Tuesday, November 13, 2007

China Copycat Cars? You be the judge.

A friend just forwarded me a link to the various cars that China has been accused of copying. While these pictures and accusations have been floating around the web for quite some time now, I was never aware of these until today. You gotta see these pictures - you be the judge for yourself.

Some the alleged copies are pretty obvious (in my eyes anyways) - especially the Geely Merrie 300, which looks like a Mercedes C Class clone. It doesn't look like Geely even tried to make the cars a little different - oh wait, the logo on the hood is different.

Or the SMART - I guess the manufacturer couldn't think of another name, so they called their version the Chinese SMART. Very creative.

The copying doesn't stop at the actual cars - there are even some questionable logo similarities - BMW vs. BYD and Geely's 4-ellipse logo vs. Toyota's 3-ellipse logo.

I've never personally compared any of these cars side by side, so I couldn't really tell you how different or similar they are. I've just been looking at the pictures like everyone else. You be your own judge.

Here is another blog that details these copies...

Unfortunately, we currently don't have actual sale prices for Geely cars. Maybe in the near future - or you can just look at the actual sale prices for a Mercedes C230.

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Saturday, November 10, 2007

Wow. A Tour of Nissan's Zama Storage Facility

For anyone who is a Nissan fan, you are going to love this. I came across a post from AutoBlog.com that features a plethora of pictures from Nissan's Zama storage facility. Apparently, an avid Nissan fan was lucky enough to get a tour of the facility and he brought his camera.

All I can say is wow. From 510s to Sentras to Skylines - all of Nissan's cars are there. Whether it be the first Nissans built (looks like Nissan's version of the Model T) to the 280Z - anything Nissan related can be found in this vast storage facility. The fan took tons of pictures - you've got to see these if you are a Nissan fan. There are cars you've probably only ever heard about pictured. Highly recommended.

Here are more pictures from the source. Don't miss these either.

If these pictures inspire you to buy a Nissan, here are some recent, actual 350Z prices too!

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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

What is a used Honda CRX worth?

When the 1988-1991 Honda CRX came on the market, it was advertised as having 105HP, which was an incredible amount of power for such a small car back then. The SI version was the version everyone wanted - available in red, yellow, white and black.

When I got my 1988 red SI, I paid about $3500 for it, with 90,000 miles on it at the time (in 1997). My CRX had the power sunroof and even had aftermarket power windows. The popularity of these little cars is still very strong - while I don't see as many of these out on the road today, I always look twice when I drive by one. When the time came for me to sell my CRX, I had put 80,000 additional miles on the car. Overall, it was still in good condition - it was my daily commuter, so it had the usual wear and tear. 6 years after I bought the car, I was still able to sell it for $2300, extra 80K miles and all.

Looking at the prices for CRXs on PriceHub, I noticed that the range of prices was between $500-$5000 for a 1988-1991 CRX. For such an old car, the range of prices was quite wide:

Honda CRX Actual Prices

I was especially interested to see the $5000 CRX - it had 54,000 original miles. It's a SI too. For a CRX fan who is looking for a pristine example, it doesn't get too much better than 54,000 original miles.

It's a great little car if you can find the right one.

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Monday, November 5, 2007

What is my used car worth?

When shopping for a used car, I have always wondered what I should offer the seller. While the normal resources, KBB, Edmunds and NADA all provide guides as to what a used car is worth, given its mileage and condition, these are only suggestions.

I have always wanted to know what people really paid - what did the seller ultimately accept as a price? Full price? 10% off of the asking price? 40% off of the asking price? After all, car sellers can price their car based on a number of things: emotion, unrealistic expectations, a false sense of reality, the list goes on... Furthermore, none of these attributes are regulated or tracked very closely.

As far as I can tell, there isn't a place to see what people actually paid for their used car - after their negotiating, low-balling, or begging. For houses, the actual sale values are a matter of public record. Websites such as Zillow and many others openly provide sold home values. For cars, there is no such resource - until now.

PriceHub was founded to provide car buyers and sellers a way to see actual values for their cars and trucks. By allowing consumers to submit the prices they actually paid, other consumers can benefit and learn. Is $31,000 worth it for that 1999 Porsche 911 Coupe? Is the Toyota Prius with 3,000 miles worth $22,500? These questions can now be answered to a certain extent by the actual prices other people paid for similar cars.

For used car buyers, PriceHub is a great way to get a feel for how much the car you are interested in is worth.

For used car sellers, PriceHub is a great way to see how much you can charge for your car - you'll get to find out what people actually paid for a car with similar miles and options.

With PriceHub, you will hopefully be able to answer the question, "What is my used car worth?"

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