What the berk kind of car did I just see?

5 door hatch crossover thing. Looked similar to a Kia Rondo, but wasn't. Had a five-pointed star for a badge, front and rear. Chinese?

This was in metro Detroit.

Ok, Google found it. It was a JAC Heyue, a small MPV from China. But what's it doing driving around Detroit?

Probably being tested at one of the manufacturers around there.

That looks way more like an SX4 than a Rondo, the front end is a total ripoff of it.

Everyone has engineering facilities here. could be they are looking to import the car, and are hiring some work out plus the national cert center is in Ann Arbor.

Could be that someone is interested in what sells in China, since that is now the largest market in the world.

Could be a lot of things.

But everyone is here.

Here on a tourist visa?

tuna55 wrote: Probably being tested at one of the manufacturers around there.

That's my guess. The auto manufacturers look at a lot of other brands - I have an '88 BMW 325iX that was originally owned by Chrysler Corporation (there's a sticker under the hood that says they used it for emissions testing.)

Honda R&D in Marysville used to service their GT-R at the Nissan dealer I worked at.

I always chuckled at the novelty of it all.

• Lee

I worked for a Ford dealer which bought a brand new 1988 Chevy pickup to put in the showroom next to the F150 for comparison purposes. It was sold on the used car lot about eight or nine months later.

Look at that grill. That's a 80's Chrysler.

I remember seeing an Opel with manufacturer plates and a hard-mounted laptop in the passenger seat, somewhere in the wilds of Michigan.

Didn't get pics. They left before i could dig my camera out.

M plate? Probably owned by one of the big 3's engineering departments for comparison purposes, I know for a fact Ford owns at least one hybrid Hyundai.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: M plate? Probably owned by one of the big 3's engineering departments for comparison purposes, I know for a fact Ford owns at least one hybrid Hyundai.

M plate does not mean just the Big 3. Good odds for it around here, but everyone is eligble for a Michigan M plate. Here in AA, one sees Hyundai/Kia M plates as well as the occasional Toyota- since both have ceners here.

I'm surprised Chrysler hasn't told them to give back their emblem yet.

I walked in to the factory that I work at to see a wheel-loader that looked a lot like ours, just a Deere. It was funny to watch our engineers just tearing it down like they were doing an autopsy.

Appleseed wrote: I'm surprised Chrysler hasn't told them to give back their emblem yet.

Obviously you haven't heard. Chinese companies do not care about copyright/trademark/patent infringement and they will go at extreme lengths to get what they need to mimic your product.

Yeah, but Chrysler?