As car and bike people, we all have our cherished beliefs. Some believe that style is more important than substance while others think performance is king when it comes to sports cars. While I’m uncertain what percentage holds those views, I’m willing to bet that the number that actually likes some aspect of driving is greater than either of them. However, in the general human populace, there are probably more people that believe in the survival of the fittest than those that like driving.

Survival of the fittest is an idea often attributed to Darwin, but it’s so simple that I believe some caveman probably came up with it at some point. Unfortunately for that caveman, literature hadn’t been invented at that time and so his brilliant idea was lost to antiquity and credit for the idea unjustly given to Darwin. Then again, history has always been a cruel bastard.

Now it seems that lately we’ve been getting monthly reminders that China is a power on the rise and will soon become the new overlord of the world. In other worlds, China is fit and getting fitter and soon everything will probably be absorbed Borg-like by China. We’ll live in houses built by Chinese concrete, eating food from Chinese farms, watching Chinese made TV, wearing Chinese clothes, and driving Chinese cars.

Yes Chinese cars. We’ll all be driving Chinese cars. Luckily I had a bit of a preview on that. Now I’ve been working mostly in China for the last few months and will continue to do so until the summer. Across the street from my apartment is a supermarket and a few weeks ago Haima, Mazda’s Chinese partner, were showing of some of their products in the parking lot. They brought three cars; all three based on Mazdas. Being Mazda’s Chinese partner, Haima can use Mazda IP and so manufacture their own version of Mazdas. Yes these were Chinese Domestic Market cars. CDM yo!

The cars shown were copies of the current Mazda 2, the last generation Mazda Protege, and the previous generation Mazda Premacy (a tall Protege based wagon). Plastic quality and fit and finish was a bit… apathetic. Panel alignment especially seemed like it was performed by high school shop kids (I wouldn’t be surprised). However, the most interesting bit was the tupperware kit on the Premacy. This kit consisted of an airdam, some side sills, and rear sills, though it seemed to have been designed not to follow the contours of a body. Apparently, either the designers or the fabricators believed one straight edge is fine for alignment, screw curves. The paint also seemed like it was sprayed with a high pressure hose rather than a spraygun. However, the most interesting bit was how the kit was attached. In place of plastic fasteners, double sided tape, flush screws, etc. etc., it was apparently decided that they would use wood screws. Now luckily the wood screws were flush head, but of course the installers had the same definition of flush installation as drifters and VIP people. Basically, the screws were cambered out at all sorts of weird angles and so were anything BUT flush. Frankly, the lack of design attention was appalling. They could’ve hired me for an hour of work and I could’ve designed a better solution.

So why should you care about all this? Well, apparently with China taking over the world, we’re all going to be subjected to level of fit and finish as we end up buying our cars in Walmart for $3,999.99, with a further 10% discount on Black Friday. I hope you like woodscrew held bodykits.

I may or may not post pictures about this in the future.

(Actually I’m a firm believer that the Chinese automakers will rapidly improve their quality and will become a world player soon. However, in the meantime it’s still fun to talk about the snafus of people who design cars who have probably never driven a car in their lives. Next thing you know some Chinese company, probably SAIC, Brilliance, or Geely, will pull a Hyundai and then the jokes end…)