Lifan 320 MINI ripoff to debut at Beijing Motor Show [BMW Lawyers Standing By]

www.autoblog.com ^ | 04/18/2008 | Staff

[Red Badger]

The production version of Lifan's egregious MINI clone is set to debut this weekend at the Beijing Motor Show. The Lifan 320 as it's called has an 87-horsepower 1.3L underhood that drives the front wheels alone. We're sure that Lifan will point to the car's standard 5-door hatchback layout as evidence that its not a true MINI copy, but let's all be serious here. Droopy headlights, fat D-pillars and traditional placement of the extra doors don't temper the blatant rip-offedness of this Grade D doppelganger. Even the wheels are copies. On a more amusing note, who knew MINI's humorous old "counterfeit" ad campaign would wind up being so prescient? BMW lawyers are likely standing by, as is the Counter Counterfeit Commission.

[Red Badger]

Cheap Chinese Knock-off...........

[Slapshot68]

Yup, in looks only.

“The Lifan 320 as it’s called has an 87-horsepower 1.3L underhood that drives the front wheels alone.”

Standard Mini comes with twice that HP.

[Red Badger]

Like those $50 Rolladex Watches......

[illiac]

Probably has lead-based paint....

[MindBender26]

My $32 Rorex works wonderfully!

[Squawk 8888]

Actually sounds more like the original Mini from the 1970s. Yes, I’m old enough to remember when the Mini and the Beetle were cheap ****boxes.

[CJ Wolf]

and uses leaded gas.

[Yo-Yo]

Is your MINI genuine?

[Red Badger]

Probably has lead-based paint....

And melamine......

[Red Badger]

You mean it’s not Ronery?.........

[Red Badger]

Cute.......

[TexasRepublic]

Standard Mini comes with twice that HP.

And nothing is free - with additional cubic displacement and higher horsepower comes lower gas mileage. The American market is obsessed with performance at the expense of economy.

[paulcissa]

Cheap Chinese Knock-off...........

Not worth the morning spit from my Mini's tailpipes.

[steve86]

I’m not as concerned with the power as reliability. Some of the Chinese Honda-ripoff motorcycle engines have been known to spin bearings within a half hour from new. Not necessarily Lifans.

[steve86]

But the efficiency is so crappy in the Chinese motors. I would be willing to bet that the Chinese copycat motorcycle engines get no better gas mileage than the original Japanese engines with much more power.

[al_c]

Mini Cooper + Yugo =

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Alec Issigonis wept.

[ltc8k6]

The engine in the copy probably gets no better mileage than the original.

[MindBender26]

I also have a beautiful $80 Bleitling. Wore it into a Rolex store in Las Vegas. Salesmen went ga-ga.

They said only 1000 of these $27,500 Breitlings had been made, etc, they has never seen one before, yade yada yada.

Snobby idiots!

:~)

[TexasRepublic]

But the efficiency is so crappy in the Chinese motors. I would be willing to bet that the Chinese copycat motorcycle engines get no better gas mileage than the original Japanese engines with much more power.

I agree. But if the makers of quality cars concentrated on small engines and modest horsepower, they could increase mileage. Yes, performance would suffer, but how much power do you really need to drive a tin can instead of hot rod?