Range Rover Evoque vs. Landwind X7

Jupiter's personal opinion is that regular Range Rover's are bought by footballer's wives*, and Range Rover Evoques are bought by footballers wives' hairdressers. So that's OK, not target markets that include Jupiter, but I'm sure highly lucrative markets for Jaguar-Land Rover. So I'm sure it does immensely peeve them that someone has decided to run their sexy best seller through a Xerox machine.

Which is what has happened in China. The Wall Street Journal tell us that J-LR's ire has been raised by the 'Landwind X7', which, as well as having a vaguely fart-like name, is the spitting image of it's distant British non-relative. Let's crudely Paint Shop off the name badges and see if we can tell the difference, huh?

Now, I'm sure die hard Range Rover fans will quickly spot which is the genuine article. It's the one on the right, of course. No... wait... er...

Of course this has happened before in China, with BMW famously, and shockingly, losing a court battle over a Chinese X5 clone. This means there must be some great ways to get in the auto industry in China.

Compare:

"Wanted: designer for prestigious European design house. Must have impressive background and track record in automotive design."

 with:

"Wanted: designer for Chinese design house. Must have the ability to use a pencil and tracing paper."

Of couse, we have no idea how deep the copying goes. Underneath the Evoque clone might have the technology from an REO Speedwagon, for all we know. In which case, for Jupiterians, this sounds likes the worst of both World's; something that looks a little too effeminate, combined with the reliability, ability, and refinement of a broken shopping trolley.

So perhaps this should be the conclusion: if you only care how things look, and not how they perform, and you want to save lots of money, China is probably a good place to get a haircut.


*OK United Statesians, soccer players, if you insist.