Archive for September 8th, 2007

Geely China Dragon? Bah! Must be some squarish vehicle that copies another Toyota , Mitsubishi or Mercedes.

To me China cars were always an eyesore, pretty much like watching George Dubya talk.

But as i was looking at this Geely model, i did think: ‘ Actually it’s not bad an effort for a China made car! ‘

Hey, I am not defending the Chinese Auto makers just because my grandfather was from Guangzhou.

Remember the early days of Hyundai? Their early Excel models?

Right. Back to the China Dragon.

Notice that the front grille/ front portion of the vehicle is shaped like an animal of sorts. According to Lu Zhou, the vehicle design is inspired by ‘ Beijing Opera & the Monkey god’.

Only 1 problem with that. The name of the car is ‘China Dragon’. Whoa. The branding is already wrongfooted. If you’re gonna use ‘Dragon’ why use Beijing Opera or the Monkey god? I mean call it ‘ Geely Wu Kong (Monkey god’s name)’ or something like that.

I don’t want to be overly critical, but to call it China Dragon just to satisfy Gwailo stereotypes is wrong ! (Ever since Bruce Lee exploded on the scene, the white guys think anything dragon or tiger is a symbol of the chinese)

Well, at least Sun Wukong is being mass marketed to the Western world as well. Good to see 4 of him here. Maybe they should take a cue from the power rangers and market 4 different variations of him. Haha.

Back to the car. The rear shots reveal a chunky and clean styling. Of course, there are some hints of an Mercedes coupe rear, but Geely designers have been smart enough to improvise and make the necessary changes.

 

A puzzling photo is that of the CD without a brake Caliper. Perhaps this being a concept car, the designers didn’t bother to add in a brake caliper. They’d bloody better have one when it goes on sale though! There’s already a lot of bad publicity about China made products. We don’t need more.

As for the engine….I’m pretty disappointed as well. Wikipedia mentions that its engine is a 1.5 L ‘Toyota Motor Corporation design’. It produces 94 hp (70 kW) at 6000 rpm. After the failure of the last Celica (1.8 vvti) I was hoping Geely would have some sense and design a 2.0 or 2.4 L DOHC Turbo engine. Then again, Wikipedia may not be 100% accurate or up to date everytime.

Will I buy this car? Lets put it this way. You meet a girl who looks nice and she’s super attractive, but inside everything has all gone wrong (in terms of character etc). She has a lot to work on before becoming someone’s girlfriend!

Sad to say, my 1st choice for a budget coupe will still be the Hyundai Tiburon because of build quality and cost. But if China cars continue to improve in their styling, build quality and engine power, I may own a Dragon in my garage. But not now.