Just saw this article this morning. Chinese knockoff of a Land Rover Evoque sitting NEXT to the actual Evoque at a Chinese auto show. Shameless!
I think the counterfeit tires would be more of a problem with the “private label” tires than with the major brands. Brands like Marshall and Jupiter come and go every couple of years. For all I know they’re the same company just changing names. But I try to steer people away from those.
It’s not just the tires though. Lots of those bling aftermarket oversize wheels are of “offhshore” origin and questionable quality. They’re hard to balance, peel and corrode quickly and crack at the first curbshot. Repairing damaged wheels is a booming industry these days.
Used to be I’d see a car with Cragar, Appliance, or even Prime or Enkei rims, shod with Goodyear or BF Goodrich tires and think “Hey, those are some nice wheels.” Now I see a Kasino Ace wheel with a Wingro tire and think “What the hell…?”
The counterfeit car phenomenon is much more extreme than most people realize, and it is the result of the Chinese government’s refusal to recognize international copyrights, and also to the lack of sophistication of most consumers in that country.
I can recall seeing a photo of a Chinese-made Jeep Cherokee imitation several years ago, and–from a distance–it would probably fool someone who hadn’t seen too many of the real item. One can only imagine what would happen to any of these vehicles in a head-on collision, but I would be willing to wager a cup of coffee that they fold up like an old card table.
Take a look at Top Gear’s photo gallery of Chinese-made fake vehicles:
http://www.topgear.com/au/photos/fake-cars-of-beijing-2012?imageNo=0
Yep, then there are all the counterfeit electronics being bought by the defense department. Never know if they are real or not until you pull the trigger and then its too late.
I would be interested to know if the Chinese knock off is more or less reliable. Any cases where the knock off actually made a better product ? There is a lot of this going on to a point it stretches the patent regulations here at home too. The difference is, here at home there is some regulatory system in place to adjudicate it here in this country while trade agreements seem inept.
As manufacturing expands all over the globe and cheap labor builds the products we regularly use, you have to expect there will always be attemps to profit on any success of these products from the areas we take advantage of. We are a rich but gullible nation in deep need of the gratification name recognition brings. I feel for the most part, those mostly taken advantage of are those looking for the cheap and easy way out to begin with. I wonder how many people strolled into a Hyundai show room thinking they were buying a Honda (like car) when they first arrived.
Really, what do we expect ? We have GM (and others world wide) moving manufacturing plants with all this car making technology to China. Does anyone think they are just going to ship out cars with a GM logo on them. Heck no ! The probably have a room full of different logos and grills to paste on any product to sell to the world wide gullible.
I dunno, I think it may be a stretch to think that the knock offs are better quality. Usually they have just used the same molds or reverse engineered the stuff to look the same and thats it. I remember I went to one of those truck load sales of mainly Chinese stuff. I bought something and don’t remember what but while at the truck, a guy was returning a grinder he just bought. Plugged it in and ran for a minute and poof, that was it. He said it was the second one that day he was returning so he just wanted his money back. Looked just like a $150 quality grinder though. Maybe the grinding wheels would blow apart if they ran more than a couple minutes so it was a built in safety feature.
I would be interested to know if the Chinese knock off is more or less reliable. Any cases where the knock off actually made a better product ?
I’ve dealt with Chinese manufacturing on and off for years. I’m NOT impressed. Detail in workmanship is good at best…Most seem to be put together as fast as possible.
My next door neighbor is an inventor, and he designed an ergonomic snow shovel that is much less likely to cause you to wrench your back while shoveling. When it came to manufacturing his product in bulk, he really had no choice but to farm it out to a Chinese factory if he wanted to be able to sell it at a reasonable price.
However, it turned out that the Chinese factory did not manufacture it to his specs, and by shortening the handle’s shaft where it enters the blade/scoop of the shovel, they made a sturdy design into one that was prone to breakage. He subsequently got them to manufacture the shovel properly, but in the meantime, their refusal to follow his design specs (obviously in order to save a few cents on materials) managed to tarnish his product’s reputation while it was in its infancy.
“I would be interested to know if the Chinese knock off is more or less reliable”
That is like asking if the Chinese-made knock-offs of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada purses sold (for about 10% of the price of the genuine items) on the sidewalks of NYC are as well-made as the genuine items.
What do YOU think?
I have an electric kettle that looks exactly like a Sunbeam model with the white and blue exterior. However, the Sunbeam name is nowhere to be found. I bought it at a discount outlet in Moses lake, Washington for $8.95.
So far it has performed as well as the Sunbeam model, so the factory basically ran Sunbeams one day and knockoffs the next.
All over Asia you can find electrical appliances that look very familiar to US brand names, with all sorts of imaginative names such as Golden Glory, etc.
My memory is hazy on this but weren’t there some issues with F-15 or F-22 aircraft a couple of years ago that was traced back to some lousy Chinese electronics?
Par for the course. The Chinese have no morals when it comes to business. They do anything they want, any time they want.
“The Chinese have no morals when it comes to business. They do anything they want, any time they want.”
My theory–which you can accept or reject as you see fit–is that a country that has no tradition of Judeo-Christian morals and ethics is not likely to see much exercise of what we consider to be sound moral judgment when it comes to business practices.
Then, when you factor in the reality of their emergence from a total Communist state to a Communist state that allows for some free enterprise, their new-found LUST for wealth overrides all other considerations. People who lived in abject poverty for many generations will do almost anything in order to become affluent.
This is just my theory, of course.
I think I tend to agree with that theory but I dunno. In Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, I found the business people to be very aggressive but very customer oriented. You always got good value and went away happy. Even though the culture seems to promote lying and cheating-just expected. Then the folks in the Cheque Republic seemed to have very conscientious business people too. They were so happy to be free and rid of communism but needed to try very hard to catch up. But then Greece, a Catholic country, had the worst and laziest business people for a free country I ever saw. Painting with a pretty broad brush I know but still you pick up on a regional culture pretty quick. If the Chinese expect to be a major player in the long run though, they are going to have to clean up their act. They are quickly getting the reputation for junk and products that can’t be trusted. That won’t last for long.
Those tires though sure look worthless to me. Those aren’t what I would consider normal bulges.
Let’s see a road test of a Rover and a Rover knock off. (Knowing that it’s not soon coming) That specifically is what I was talking about…not Gucci. Rover is not the epitome of reliability. Don’t shoot the messenger. @Docnick. That’s exactly what I was referring too. We have sub contracted more then a few automobiles and parts by LEGITIMATE car makers from China; what makes everyone thing they are incapable of making a decent car ? Just putting a different label on a car does not make it worse. Of course there is a lot of Junk from China. There was at one time, junk from the USA auto manufacturer, Japanese, European maker etc. China does not have a patent on “junk”…consumer goods specifically. IMO, they are producing so much, it seems to permeate everywhere. There are some items like Doc implies, that have the same quality as the brands they are making goods for anyway. That’s my suggestion. Look at the labels on LLBean goods, the vaunted epitome of quality !
As a general rule in this world, you get what you paid for. I went to a BYD showroom to look at an F3, a corolla knockoff, and that was a waste of time. It had looks going do it, but everything was flimsy on the inside. I even found a dent on the outside. I bought a dongfeng in the end. It is a little more expensive and it isn’t much to look at. It may have incorporated design elements from other cars. But the quality is fairly decent. Mechanisms as simple as the shifter has less free play than my last, made in Japan, Toyota! I also bought a huawei in hong Kong earlier this year while my coworker bought one with a bigger screen for the same price in mainland China. His started to act funny within a month whereas mine runs smoothly from day one. In this global market, you can’t avoid Chinese products, but you are likely to get quality goods if you pay people fairly for their effort
Bing Wow! I rarely encounter someone who has visited somewhat “off the wall” places that I have. Calling Turkish venders very aggressive is an understatement. After finally escaping the carpet sellers I ended up dragging a little guy who was clamped to my ankle repeating “shoeshine mister”. I was wearing sneakers. A pair of Turk soldiers walked around the corner and he disappeared faster than a cockroach when the light comes on. The Czech’s appreciation of freedom was very refreshing. I wish it were still like that in our country. I had no bad experiences in Greece but like most places I did not buy anything. My wife bought a small gold bracelet but it was in an actual jewelry shop where the proprietor was very helpful.
My “worst set of tires” were not low profile like the tire in the photo (225/75/14) but had multiple bulges on the sidewalls and tread area. That is why they could not be balanced. The trusted independent shop that replaced them is family owned and in business since 1924. Their primary business is tires, wheels, brakes, and suspension. If they say the tires are unserviceable and dangerous, they are!
China makes high quality goods as well as low. Can’t be otherwise as they make just about everything, especially stuff that is labor intensive. Like many luxury goods. My sister works for Customs, classifying and inspecting goods that come into LA. Most from China. One of the biggest problems for her is the Chinese claiming their goods were made elsewhere to get around limits on imports. This is especially true of clothing, much of which is made in China then shipped to somewhere in SE Asia or South Asia, then shipped here. If you’re buying clothes made in Malaysia or Sri Lanka (or many other places) there is a good chance they were really made in a sweatshop in China.
One of the most counterfeited items were watches, where the fakes far outnumbered the real thing. Many ‘Rolexes’ were obviously fake, but others were very nice and very comparable to the real thing. The best way to avoid being cheated is to wear a cheap watch. It is very difficult to avoid fakes when so many are sold in reputable stores alongside the real thing. I’d also avoid expensive handbags. It’s almost impossible to tell good fake Louis Vinton from real.
One thing that has made it harder to identify counterfeits is outlet stores. Almost all the major brands make lower quality products to sell in their outlet stores. Consumer Reports had an article on this a few years ago and showed the outlet versions next to the full-price version. Cheaper materials, worse construction, cruder detailing, except in a rare few cases, mostly cheaper brands. In a couple of cases the outlet version was actually better. What it almost never was is the same. Very interesting. I wasn’t a fan of outlet stores before that article, but it just made clear again that you get what you pay for.
The knockoff cars are a big frustration for the automakers. They can’t afford to ignore China, but they’re required to partner with Chinese companies that steal their designs. The body panels are often interchangeable with the real thing, if of lower quality. They’re often the same parts sold here for repair work. I don’t think any of them are actually the same mechanically. They just look the same, for a lot less.
I think the Chinese are just killing themselves by doing this. They can’t export these models and they aren’t developing any nice cars of their own design. As long as Chinese buyers only want Lexus and BMW knockoffs (or the real thing) , why would Chinese automakers develop their own world-class brands? Until they do that they won’t have any decent cars to sell in the US or Europe. They should have seen how quickly the Korean brands went from making lousy cars no one wanted to being major makes. By now China could have had Kia or Hyundai competitors making interesting affordable cars.
db4690,
I’m sorry, but that bulge is caused by hitting an object. It is NOT a manufacturing issue. That sort of thing can happen to any tire - even the most reputable brands.