the company had received no reports of V240 seat belt failure on Australian roads.
However, he said the recall had been announced so the company could replace the mechanism on 115 cars, while a further 285 vehicles would be checked.
SA220 (top and centre), V240 (bottom).
V240 owners have been asked to return their vehicle to their dealer for the rectification work.
Mr Cotterill said there were no plans to recall Great Wall’s other ute, the SA220.

Yay.... so your life and anyone else in your car is only worth 20,000 grand, bloody disgusting if your that much of a tight arse!

I know even major brand cars get recalls but how can you possibly fail miserably at a crash test and then have faulty seat belts, this makes my blood boil.
 
In some ways I guess thats why we have safety tests, no car is perfect and testing cars as they come into the country should reveal how good or bad they are. As far as I'm concerned any car that doesn't pass the test should be removed off the road until it does pass but it's not only the cheap cars that this happens too.

The F350 that came out a few years ago passed ADR's when it got off the ship until such time as someone started checking a bit closer and found out that the rear seating area was actually in breach of the ADR. Ford weren't forced to recall or stop selling these vehicles, they were told new imports had to comply to the standard but that was it. In the end Ford stopped importing the F350's from the US because to much work needed to be done to make them ADR compliant.

Rear seating is as much a safety issue as crash testing and just because the F350's were so big doesn't really make them any safer in an accident if the seats aren't safe enough to protect passengers. You could pay over $75K for an F350 so that makes a life worth a bit more than the $20K GW but it's still something that shouldn't be allowed and shows that it's not just the 'cheap rip offs' that are an issue it's all companies when it suits them.
 
Great Wall motorhome may come | Review | carsguide.com.au

gwmotor_wide.jpg
 

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