Products of the Chinese automotive industry are confidently capturing the Russian market against the backdrop of well-known problems with Western suppliers. Available statistics clearly indicate that a significant part of Russians have rejected any “prejudices” about the Chinese automobile industry. However, traditionally, vehicle buyers are concerned with two questions: “How quickly does the body rust?” and “How good is the engine?”
In fact, Chinese cars almost always did well with their engines. This is primarily due to the fact that for decades, manufacturers from the Middle Kingdom practically did not produce anything “original”. A significant part of Chinese engines were licensed copies of other well-known manufacturers. The Chinese borrowed technology from both Europe and Japan. Thus, thanks to the use of proven technical solutions, Chinese engines demonstrated a good service life even with not the highest quality components.
Until the 2010s, it was absolutely normal for a Chinese car’s body to rot from rust faster than the engine to completely break down. At the same time, one cannot help but pay tribute to the Chinese designers: over the past years, they have not only learned to copy foreign engines well, but have also been able to eliminate many generic diseases in licensed copies. As a result, to date, Chinese engineers have accumulated sufficient experience to make a high-quality domestically produced engine.
Perhaps in China they cannot yet make an ultra-modern and ultra-reliable engine, but at the moment this is not required. Today, a “budget” Chinese gasoline turbo engine can withstand a mileage of 200-240 thousand kilometers before major repairs. For example, 1.5-liter Changhan units can boast of such a resource. This indicator is on average not inferior to the products of well-known manufacturers from the West and other Asian countries. Perhaps Chinese installations are missing the stars from the sky, but this could also be blamed for the vast majority of motors from other companies.