CDNLive

One of the more interesting elements of the Chinese auto show is the latter word – ‘show’. Vice-Presidents and CEOs rarely give presentations highlighting their new vehicles or the company’s current sales figures, nor do they speak about their goals regarding the anticipated performance of their vehicles in light of the market’s needs.

As I walked around on the second press day, I was blindsided by a press conference at First Auto Works (FAW) that featured a multitude of girls wearing colorful outfits dancing to loud music; one of them was hanging from a trapeze swing hanging from the ceiling! It’s really more Cirque de Soleil than Auto Show…

Eric Gallina

Shanghai 2011: can someone turn the volume down please?

cdnlive — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:46:53 +0000

There’s a somewhat disturbing trend happening in Shanghai, that’s been making it incredibly hard for us to do our jobs. It concerns noise. The approach of most of the domestic manufacturers seems to have been one of ‘if our music and PA system is loudest, we’ll attract the most attention’. Dishonarable mention here goes to Renault, whose PA system was just intolerably loud – and sat completely at odds with the striking, yet composed voluminous forms of the DeZir.

While this might sound like a journalistic winge, it genuinely creates serious issues and meant we ended up moving off some show stands long before we’d have done given tolerable volumes. To give you some idea of the scenario, think of the last time you were in a club, trying to have a conversation with a friend. You end up yelling down each others ears to make yourselves understood. Now imagine those kinds of volume when you’re trying to interview someone. On video.

So please, to the guys in charge of the show stands, could you turn down the volume? We’ll still come and cover your cars – promise. Then next time, we might be able to get some video of the designers too… and not go home each night with our ears ringing and our heads hurting.

Joe Simpson

Buick Envision – a vision of something else?

cdnlive — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:30:39 +0000

Buick is one of, if not the, most successful and well-known ‘import’ car brand in China. GM has reaped the rewards of investing heavily in China so clearly, there’s some logic in taking the brand into the Crossover/SUV space, a market that’s set to mushroom in the next few years. Yet this Buick concept confused many observers, including us. It’s not bad, per-se, yet nor, crucially, does it bring anything new or innovative to the SUV concept party. Most worryingly it also fails to feel in any way authentically Buick.

Strip the clumsily-resolved waterfall grille from the front and you’re left with a car that feels like a mixture of design elements we’ve seen from other OEMs recently, particularly Mazda. It’s clear to see that some of the ideas behind its surface treatment were interesting and powerful in their own right, but zoom in on them and there’s an awkaward clash of lines and some difficult surface intersections. In fact, many of these are so sharp and acute that, considered as a whole with its interior (which in theme and colour and trim treatment reminds us of the ULC concept), we actually think this vehicle would fit better under GM’s Cadillac brand. The question is, does this matter for the Chinese market? Thoughts in the comments please.

Joe Simpson

Trends: Anime avatars

cdnlive — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:27:55 +0000

Anime characters are usually associated with Japan, with seemingly every piece of packaging, advertisement and product endorsed by an avatar.

It’s interesting to note that the trend appears to have taken a hold of the Chinese car industry too. Numerous dashboard toys, mascots and extrovertly human DRGs popped up on many domestic manufacturers’ stands.

Having previously developed super-sophisticated in-car avatars, it’s surprising that Japanese manufacturers haven’t spotted the demand and owned this lucrative space.

Owen Ready

Changan Chlover concept tips hat to Gandini

Eric Gallina — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:13:51 +0000

It’s been said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Well there is certainly a lot of that going on here in China. Though better than in years past, there are still numerous vehicles that are blatent copies of current or former production vehicles on show.

The Changan Chlover isn’t a blatent copy. Instead, it takes a rather successful era of design and attempts to transplant these elements onto a smaller economy car. Somehow I don’t think Marcello Gandini would be flattered…

Eric Gallina

Ride height: local factors, or something else?

cdnlive — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:55:47 +0000

We’ve noticed that several cars on show stands with over-exaggerated ride heights. To our eyes – given the importance of the wheel to body relationship and the size of the gaps in the wheel arch – this looks pretty awful.

However, we’re guessing that it might have something to do with these cars needing to cope with poor road conditions, thus the need for extended suspension travel in certain areas of the country. So is this the case, or is it simply poor design, or something else altogether…? Answers in the comments below please.

Joe Simpson

Award: Worst in show

cdnlive — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:49:06 +0000

Despite having the choice of a fair few clangers at this year’s Shanghai show, the winner of this most inauspicious award was an easy one to choose.

Having been pumped full of kitsch, bombarded by scores of hilarious knock-offs and knocked around the face by extreme visions of ugliness for two days it takes a certain something to shock onlookers into spontaneous hysterics.

Panels so badly rendered as to call them ‘surfaced’ would be an affront to the skill, a face that sank a thousands ugly sticks and the most blatant ‘reference’ imaginable (Nissan 350Z if you hadn’t spotted it from half a mile away).

Hands together (or you may prefer them over your eyes) for the oh-so-ironically-named Gleagle GS.

Owen Ready

Trend: sliver door handles

cdnlive — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:32:19 +0000

It’s been around for a while now, but as the opening of doors comes to rely less on a mechanical latch and phyiscal human force, sliver-like door handles (either touch sensitive, or ones that push in to pop out and pull) are becoming increasingly common.

Their flush, reduced-in-size nature creates a much cleaner, uninterrupted body side, and is allowing ever more complex arrays of surface creases, or voluptuously formed surfaces, to shine. Yet the point of this post is to illustrate just how quickly Chinese design is catching the established marques, and how sharply the various brands here now jump on detailing trends. Can you identify which of these door handles belongs to a Chinese car. Clue: technically, there are actually two…

Joe Simpson

Brilliance FRV showcases Cross taste

Eric Gallina — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:06:51 +0000

We’ve seen plenty of strangely personalized vehicles at the Shanghai auto show this year, but we’re not passing judgement on taste here. We’re just foreigners in a foreign land after all. But there was one car that had so much aftermarket adendum attached to it that it looked like something out of a lowrider show, not than something you’d find on the major international show circuit.

That car was this FRV Cross, which Chinese automaker Brilliance chose to exhibit at the Shanghai show. Though launched a few years ago and readily available on the open market, this personalized version of the car shocked many of us with its chrome accents around the wheelarches, two-toned paint, chrome trimmed taillamps, Dayton-like wire wheels and chrome-look plastic trim in the interior, but it was its ‘pleather’ seating that reminded me of a 1980s-era taxi cab from my native NYC.

Is this type of kitch really what Chinese customers want?

Eric Gallina