A facelift too far

[Pillock]

... aka "flogging a dead horse"

 

Whilst looking for Montego-fronted-Maestros, I found the following picture:

 

 

That is NOT a Subaru Forester. It's a Yema SQJ6451. So it's just another Chinese domestic copy of a mainstream car, right? Except.... cover the front with your hand. Look at the A-pillars back. See that? See? It's a fugging Montego Estate! They bought the tooling, and glued a Forester front on it! Genius, and abysmal all at the same time.

 

Anything else you can find that's been facelifted out of all recognitition?

[Station]

God, would you look at the chrome plated plastic and 'cluster' headlights. It looks dated already.

[transfer]

Thing is, those Chinamen will be learning loads playing around with cars like that. Chance is we'll be driving their stuff in 30 years. (Plenty would have ridiculed the idea back in the 70s that our Police would have used BMWs and Citroens within 20 years...) What is so hideously wrong with it, using British tooling which otherwise would have been sent for scrap. Have some sentiment for the production lines as well as the cars themselves.

[Mr Lobster]

Thing is, those Chinamen will be learning loads playing around with cars like that. Chance is we'll be driving their stuff in 30 years.

I don't doubt that for a moment. Sure, a lot of their output isn't great at the moment but in a few years time they'll probably be churning out some half decent tin which will probably make it to Hirst Cabs 2030 fleet.

[autofive]

great stuffat least the montego has been successfully crash testedwhy design anything when you can buy the tooling and use a tried and tested design

[chester drawers]

A forum full of sneering American VW "enthusiasts" cracking rice paper jokes (Google the Yema model designation and you’ll find it). None of its contributors has ever purchased anything made in China. Of course not.Similar minded folk had a good laugh at the developing Japanese / Korean / Indian car industries too :roll:There's a bloke around the corner from here who imports containers of all sorts from China. If I wasn't perennially skint I'd ask him to quote for shipping one of those on principle. Even if it is shit.

[maxpower]

from one fucked up facelift to another

 

[Father Ted]

Ummm, I quite like it. Actually I quite like a lot of stuff they churn out.

[Rocket88]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^so do I..........

[morris_ital_lover]

Chance is we'll be driving their stuff in 30 years

I'd say a mere 10 years is all we have to being overrun by chiinese cars, they are alreay slowly eencroaching on the contitnent in places like spain....m0rris

[Pillock]

I wasn't really offering an opinion on the car - all I can find is official press stuff (which says it's great) and a rushed testdrive around the factory site (which says it's badly built...)I was more OMGing at the fact they looked at the Montego and thought "Hmmmm. Offroader, definately" and went with that plan. That was the genius bit - the abysmal bit was the fact they stuck that front on it to copy the Forester, when it could have been sold outside China without that. As it stands. Subaru would sue their asses off if that ever crossed the waters.

[Lukas]

The back-end and the interieur is very Forester-like too, only the windows are wrong.

[Milford Cubicle]

It looks ok in the pictures, though I imagine it falls to pieces in person.

[GJR 11L]

...I was more OMGing at the fact they looked at the Montego and thought "Hmmmm. Offroader, definately"........

Land Rover had the same idea, back in the pre-Ford days. The Freelander test mules were built around Montego Estate shells. Now a 4x4 Montego Estate with a bit of ground clearance would surely have saved Austin-Rover. Wouldn't it?Maybe not then.

[Milford Cubicle]

 

Close.

[autofive]

wasnt there a 214 4x4?i seem to remember seeing one, looking too tall, unstable and cramped

[Milford Cubicle]

I think you imagined that.

[whitevanman]

 

Close.

OOOFFFFFF !!!!! I like that

[oldford]

You won't have to wait 20 years, there are plans to have them on sale here in the 3rd or 4th quarter this year. One Chinese manufacturer has been working with a UK based importer for a number of years and this manufacturer has capacity to produce 800,000 vehicles a year.

[brammy777]

wasnt there a 214 4x4?i seem to remember seeing one, looking too tall, unstable and cramped

Possibly thinking of the Rover Metro based ADC Scout, that ticks all those three boxes. That Maestro mule reminds me of a Transit I saw the other day with an impossibly wide wheelbase, pretty much no rubber was under the arches.

[VWPowered]

...I was more OMGing at the fact they looked at the Montego and thought "Hmmmm. Offroader, definately"........

Land Rover had the same idea, back in the pre-Ford days. The Freelander test mules were built around Montego Estate shells. Now a 4x4 Montego Estate with a bit of ground clearance would surely have saved Austin-Rover. Wouldn't it?Maybe not then.

i'll take a 4x4 Montego

[CIH]

SPeaking of post-BL group motors and one-facelift-too-many, the late shape Rover 75;

 

 

I imagine al the other MG cack would fit in there too

[Pete-M]

I like those late 75s when they're V8 powered.

[Milford Cubicle]

The 75 facelift isn't too bad, though arguably it didn't need a facelift.

[Station]

I like those Rover 75's, probably the nicest car Rover have ever made, and it was one of their last!Still think that first Chinese model is rank, I'd rather have a Montego.

[Negative Creep]

Say bonjourrrrrno to the latest Grande Punto

 

 

so it's the old one, with a bit of plastic on the grille. They pay designers for this?

[Milford Cubicle]

The old Grande Punto was quite a pretty car, albeit with a front overhang like a bus. Why uglify it?When cars were designed "right" they didn't need any major facelifts - see most Peugeots of the 1980s and 1990s.

[Albert Ross]

Too right. What did they EVER do to the 205 or 305 to improve it's face?

[Milford Cubicle]

They put some clear indicator lenses on the 205, that's about it.The 405 was even more impressive! They didn't touch it at all apart from giving the saloon a deeper boot recess and redesigned rear lights in the early '90s.

[Guest]

However.....