We really should have taken a flight out to Beijing this week for the auto show. Given Chinese automakers fantastic ability to copy flatter every design they can get their hands on. We're beginning to believe non-Chinese automakers should just enter into agreements with their Chinese partners — like what they do with Russian automakers — to allow them to just have the designs for a nominal fee. Like Beijing Auto Works — the company that built the original military-version Chinese knock-off to the Jeep, the BJ2036 (the BJ stands for Beijing Jeep, get your mind out of the gutter). That Jeep wannabe was built in a joint venture with Chrysler, so everything was hunky-dory. BAW no longer has that joint venture in place, but that hasn't stopped them from building a civilian version of the big off-road BJ, the Beijing Auto Works B60. As you can see...
...here, the civilian version takes into consideration the fact they've no longer got an agreement with Chrysler — by dropping a different grille on the front and a somewhat more slab-sided approach to sheet metal — atop what's obviously a derivative of a Jeep Wrangler. It's like looking at the misbegotten offspring resulting from the sexual congress of an LJ Jeep and a midget-sized H1. Oh lord, the horror, the horror. [The Tycho]