Five years ago, when a small factory in Hebei worked hard to promote a so-called "pickup-topped" double-ring Laiwang SUV at secondary auto shows held across the country, not many people Knowing what kind of company this is, not many people even recognize that the front half of this Noble SUV is a complete copy of the first-generation Honda CRV (old model). However, in 2003, this little-known small company once again jumped into the public eye by imitating the second-generation Honda CRV. This time, Shuanghuan no longer thought about "pickup truck cover". The Noble SRV, which is very similar to the Honda CRV, attracted many consumers with insufficient wallets as soon as it was launched. But how many people know that under the CRV-style glossy shell, there is still hidden the Laiwang SUV chassis that Shuanghuan worked hard to promote five years ago, and this chassis is an imitation Toyota Hilux chassis that has long since expired.
In 2006, this small factory that had never been involved in the car industry suddenly announced that it would launch a four-seater mini car that resembled the Mercedes-Benz Smart. As we all know, the Mercedes-Benz Smart attracted the attention of Chinese consumers as soon as it was launched in Europe with its unique and compact shape. However, the high price and high-end Mercedes-Benz showrooms have made it a dream for many consumers. "The price is 20,000 yuan!" Under the exclamation of the media, Shuanghuan was once again pushed to the forefront. Shuanghuan naturally did not miss such an excellent opportunity to hype itself. The armored body, high ground clearance, wide wheelbase, big tires and micro coupe, whether you have heard of it or not, Shuanghuan summarizes the concept as a little aristocrat. "6 No. 1s in the country" were widely announced.
However, is the Little Noble really the "noble car among small cars" as Shuanghuan advertises? Will the trick of "replacing the old chassis with a new shell" used on the double-ring SRV a few years ago be repeated on the Little Noble? Maybe this article will tell you about a little double-ring aristocrat that you don’t know.
Exterior/Interior
Judging from the appearance and interior of the little noble, even the most die-hard supporters of the "imitation theory" will feel embarrassed, because Shuanghuan's " The degree of imitation even exceeds the limit defined by "imitation theory". Shuanghuan Little Noble's scheduled appearances at last year's Guangzhou Auto Show and Beijing Auto Show were postponed. It seems that even Shuanghuan itself lacks confidence in the appearance of Little Noble. Especially before the Beijing Auto Show, the negotiations between the Dai-K Group and the organizers of the auto show were even more embarrassing. However, Shuanghuan has always treated intellectual property lawsuits as a hype to increase its reputation, so it seems that such negotiations by Mercedes-Benz will not have far-reaching impact. Just like the BYD F3 is selling like hot cakes on the one hand, but on the other hand, consumers would rather spend money on modification kits and car badges to transform into a Toyota Corolla. With its Smart-like appearance and interior, the little aristocrat can naturally find it in China. consumer groups.
However, consumers will have a question: Can a small aristocrat that looks like a Smart car have the quality and performance of a Mercedes-Benz Smart, even if it is a lower level? Some people will say that since it imitates the appearance of Smart, the chassis systems such as suspension, steering, and brakes will naturally be copied as well. But in fact, taking it for granted is really a double-circle of "slander".
The subverted general arrangement
If you carefully read the media release released by Shuanghuan, you will definitely be confused by the inconsistent and confusing content. The most interesting thing is that in a certain automobile forum, the following incorrect description by the manufacturer actually triggered a small war of words.
The ‘Little Noble’ (i.e. S6) created the classic design of the world’s shortest front-engine, rear-drive 4-seater car.
Let’s put aside whether the Little Noble’s 3-meter-long body is “the world’s shortest engine front-engine rear-wheel drive 4-seater car”. Just a “front-engine rear-wheel drive” is enough to make people stunned. It’s been a while. Anyone who knows something about cars knows that the front-rear-drive structure has a drive shaft that runs through the front and rear of the vehicle, so it is not suitable for the body layout of small cars or compact cars, let alone a mini car with a body length of only 3 meters. Are you doing this just to be number one in the world? However, after carefully examining the actual photos of the Little Noble, I found that the description of "front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive" was actually a careless mistake by the manufacturer.
The little noble uses the most traditional and common front-wheel-drive drive form in this class, while the drive form of the Mercedes-Benz Smart, which the little noble imitates, is the completely opposite rear-wheel drive. With such an earth-shaking difference, even if the German engineers who developed Smart were able to modify the suspension and steering systems for the little noble, they would be powerless. Moreover, this huge difference means that the body structure and axle load distribution are very different from Smart. It can be said that the double-ringed little aristocrat only has the appearance of Mercedes-Benz Smart. Perhaps such a conclusion will break the heart of fans who had a glimmer of hope that the Little Noble would have the same high-quality chassis system and vehicle performance as the Smart.
So without Smart as an object to imitate, where does the suspension system of the double-ring little noble come from?
Author: Only for Chery in this life 2007-5-11 14:56 Reply to this statement
------------------ -------------------------------------------------- ------------
2 The inside story of the little noble (reprinted)
The saved suspension system
As early as ten Many years ago, a new industry emerged in China's IT industry - machine building. Consumers only need to select the CPU, motherboard, memory and other accessories like ordering food, and the merchant can assemble a compatible machine for you. Shuanghuan seems to want to do the same, but this time the target is not a computer but a car. But what everyone needs to make clear first is: automobiles are different from ordinary products. Automobile products are highly comprehensive final products. Automotive product development must not only reflect the integration of mechanics, kinematics, and dynamics that general products should have, but also reflect its integrity and systematicity. Due to the complexity of automotive products, the development of such products is a complex system involving a large amount of data, models, tools, processes and people.
We can’t help but ask: Has Shuanghuan tried to build a car like a compatible machine and use the suspension of other companies’ mass-produced cars this time? It is true that we have seen cars designed under the platform concept, such as the Volkswagen Golf and Sagitar, which can use suspension. We have also seen cars under the concept of dual-brand management strategy. For example, the Peugeot 206 and Citroen C2 in China can use suspension. But we have never seen any car company transplant the suspension system used in the products of car companies that have nothing to do with it to its own products. But this time Shuanghuan did it on the Little Noble. Unfortunately, this world first was not included in the "six national firsts" in the publicity release.
Before this, some people analyzed that the little noble used a micro-faceted chassis, but this was refuted by the double-ring side that there is no front-wheel drive in the micro-facet. However, after carefully analyzing the suspension structure form and the main technical parameters of the body provided by Dual Ring, you can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu. Little Noble: The front suspension is MacPherson independent suspension plus coil springs, and the rear suspension is single trailing arm non-independent suspension plus coil springs. The front/rear wheelbase is 1360/1355mm respectively. Do you still remember the suspension and parameters of Adil and Beiduxing produced by Changhe? Please look at the table below:
Is it just a coincidence of words and numbers? When comparing the rear suspension photos of the Big Dipper and the rear suspension photos of the Double Ring Little Noble, the exact same suspension structure makes all arguments pale. This also reasonably explains why the rear suspension of the double-ring little noble has "CH-06-07" printed on it. The CH above does indeed represent "Changhe". From this comparison photo, we can also see that not only the rear suspension of the double-ring Little Noble is sourced from Big Dipper, but even the rear brake drum is also sourced from Big Dipper. This is just the rear overhang. Can you imagine what the same front track means? I believe readers have already made their own inferences about the front suspension, steering system, front brakes, and overall chassis layout of the vehicle.
An "innovation" of Shuanghuan - dual exhaust pipes: Shuanghuan engineers painstakingly moved the exhaust pipe on the right by two more turns to the center, and the single-pipe exhaust pipe has arrived The end was hastily divided into double tubes. Here I would like to use a line from the movie "Crazy Stone" to evaluate this meaningless design: "Why did you bother to do it?"
The argument that the imitators always talk about is: No How can we make progress through imitation? However, what do we see from the "sports car" suspension called "wide wheelbase micro coupe" from Xiaoyao? Is it progress? Let's ask if we don't design it ourselves, but "take" it from Is the suspension used by the Japanese K Car-class Beidou Star designed 9 years ago for technological advancement? In terms of the level of plagiarism of Little Noble, it is probably even worse than Chery back then. At least when Chery copied Matiz, it was from head to toe. I copied it without thinking about "bringing" the suspension of the Big Dipper. Speaking of double rings, even laymen who are new to cars know how important the suspension system is in the whole car. The movement of the car often affects the whole body. A complicated system, even if you change a tire or wheel, you have to carefully check the model and ET value. A newly developed model would even think of using the suspension of other companies' cars. Is it such a trivial matter to manufacture a car that is related to the safety of consumers?
Pending engine configuration
Speaking of the degree of confusion about the engine model that the little noble will use, there may not be another car company in the country that has reported it to the National Development and Reform Commission. One set of engine solutions is on the display car. Now that the new car is about to be released, there are new changes announced on its official website, including Changan Automobile, Liuzhou Wuling, Dongan Power and Chery Automobile. The five engine products of large-scale small-displacement engine manufacturers have all appeared in Shuanghuan's official configuration list, and now they are about to be launched. Even the engines have not been finalized. Shuanghuan's new car launch this time is really hasty. Stacked.
The following table is an overview of the engine configuration tables that Shuanghuan has released:
After seeing all kinds of engines, I can’t help but ask Shuanghuan two questions: Have so many engines been calibrated on the Little Noble? And have you completed the relevant tests? As we all know, if a car needs to replace an engine, it will take at least 18 months to recalibrate. Even mature products require more than a year of adaptability calibration.
According to the Shuanghuan promotional release: "Little Noble" is equipped with two aluminum alloy double camshaft 16-valve multi-point continuous injection 4-cylinder engines, 0.8L and 1.1L, with a maximum power of 38.5KW, and is equipped with German "Doctor (PS: Bosch, the Germans are going to be depressed)" advanced electronic control system has been tested and calibrated in harsh environments of high temperature, high cold, and plateau.
It seems that the calibration has been completed, but it is a pity that the Wuling LJ465Q engine reported to the National Development and Reform Commission was mentioned. What about the calibration status of the two Dongan engines currently provided on the official website? It’s no wonder that Shuanghuan quickly replaced five domestic engines from four different manufacturers in less than half a year. It’s hard to imagine how Shuanghuan completed the calibration of five types of engines, which took up to 18 months.
What are the consequences if the calibration is insufficient? Someone once summarized the following points: (1) It is difficult to start, and the engine does not start until the motor runs for more than 2 seconds (2) The fuel consumption is high, and slight smoke can be seen in the exhaust pipe during rapid acceleration (3) When accelerating, it "rushes" and the fuel is collected. (4) The speed fluctuates obviously when the automatic transmission shifts gears (it is not a problem with the transmission, but the engine does not reduce the power output appropriately when shifting gears) (5) The engine has obvious vibration at a certain speed ( 6) The speed fluctuates when idling with the air conditioner (7) The throttle response lags (8) The engine shakes obviously when starting. Again, I hope that the problems mentioned above will not occur among the small nobles in the future.
Summary: You must have a professional attitude when building a car
Mi Lu once said a famous saying: "Attitude is everything". Many people have extended this sentence to life, work, and even education. However, in car design and product development, isn't it also the case that "attitude determines everything"? From the little nobles, we see Shuanghuan's design attitude and attitude towards products, but unfortunately this attitude is a kind of impetuous attitude of muddling along, which is still far from the professional attitude of truly calm car building.
The impetuous mentality and speculative mentality have led to plagiarism among some domestic independent companies. It seems that companies with any background can develop new cars in a very short time. However, upon careful analysis, we can see how many of these so-called "new cars" are simple copies of old foreign models, and how many are irresponsible patchwork cars like little aristocrats.
This is the so-called "imitation of progress"