Dadi motors of China is at it again with the wacky naming of their fleet of sport utility vehicles and trucks. The latest vehicle, the Dadi Smoothing, comes after classics like the Dadi Bliss and the Dadi City Steed. Love the names. Not sure about the trucks, even though they do run pretty solid Isuzu diesel engines. (I don't think the Chinese auto industry is up to designing their own truck engines yet, but give them ten years.) Here are some photos of the Dadi Smoothing! I don't know what it is Smoothing, but maybe they meant Soothing?

 

HMMM. Not a bad looking truck.  

I gotta say, those names sound like porn stars, though. Someone needs to go over and teach them some marketing. On the other hand, maybe not. The US auto industry is beat up enough without the prospect of yet ANOTHER foreign competitor.  

selling vehicles in the U.S. market with disastrous results. This is an unforgiving market that has only started to forgive Kia and Hyundai for terrible launch quality, some 15 and 20 years after the fact. I honestly think quality is a good 20 years behind on these Chinese home market vehicles. Not to say they won't catch up quality wise in ten years. You want to see for yourself? The Chinese government has a website in English with links to the English websites of all its homegrown Car and Truck Makers. Here is a link if you are curious.

http://www.chinacarforums.com/chinese_car_manufacturers.html  

Wow. I can't believe how many there are. Reminds me of the early days of the U.S. auto industry when there were dozens of independent manufacturers. My prediction is that there will be some major consolidation of the Chinese automakers in the next few years.

My ongoing concern with the Chinese companies is their consistent disregard for intellectual property. I think one of the unfortunate side-effects of the government-mandated joint-ventures with foreign companies, is that the CDM (Chinese Domestic Market) partner companies have full access to detailed data and components of their foreign partners, and what's to stop them from making carbon copies? We've already seen it to a certain extent, but as they get more clever and sophisticated, I expect the problem to get worse before it gets better. The only thing keeping these vehicles from being sold in the U.S. (the clones, I'm talking about) is intense lobbying by the Detroit 3. If I were them, I'd start now, and get some pre-emptive trade legislation in place to protect the U.S. market from cheap Chinese knockoffs.