DR3 & DR5: Toyota RAV4 copycat made in China, assembled in Italy using Fiat engine!

Wow, it can’t get weirder than this or can it… From the initial facts that we’ve got in our hands, the 3door DR3 and its 5door equivalent, the DR5 that made their world premier at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy are the works of Massimo Di Risio, an ex-pilot who now is a car distributor in Insernia.

There’s no doubt about it that their interior and exterior design (ok, the front part looks like a Suzuki Grand Vitara) are inspired –to say the least, by the previous generation Toyota RAV4. As if that wasn’t enough listen to this: the car’s body which is made in China is shipped over to Italy where it’s assembled on a platform using Fiat’s 120 Hp 1.9 Turbodiesel engine!

The press release tells us that the DR3 has a length of 3.850 mm with a wheelbase of 2.280 while the larger 5door DR5 rides on a 2.510mm wheelbase and is 4.285 mm long. 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) comes in 12,4 sec while top speed is 174km/h –DR say’s both versions have the same performance figures (…).

According to the info we managed to translate from DR, the 3door and 5door versions of the Chinese/Italian SUV will go on sale in March with prices starting from about 16.000 euros! We’ll try to learn more about the DR3 and DR5 SUV’s and post them up as soon as possible.

Technorati: DR3, DR5, Chinese+Cars, China, autos, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, autos, Carscoop, images, pictures, Bologna+Motor+Show

Chinese Cadillac clone - Maple Marindo 506

We have already seen a bunch of them: Smart Fortwo, Fiat Panda, Scion xA & xB, Ferrari P38 and God knows how many other Chinese clones so what would stop them from cloning a Caddy? The answer is nothing! Ha, Ha!

The elegantly named... Maple Marindo 506 is a “Caddilzed” Citroen ZX sedan! Guess they read their history when it came to choosing the body host as Cadillac was named after the 17th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan in 1701. Looks like what goes around comes around for Cadillac. If you can recall the Euro-only, Cadillac BLS, is practically a Saab 9-3 Sedan in disguise!

Hey, here’s an idea, Cadillac should team up with the Chinese and make a sales pitch to the European market enticing them with a cheaper and smaller version of the BLS aimed at the BMW 1 Series and Audi A3 fans… Via: Autoblog.it

Technorati: Maple+Marindo+506, China, Cadillac, car+clones, autos, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, images, pictures, Carscoop

Geely Fengyin - Auto China 2006 Concept

Holly Geelymobile! Bet you Bruce Wayne would just love hopping into this one and going for a spin in traffic prone Gotham-Wang City. Fortunately, for Mr. Wayne, aka Batman, this is just a concept put in place by Chinese car company Geely. Word has it that the ‘Fengyin’ (hey maybe this could be Mr. Penguin’s ride!) will be shown at the Auto China 2006 car show that runs from the 21st to the 27th of November in Beijing.

Technorati: Geely+Fengyin, China+cars, Auto+China+2006, autos, Batmobile, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, images, pictures, Carscoop

Chinese Smart Fortwo Copycat gets the boot

EH EH EH – Not so Fast! Looks like Chinese automaker Shandong Huoyun stopped production of their two-person electric car, aka the Smart ForTwo copycat, due to complaints from DaimlerChrysler -wonder why... According to Automotivenews, “doody hit the fan” when a big mouth manager referred to the new vehicle as the Smart car in a magazine interview.

So how on earth did Shandong Huoyun conjure up the same design to make their copycat Smart car. Well, the Chinese say that they used a toy model purchased via the internet! To avoid hurt feeling with the German carmaker and lawsuits galore for that matter, Shandong Huoyun will reconfigure the car shortening it by 7.9 inches and by changing the doors, rear end and cargo capacity. Via: Automotivenews

Technorati: Smart+Fortwo, HuoYun, Electromobile, China, Germany, green+cars, ecology, electric+cars, autos, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles

GreatWalls of Copycat Part 2: More on the Chinese Fiat/Nissan & Scion/Toyota clones

We just got our hands on a new set of photos concerning Great Wall's Europan and Japanese clones. Starting off with the Fiat Panda clone, it looks like the Chinese automaker's designers (now that's a good one..), took the body of the Italian minicar and dressed it with a few bits and parts from Nissan's Note mini-MPV.

And since they got the recipe right with the Panda clone they decided to do the same with the Scion xA knock off by giving it a Toyota Yaris face job! We must admit though that did their best to stay as close as possible to the original model when it came to the CoolB AR which is "based" on the Scion xB. And we were wondering what the heck were all those Chinese 'journalists' doing with their papers and stencils stuck on every single car during the Paris Show media days...

Technorati: Greatwall, Scion+xA, Scion+xB, copy, clones, Toyota+Yaris, Fiat+Panda, Nissan+Note, Greatwall+CoolB+AR, China, scoop, autos, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, Carscoop

Great...Walls of fire - Chinese clones of Fiat Panda & Scion xA & xB ?

Though we can't be entirely sure for their authenticity, its not as if it's the first time we've seen Chinese car manufactures attempting to clone European or Japanese models -see for example the Smart Fortwo clone.

This time it looks like Fiat and Scion are about to get the China-cloning treatment. The perpetrator is Great Wall Motors (remember them at the Paris Show?) and the victims are the Fiat Panda and the Scion xA & xB. But hey, wait a sec, all three cars seem to have different front ends than their parents...

Technorati: Fiat+Panda, Scion+xA, Scion+xB, China, GreatWall, clone, autos, images, photos, pictures, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, autos, Carscoop

ROEWE 750E: SAIC reveals official pics of it's Rover 75 based sedan

Before some of you start screaming "COPY CAT", know that this Rover 75 based sedan is 100% legitimate. The owner of the newly established ROEWE car company is Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp (SAIC) and it has bought the intellectual property rights to build Rover's 75 in 2005.

The 750E will be officially unveiled at the Beijing Auto show, which runs from Nov 17 to 28 and there are rumors that SAIC has plans to export the 750E to Europe and the US in the near future. Mmm, I wonder if ROEWE is pronounced "Rong Wei" in Chinese... Via: Jalopnik

Technorati: ROEWE+750E, SAIC, Shanghai+Automotive+Industrial+Corp, China, Rover+75, autos, images, official+photos, pictures, auto+news, car+news, automobile, cars, automotive, vehicles, autos, Carscoop