According to conventional wisdom, all cars in China are blatant copies of foreign cars. With the joint venture cars, that is certainly true. With some true red Chinese cars this is also sometimes the case. Now it seems that Chinese carmakers ran out of foreign victims and started to copy Chinese cars. Volvo is owned by China’s Geely, as we all know. Can you spot the true Volvo?
Is it the one way above, or just the one above? The one way above is, so Carnewschina tells us, not a Volvo. It is a car with the memorable moniker “Jiuma JM2805CWX-1 (HD)”. No that’s not the VIN, that’s its name. The one above this paragraph is the real Volvo V50.
As you can see, the Jiuma JM2805CWX-1 (HD) – close your eyes and repeat – looks pretty much like the V50, down to the diagonal thingie across the grille.
Jiuma is a small automaker near Shanghai that is owned by the – pay attention now – Shanghai Jinma Vehicles Co. They made a dubious name for themselves by creating a knock-off Santana, also pictured above. Hint: When you knock off a car, pick a new one!
The Chinese courts are famously unreliable when they deal with knockoffs. But here, the Jinma/Juma deals with Li Shufu, owner of Geely and Volvo. He doesn’t need the courts. He has his own private army!
With such a catchy name how could it fail!
You have to expect Volvo’s styling to be adapted for Chinese tastes…
Top before the jump pics look like someone designed the bastard son of a 90s Maxima wagon.
Aside from a cheap imitation grill, I don’t see it… They are both wagons, but I wouldn’t say they look alike at all. Perhaps I need to squint more.
Same here. I see a Kia Rio, but that’s about it.
Actually that’s a Kia Spectra front end on the top car, just with a Volvo grille. The taillights look like they were nicked from a Polo.
Looks to me like they just took their previous VW Santana wagon knockoff and gave it a Volvo-like nose and, as SV noted, VW Polo taillights.
I’d like to know if the top one is male or female. The little symbol thingy for Volvos (the circle with an arrow) signifies being male for short hand. Does the one up top have a circle with a cross? :)
The male symbol started as shorthand for Mars (the god of war) the circle was a shield and the arrow was a spear. I can’t tell on the top pic though. If it was “circle and cross” I guess that would make it a Venus… lol.
Anyone who thinks the top pic is a Volvo needs to visit the eye dr… NOW!
The “Volvo” knock-off is just a re-grilled Santana knock-off. Nothing is changed between A and D pillars.
The license plate of the Jiuma “Volvo” says “Mixed Powered Car.” Is it a hybrid?
I don’t get why the Chinese won’t pay someone to design their cars. Are their margins so slight that it’s not possible?