Autoblog

Pininfarina is making its voice heard designs seen in China, with 30-percent of the company's business now being done with the Asian nation. At this month's Beijing Motor Show, two Chinese automakers will reveal three models designed and, in some cases, engineered by the Italian firm. What's more, all of the cars are meant to be sold in the European market, as well.

Anhui Jianghuai will have two Pininfarina designed cars, a sedan code named A108 (pictured) and a five-door hatch code named A107. They are meant to hit European markets in late 2009. Brilliance, which is BMW's Chinese partner, will be showing off the BS4 station wagon. It will head to Europe with the re-engineered BS6 sedan.

Though they won't be unveiling new cars, Pininfarina's other Chinese clients include Chery, Changfeng, and Hafei, who together have at least seven cars penned by Ferrari's favorite design house.

[Source: Auto News]

As we reported yesterday, Chinese automaker Brilliance appears to have addressed a number of the shortcomings in its BS6 sedan that caused it to spectacularly fail a Euro NCAP crash test conducted earlier this year by Germany's ADAC. The car has been re-tested, this time in Spain (again, according to Euro NCAP standards), and has now received a 3-star crash rating.

We now have video of the new test regimen, and it's embedded after the jump along with the original German one for comparison. As you can see, the BS6 fares much better this time around, with the car holding up a lot better from the A-pillar and back. In the photo above from China Car Times, the doors all opened properly following the crash. Whether other Chinese automakers will look at the Brilliance saga and learn from it is unknown. For its part, Brilliance appears to have learned a hard lesson. If you want to sell cars in lucrative Western markets, they need to perform better than papier mâché sculptures in crash tests.

Follow the jump for videos of the crash tests, old and new.

[Sources: YouTube, Autoblog Spanish, China Car Times]

Following its utterly calamitous performance in crash tests conducted by Germany's ADAC, Chinese automaker Brilliance said that it would work with the German body to improve the car's safety. To be honest, we don't know if any such changes have been designed or implemented yet, but apparently, Brilliance has done something.

According to a wire report carried by Forbes.com, the Brilliance BS6 has been tested by Spain's Idiada Automotive Technologies SA. Unlike the test in Germany earlier this summer, the Brilliance garnered a 3-star rating as it passed the test performed in accordance with Euro NCAP guidelines. According to Brilliance, that's the best rating ever for a Chinese car tested under the European standards. According to the report, Brilliance plans on using this test success to drum up business in Europe and the US. Unfortunately, we haven't come across any photos or video of the Spanish test yet. If and when we do, we'll post them so you can compare them to the ADAC test the car failed earlier in the summer.

[Source: AFX News via Forbes.com]

The first reported dumping of the Brilliance BS6 has taken place in Belgium, where dealer Karel Cardoen has halted sales of the car in the wake of its horrifying crash test conducted by Germany's ADAC. In perhaps the understatement of the year, Automotive News Europe quotes Cardonen as saying, "We don't think this car is good to sell in Europe."

The BS6, for those of you new to the story, is a Chinese luxury sedan and recent arrival into the European automobile market. It recently flunked the ADAC crash tests in spectacular fashion, and In the wake of that fiasco, the automaker said that it didn't feel the poor crash results would have a negative impact on sales.

So much for that. Cardoen's dealership was one of just three that were offering the car to European customers. The remaining two are both in Germany. Cardoen said he'll reconsider his position if the safety of the car improves.

[Source: Automotive News Europe (sub req'd)]

While some Chinese companies have begun to figure out what we Westerners like, others still speak a different design language.

Winding Road stumbled across this oddity from Chinese automaker SOAR while attending the recent Shanghai Auto Show. The car was on display in the parking lot. however, without much explanation.

They guessed correctly that the car was definitely a modified something, but couldn't decide what. To the rescue comes China Car Times. Based in Qingdao Provence, CCT happens to be neighbors to Qingdao-based SOAR. Lurking under all those modifications, says CCT, is nothing more than a Brilliance BS6 sedan, which, you might remember (and if not, click that last link), could become the first Chines e-built car sold in the U.S. later this year.

Does that mean that the SOAR look could soon follow? Possibly as a bolt-on kit? Oh, please no. Please, please, please no.

[Sources: Winding Road, China Car Times]