Made in China

Made in China

These days you can buy a Chinese fake version of almost anything for a fraction of the price of the original.

You can buy a carbon copy of the Honda 70 for half the price, or an iPhone look-a-like with a logo that shows an apple eaten from all sides…

Even cars from Chinese brands are not that uncommon these days.

Chery is one of the leading car makers from China. Their 800cc car “QQ” is

Chery QQ

becoming quite popular in Pakistan. And you have to give them the credit for making a car that offers a much better build quality, performance and more features than its rivals. And the best part is that even the top-spec model of this car costs nearly the same as the cheapest Suzuki Mehran, which, as we all know, is made of used tin foil.

The only thing that lets this car down is its looks. But don’t forget that Mehran doesn’t exactly look like the Mona Lisa either.

But I’m not very interested in talking about 800cc family cars right now. I want to talk about a car, made in China, which has just two seats, an electric folding roof and a 2.0 liter, 195 bhp, turbo-charged, petrol engine. Yes, Chinese sports cars are coming our way…

For those of you with large bank accounts and a fleet of cars parked outside, this might not be something to look forward to. But it is a very exciting piece of news for petrol-heads like me who love cheap thrills.

Chery M14

It’s called the Chery M14. It was introduced back in 2006 as a concept car. Designed by a car designer from Pininfarina, it was displayed in several car shows around the world and received a lot of appreciation from the public. It was promised that its mass production will start by the end of 2007. But it didn’t. And strangely after spending so much time and money designing and advertising this much awaited car, it seems that Chery have suddenly backed out of the cheap sports car business. There are no mentions about this car on their global website and the Chery Pakistan website lists it as an “upcoming model” whose mass production will start in 2007.

If this car ever goes into production, it will cost around $19,000 which roughly equates to 1.5 million (15 lac) rupees. For a car like this, trust me, it’s the biggest bargain in the world.

M14 interior

I know what you are thinking…you’re thinking that it will have a crap build quality like everything else made in China. Well, think again…because it can’t possibly get worse than the cars we are already used to, like the Suzuki Cultus or Toyota Corolla XLi which happen to be two of the highest selling cars in Pakistan. If we can live with these cars, we can live with anything. Bring it on Chery!

Let’s hope that the M14 goes into production soon and then other car companies from China also join the competition.