BMW loses Clonewars Italian court battle

[Nodz86]

BMW loses Clonewars Italian court battle

 

by Michael Harley on Dec 19th 2008 at 7:59AM

 

Take a close look at the image. A court in Italy has just ruled that the crossover pictured above, the five-seat CEO built by Shuanghuan Automobile of Shijiazhuang, China, is not a clone of the BMW X5. Um... yeah. The legal battles began when Shuanghuan introduced their "Noble" last year, a near-clone of the Smart fortwo. Mercedes-Benz wasn't impressed, and threatened a lawsuit. Shortly thereafter, BMW started losing sleep over the Chinese CEO, an obvious facsimile of their previous-generation X5 (E53). The Bavarian automaker took Shuanghuan to court in Munich this past summer and won their case, and when Martin Motors (the distributor of Shuanghuan Automobiles in Italy and central Europe) started selling the CEO in early 2007, BMW again took legal action, this time in the Italian judicial system.

 

Last week, the Germans met their defeat when the Italian courts rejected their claims. To date, Martin Motors has sold about 200 copies of the CEO and expects to sell about 1200 this year in their European markets. "We are convinced the CEO wasn't a clone of the X5. We are happy to see our view supported by a court ruling," said an obviously pleased spokesperson from Martin Motors. We have to wonder how quickly the Italians would change their tune if Shuanghuan began to knock-off the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4.

[source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]

 

 

From Autoblog

[Car Freak]

:mad: This really bites. At least BMW now knows how games companies feel when the public buys pirated games... :rolleyes:

[Baltoman]

Lol, blind ppl FTW!

[Immelmann]

Aside from the clones, have any of those Chinese cars actually looked good?

[Baltoman]

no. nuff said

[Car Freak]

Aside from the clones, have any of those Chinese cars actually looked good?

Hellooooooo... Even the clones look bad

[ScaR]

Hellooooooo... Even the clones look bad

+1

 

I'd say every Chinese designed car that I have ever seen looked like a piece of junk... nothing against them, but they're better suited to building toys... :p

[KoenigseggBG]

That`s fugly...BMW are really pissed of now...:p

[t.]

BMW are really pissed of now...:p

Thanks for that captain obvious.

 

It will be a trash car bought by people who wouldn't have been able to afford an X5 anyway. There is an obvious similarity but they have managed to do just enough to ruin the X5 design.

[Andreas¹]

The BMW X5 is ugly. All CEO did was to make it that little bit uglier. And, probably less safe aswell. Brilliance, anyone? :rolleyes:

Btw, who would take this relatively unknown brand over a BMW anyway? I don't think BMW has anything to worry about to be honest.

[Guest RB26DETT]

Btw, who would take this relatively unknown brand over a BMW anyway?

 

posers. :p

 

and i thought ssangyong or however you spell it was terrible at first with their mercedes clones.

[KoenigseggBG]

and i thought ssangyong or however you spell it was terrible at first with their mercedes clones.

 

 

Excuse me? :p

[Andreas¹]

Clone of what Mercedes? More like a genetic experiment that went wrong o_O

[Guest RB26DETT]

.

 

Excuse me? :p

 

*headesk* that's not the only car they built.

 

here's the chairman. look familiar to you?

http://www.japan-partner.com/images/fec8b0c222/ssangyong-chairman-467cb75d74_t.jpg

 

here's the latest one.

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo47/jnskyliner34/ssang-yong_chairman_cm600l_2006.jpg

[CarMadMike]

You can tell they didnt build that one themselves, as they wouldnt of had to stretch it the way they did xD

[KoenigseggBG]

I know, RB. Here in Bulgaria we have lots of Rextons, Actyons, Rodiuses and my neighbour ever has a Chairman. :p And they are all rubbish. :)

 

Oh, and "their" latest one is a streched old S-class. :p

[Car Freak]

At least Ssangyong had a legit connection to Mercedes. They used their engines under licence in some of their earlier cars. The Musso in particular. I think it was the old old E-Class' 2.3l

[Captain_ClutchKick]

These Chinese knock-offs are dreadful. They'll sell like tea in China though

[Shy Guy]

lol, I remember one guy at my old school said that he had amazing cars, he said his mom(his parents were divorced btw) had a Chairman Limousine(The car that RB/Only599 posted) and I thought it was german :p but I just knew it was korean lol.

 

Actually MB gave them an E Class platform for that car I think...

[KoenigseggBG]

Actually MB gave them an E Class platform for that car I think...

 

Let`s see what Mb has to say about that...:lol: