‘My car is like a tractor’: China buyers pay US$3,200 for fake Porsche full of problems like faulty handbrakes, noisy engines causing much hilarity online
- Fake Porsches were designed to look like originals but had subtle branding differences
- One man had his car impounded on first day because it failed to meet legal standards
A group of residents in central China have become a source of national amusement after they bought fake Porsche cars at an extreme discount only to discover that the vehicles were fraught with problems.
Their dilemma spread throughout China after they complained on Henan TV that they struggled to contact the manufacturer or dealer to fix or refund the cheap imitations.
The vehicles, which were sold under the brand Da Ka Yan (a transliteration of the Porsche Cayenne), only cost 23,000 yuan (US$3,200) but were designed to appear similar to a Porsche.
However, there were subtle differences in the vehicle branding.
For example, the English lettering inside the Porsche logo was changed to the pinyin words xin neng yuan, which means “new energy”. A deer in the replica car also replaced the famed Porsche horse in the logo.
The buyers, most of whom live in Henan province in central China, said they bought the car after they were convinced by a live-streaming event selling the automobiles.
