Chinese cars

I've had my BYD EV for 18 months now, and I absolutely love it, it has every single toy imaginable on it (it even drives itself if I let it) cost me £3.50 a week to charge and only costs £220 a month (car, insurance, tax, maintenance, tyres etc) via salary sacrifice. I test drove both the Mercedes EQA and the Audi etron and to be honest, I didn't really like them, the BYD was just better, fast a fuck, as well.
I do have another car though which is a Mercedes SLC AMG, so I have best of both worlds, but I drive them equally.
 
I think the Chinese cars represent fantastic value for money. Their EV's are actually leading the way.

However, there are some quirks that people who drive them daily will notice over time.
The biggest drawback is dealer support. We also don't know how they will fair long term yet, as we have no history of them. Then there's driving dynamics and quality differences. No matter how hard they try, the cheapness eventually shows through.
It's the same with Lexus, no matter how many i drive, i can never get away from the feeling that i'm still in a posh Toyota.

My EV is just as fast as my last Audi. Yet there isn't a cat in hells chance of it taking a bend the same. Drive a German car for a while, and then jump in just about any car brand and the difference in handling can be stark. So on paper and in a straight line, the Chinese cars look good. Behind the wheel, not so much. The Korean brand Hyundai are taking handling and dynamics seriously in their N models.

If you are not really into cars, then the Chinese brands are well worth a look. If you do love your cars, i feel they are still worth a look, but maybe they are not just there "yet".
The depot of the company I work for, have bought 6 of them over the last 2 months.

A couple of times, the first 2 we got ((Maxus) have had problems where an engineer had to visit the depot, to sort out faults.

Last week, a van with 1000 miles on the clock had major battery issues. Van picked up yesterday by supplier.

Thus morning, a fully charged van, with only 120 miles done, had a massive system failure. Waiting for suppliers to contact us.

To say the drivers are unhappy with them, is an understatement.
 
Just read on What Car, the top 5 most reliable cars in the UK, 4 are Japanese.

Honda, Suzuki, Toyota & Lexus.
 
The depot of the company I work for, have bought 6 of them over the last 2 months.

A couple of times, the first 2 we got ((Maxus) have had problems where an engineer had to visit the depot, to sort out faults.

Last week, a van with 1000 miles on the clock had major battery issues. Van picked up yesterday by supplier.

Thus morning, a fully charged van, with only 120 miles done, had a massive system failure. Waiting for suppliers to contact us.

To say the drivers are unhappy with them, is an understatement.
EV vans from all brands are terrible in general at the moment. Way too expensive and criminally small ranges.
I've not really heard of too many faults from the lads i work with though. Saying that, none are Chinese vans though.
 
Citroens are great when they are running well but a nightmare to sort out if something goes wrong.
My best car was a pre DPF 2006 Citroen C4 Coupe. I've commented on it on here before. Bought used with many many miles.
Ran without a hitch for six years. Used by all the family and friends. Passed every MOT. Sold to my local garage. Used as a courtesy car for a year and then sold to one of his customers. It's still going without fault!

Doesn't mean i would buy another one though. I know i just got lucky!
 
Citroens are great when they are running well but a nightmare to sort out if something goes wrong.

I had a C4 Spacetourer earlier this year, automatic it was really good but making the temp controls all touchscreen was a fucking pain in the arse and dangerous imo. Now I'm cutting about in a nearly 19 year old 9 seater Vito love it 174k on the clock can easily do double if the rust doesn't destroy the subframe first.
 
I suppose anything with the legendary "made in Hong Kong" tagline is technically Chinese now, since Maggie (gawd bless 'er) sold them out to the Chinese.
 

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