Thread: the chinese connection

two things today...

1. I read a road test on the new Cannon X dual cab 4wd. The guy and his mate doing the test were extremely impressed with the vehicle all round except for Australia's stupid obsession with acceleration. Anyway they claim it will knock the hats off the "leading" competitors in 4wd dual cab stakes.....big call , but as they said list price of similarly equipped vehicles are $20-40k+ dearer. In some cases they could buy 2 Cannon X's for the price of other similar vehicles.

2. ....and on an opposite point I went through the LDV t60 personal test drive route this arvo. I drove 3 different models , the "Pro" , the "Luxe" and a preceeded LWB "Luxe".

I was very impressed with the 3 vehicles and the performance of the newer two with 160kw/500nm /8sp was very good , while the preceeded one had the 2.8 /6sp(cummins?) which showed the techno engine leap quite substantially. The ride on the lwb was so smooth it was unlike a 4wd at all.

I came away without purchasing a new one because my old 2012 model manual Ranger got ****canned in the trade-in , but both parties are still in the hunt and if we can come to better agreement vis towbar and some other lollies I would do the business. Warranty/dealer support is higher than the leading brands.

Interesting to chat openly with the dealer principal about the total current Land Rover packages......they all know what each other is doing.

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

Some time ago there was a court case, LDV T60 with structural rust and manufacturer was not going to cover it under warranty.

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

Gee that sounds like a great company to buy a car from

Yep - You only have to look at the court ruling against LDV regarding rust after they refused a warranty claim because the owner lived near the ocean and if that isn't enough to make you run a mile from any Chinese vehicle, I don't know what will. While I would expect any vehicle kept in a seaside town to have a shorter life than a drier inland town, rust bad enough to write the vehicle off within 3 years (it wasn't driven in salt water - they just lived near it) makes me wonder what these things are made of (I think we all know the answer to that). Owner also paid extra for rust protection - Rigby v LDV Automotive Pty Ltd [2021] QCAT 316 - Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Caselaw

I'll save you the trouble reading it - LDV were instructed to give the owner a full refund and take their ****box back, but there are interesting things in there - like the $49K repair bill that was quoted because ‘Although we can replace panels that have corrosion it appears that it is coming from between panels and could be due to insufficient steel protection used when joining/folding/welding therefore any new panels supplied could do the same thing as we cannot separate these, rust is also coming through on some parts in the middle of panels where there are no joints, this suggests contaminated steel prior to painting’.

And if you think the trade in value of your Ranger is bad, wait until you have to trade in an unknown Chinese POS.

Just my 2 cents, but I would run - not walk - away from any of these vehicles.

And I can't see any decent business buying any Chinese vehicle for their fleets for a variety of reasons - trade in being 1 of the biggest - justified or not, Hiluxes are worth nearly as much after 2 years as a brand new one - easy to change them over for very little extra outlay. Looks like LDV's lose around $5K when you drive them out of the showroom and another $5K within 2 years. That's nearly a third of their value for the base model.