Chinese EVs and reviews

[andy43]

Worth a watch if you’re considering a Chinese EV.
Build your dollars with a positive review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBbiCrsk7RM

[Cupramax]

Yeah, watched that earlier, the Carwow review of the Jaecoo recently was more of an advert so that explains it. Good stuff from Jayemm

[napistonheads]

Ballsy. Not a huge fan of his delivery style but fair play to him calling this out. His point about what would happen if this were a German manufacturer doing this also rings true. Came up on a YouTube recommendation but only watched it after it was posted here thanks for flagging.

[kharma45]

Unfortunately not surprising at all.

[uktrailmonster]

Even with the bias, the Sealion 7 still manages to get pretty luke warm reviews. I think Carwow was praising it's styling, but I wasn't convinced at all. Carwow reviews are just garbage really.

[TheDrownedApe]

Wow. How to make an interesting article boring AF. Perhaps this is why I don't watch videos on YT.

Predictable behaviour but still very underhand. Who can we trust to review cars?

[uktrailmonster]

TheDrownedApe said:

Predictable behaviour but still very underhand. Who can we trust to review cars?

Some of the lesser known YT reviewers are trustworthy or at least might share your taste in cars - which is very subjective anyway. I have la few that I will take some note of, but rarely agree with everything they say. I think dedicated independent owner forums are the best for judging reliability issues, as I’ve noticed that most reviewers ignore these completely or barely mention them.

Nothing beats an extended personal test drive. I’ve driven cars after reading some reviews and thought that the reviewer must have been driving something else entirely or not being honest about it.

Even if you watch online reviews with the sound off, they can still be very useful in making your own mind up about the styling if the video quality is good.

[rodericb]

What was interesting about that case in Brazil was that the workers being exploited were Chinese construction workers shipped in. This practice is pretty rife in Africa (at least), where very few locals are employed in the build or operation of Chinese-owned investments.

[DT1975]

Talking of Chinese EV's If you're in the military think twice about a Chinese EV as you might be banned from parking on some military bases which is causing a bit of Inconvenience according to my lad who has an MG. Probably temporary, its meant to apply to components but they're picking on the makes instead.

[TheDrownedApe]

DT1975 said:

Talking of Chinese EV's If you're in the military think twice about a Chinese EV as you might be banned from parking on some military bases which is causing a bit of Inconvenience according to my lad who has an MG. Probably temporary, its meant to apply to components but they're picking on the makes instead.

I work for Babcock and there was a big list of stuff we had to do a while ago (whilst in the car) such as turning off tracking, location settings, cameras on the car etc. interestingly they only mentioned BYD and MG (perhaps Orca too but idk). I have a Volvo C40 and it seems I'm ok as it's Swedish

[wyson]

They were talking about this in another PH thread, they are suing influencers in China, where the laws are different. Tesla sues influencers too over there.

I ve watched many British youtube reviews say a ton of negative things about BYD, it really put me off even going for a test drive in one, when evaluating an EV family SUV recently. At the end of the day, what swung it to a firm no, was the poor efficiency of their Sealion 7, no influencer could overcome that cold hard fact.

Edited by wyson on Monday 23 June 16:53

[wyson]

TheDrownedApe said:

I work for Babcock and there was a big list of stuff we had to do a while ago (whilst in the car) such as turning off tracking, location settings, cameras on the car etc. interestingly they only mentioned BYD and MG (perhaps Orca too but idk). I have a Volvo C40 and it seems I'm ok as it's Swedish

It’s not just Chinese cars, the EU has passed the car cybersecurity bill recently because they recognised self driving cars are mobile sensor platforms and could become a national security threat.

If say, VW left their car camera systems unsecured, its a moot point if the vehicle is Chinese or not, if you can view a live video feed in a military base with a simple hack.

[drgoatboy]

I'm not sure this is particularly new, the main difference is Chinese law allows them to sue when they don't like what they hear (after they've paid them to say something good presumably)

Chris Harris was famously banned from Ferrari reviews after he accused them of not quite playing fair, and allegedly banned from Lamborghini reviews for criticising how flash they were.

It happens for pretty much all products reviewed on YouTube (although I think they have to declare it when that's the case?)

For me the blame here is actually those chasing the money, if you can pay someone to say your product is good why wouldn't you? It just makes it an advert right? Pistonheads themselves quite often run advertorials that read a lot like reviews. Ok it's a fine line if that advert is dressed up as an honest review but I don't think it's just the Chinese who does this....

[ChocolateFrog]

DT1975 said:

Talking of Chinese EV's If you're in the military think twice about a Chinese EV as you might be banned from parking on some military bases which is causing a bit of Inconvenience according to my lad who has an MG. Probably temporary, its meant to apply to components but they're picking on the makes instead.

Just peel the BYD logo off and stick a Polestar badge on.

A nice Swedish brand shouldn't raise any concerns.

[superpp]

DT1975 said:

Talking of Chinese EV's If you're in the military think twice about a Chinese EV as you might be banned from parking on some military bases which is causing a bit of Inconvenience according to my lad who has an MG. Probably temporary, its meant to apply to components but they're picking on the makes instead.

going past an MT section recently it looked like they had a fleet of MGs, or at least quite a few on the chargers there.

[Terminator X]

drgoatboy said:

I'm not sure this is particularly new, the main difference is Chinese law allows them to sue when they don't like what they hear (after they've paid them to say something good presumably)

Chris Harris was famously banned from Ferrari reviews after he accused them of not quite playing fair, and allegedly banned from Lamborghini reviews for criticising how flash they were.

It happens for pretty much all products reviewed on YouTube (although I think they have to declare it when that's the case?)

For me the blame here is actually those chasing the money, if you can pay someone to say your product is good why wouldn't you? It just makes it an advert right? Pistonheads themselves quite often run advertorials that read a lot like reviews. Ok it's a fine line if that advert is dressed up as an honest review but I don't think it's just the Chinese who does this....

Tbf though it should state that it is an advert if being paid for.

TX.

[Risonax]

drgoatboy said:

I'm not sure this is particularly new, the main difference is Chinese law allows them to sue when they don't like what they hear (after they've paid them to say something good presumably)

Chris Harris was famously banned from Ferrari reviews after he accused them of not quite playing fair, and allegedly banned from Lamborghini reviews for criticising how flash they were.

It happens for pretty much all products reviewed on YouTube (although I think they have to declare it when that's the case?)

For me the blame here is actually those chasing the money, if you can pay someone to say your product is good why wouldn't you? It just makes it an advert right? Pistonheads themselves quite often run advertorials that read a lot like reviews. Ok it's a fine line if that advert is dressed up as an honest review but I don't think it's just the Chinese who does this....

In general. Asia has rather strong defamation laws. A US tourist in Thailand was facing 2 years in prison after posting a 1-star hotel review.

In India, Mahindra sued an owner for posting negative reviews about their motorbikes:

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/anand-mahindra...

British law doesn't stop a car maker from suing over negative reviews. Doesn't mean you will win the lawsuit, but it would get heard. Tesla sued the BBC over a Top gear episode. It took several years to resolve. Tesla sues owners and journalists fairly routinely in China. Nikola wanted to sue Bloomberg.

China didn't invent SLAPP practice; the use of the courts by corporations to silence critics. I read that BYD has taken influencers to court and won some of those cases. So what happened in the cases they didn't win. I suppose ot news worthy/

I think its more a case the companies are exploiting under developed anti-SLAPP laws in these countries, and given the chance, they (any car maker) would do the same here.

[POIDH]

Surely the bigger issue is that if this is how they behave now, wait until you need a spare part or a recall or similar in a few years time?

+1 on not buying a Chinese 'bargain' car.

[Silvanus]

I had 4 MG HS's in a town on short leases for work (not my choice). Initially they come across as being pretty decent cars, a lot of car and kit for the money and actually very comfortable, then you start to notice things. To say they are glitchy and poorly built is an understatement, the tech is terrible bordering on dangerous, the active safety in my last one actually caused an accident.

People in our team are now refusing to have them. There is a reason MG is now the lowest ranked car brand in the Driver Power surveys. Other than them being dangerous, I really can't think why you'd buy one with your own money. Without the big hire car fleets and Motability, I don't think MG would be doing quite so well (not according the the aftercare guy at the garage I got to chat too on more occasions than I'd liked to have needed too).

[CoreyDog]

Silvanus said:

I had 4 MG HS's in a town on short leases for work (not my choice). Initially they come across as being pretty decent cars, a lot of car and kit for the money and actually very comfortable, then you start to notice things. To say they are glitchy and poorly built is an understatement, the tech is terrible bordering on dangerous, the active safety in my last one actually caused an accident.

People in our team are now refusing to have them. There is a reason MG is now the lowest ranked car brand in the Driver Power surveys. Other than them being dangerous, I really can't think why you'd buy one with your own money. Without the big hire car fleets and Motability, I don't think MG would be doing quite so well (not according the the aftercare guy at the garage I got to chat too on more occasions than I'd liked to have needed too).

Similar experience after having a hire MG HS for a couple of weeks. Brand new with about 3k miles on it.

First impression was good, as you say comfortable with lots of kit and inoffensive styling and interior.

After a few days though the niggles began. Randomly no audio at all, wife googled it as was using the sat nav and apparently a very common issue, basically shut the car off and restart but happened multiple times in the 2 weeks. Despite the interior being none offensive, could tell the materials were very cheap with lots of rattles, squeaks and cheap Chinese shiny plastics that I can’t imagine holding up well longer term.

Surprisingly it didn’t drive too bad, motorway was comfortable but did feel unrefined. Off the motorway though it wasn’t so good, lots of body roll and steering always felt very vague and loose.