Meet the Shanxi Victory X1, a disfigured Chinese pickup that’s sure to keep Cadillac patent lawyers busy and us horrified.
It’s mug smacks of Cadillac Escalade EXT, but even then it’s bound only to fool the most casual observers. Like a bra filled with bolt-ons rather than bonafide breasts, it only takes a couple seconds to spot the differences.
Instead of the Cadillac Crest on its snout, the Shanxi wears a simple ‘V’ badge encircled by a shape that’s neither square nor circle. We’ll call it a half-demented circle.
The Shanxi’s grill lacks the chrome trappings and accents found on the EXT and it even wears a different grill pattern, with five diagonal slates and three vertical, rather than the four across and four down arrangement on the EXT. Even the lights themselves aren’t quite right.
Unfortunately, those used to the silky smooth powerband of the EXT’s Vortec V8 will be severely underwhelmed when they put foot to floor and find the Mitsubishi-sourced 2.4L four-cylinder gas engine cooks up a measly 136 hp and 147 lb-ft of torque. You’ll also have to row through the five-speed manual gearbox yourself, just don’t be surprised when it only gets you to 130 km/h (80 mph).
If a layperson were fooled by the Cadillac-esque exterior, they should have no problems spotting the fake once they enter the cabin. The Escalade’s leather chairs and plush accruements make it easy to pile on the miles, but we’d rather travel in the truck bed than have to endure any amount of time in the cave of beige and hard plastics Shanxi calls an interior.
But it’s not all terrible for Shanxi buyers, for there is one saving grace: price. The Shanxi can be had for just 68,000 Yun ($10,953), a fraction of the cost of what you’d pay for a 2013 Escalade EXT (it was discontinued in ’13 and there is no new EXT as of yet).
Though it might have Cadillac up in arms, it’s bound to hit the Chinese market all the same. Try as they might to stifle the endless sea of sloppy fakes, OEMs can’t seem to penetrate China’s protectionist patent laws.
It’s not the first Cadillac Escalade knockoff from Shanxi we’ve seen and we doubt it will be the last.
Comments
Yes let’s keep pushing for China, I love it!! I laugh that corps continue set up shop there, but not really because of the property laws where the government owns everything, and you can’t produce unless you partner with a Chinese native company. Outsiders hand everything over to them, and are baffled that all the intellectual property and trademarks have been stolen, and the Chinese government just laughs. That country has no pride in what they produce, and it boggles my mind for their love of lead laden products. Why do we continue to do business with this nation? Whatever happened to having cheap quality products from Japan?
China does not play by the rules of the west of the world, is it really worth having Buick over there?
Why ask for products from Japan, they don’t have free trade on autos. Very few American autos are allowed to be built or sold in Japan.
Not to mention that it appears to have the cab of the previous generation Colorado/Canyon.