[saikarthik]

The whole world knows about the Chinese copy cats of the famous brands ranging from the cars to military aircrafts and no surprise there.

When it comes to the global and Indian market, there are few examples of complete Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V models and few where certain design elements from famous cars were replicated on new and lower segment cars. Some people argue that they are inspired and some say it's a rip off.

We notice some prominent replication every now and then, sometimes have a debate to bash out and sometimes forgive/forget to.

But I have not seen anywhere that these are consolidated or classified. I do not have a great database and will rely upon your posts for consolidation.

But let me try to classify or segregate some of the types that I have encountered with examples,

Silhouette:

It's one thing to get inspired from some form and it is quite another to just copy the whole silhouette, these are direct rip offs in my opinion trying to take the advantage of competitor's complete design language.

Best example that I could find is that of MS Ciaz's comparison to Honda City's and Toyota Innova's to Mahindra Marazzo's silhouettes though some rounding off of edges and creases, dimensions are different. Please do mention your examples with pictures.




Exterior Design Elements:

Taking a prominent design feature of certain from a view like

1. The front grille theme or the intricate detailing of the grille elements - like the similarities of Lodgy stepway to mahindra XUV5OO refresh or the infamous universal inspiration of hexagonal/oval grilles from Aston Martin to almost all new cars.


2. Lamps: lights are key differentiators and considered unique jewel of car makers, yet we see some are similar, Ciaz's tail lamp profile to that of City's is one such case that I can think of, and a few fog lamp bezel elements/ DRLs of other cars.




Interior Design Elements:

Same as the exterior part, the design of dashboard elements, air con vents, finish patterns are replicated, example the hexagonal aircon vents of a much expensive Lambo is found on the recent Nissan Magnite.




HMI - Display and Switches:

Though these are interior elements, but require special mention as they relate to the user touch points and experience.


What else comes to your minds in this aspect? Do you think these are direct rip offs or just a common design language due to some inspiration?

[Avinash_R]

Talking about silhouettes

[androdev]

You are insulting Thar by not mentioning it here.

[xjosephjacob]

Other than Thar, we have an offroader that mimics the mightiest: Gurkha- our Desi G wagon.

And when it comes to inspirations (that are dangerously close to being copycats), we have the Swift (vs Cooper) and to an extent the Tata Safari (vs late 1990's Land Rover Discovery).

[gusfring]

I could even call this "congruent" I guess, since they seem to be so comparable. The side profiles of Grand i10/Nios and Tiago are quite the same. Why, even the rear is to a good extent.

I have mistaken for one to be the other quite a few times. The handle placement, the nearly identical dimensions contribute to it. It ain't very bad on the eyes, but does make decisions difficult as both are quite same specifications-wise.

[Sreesh1009]

Originally Posted by androdev

You are insulting Thar by not mentioning it here.

This was my thought when I read the threads title.
I have mistaken the Thar thrice for the car it's "Ctrl-Ced" on

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by androdev

You are insulting Thar by not mentioning it here.

Really!!! Somehow Mahindra gets a free pass because the Thar is "so good". Would anybody take a second look at Thar if it didn't look like a Wrangler?

And how shameless can a company become making a car by copying Jeeps model after model?

The Thar is definitely not inspired, sorry. Its a blatant copy.

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by xjosephjacob

Other than Thar, we have an offroader that mimics the mightiest: Gurkha- our Desi G wagon.
.

When launched in India Force had license to manufacture, in fact not just body but mechanicals as well.
Technically it was the same product not the copy or imitation.

[Sreesh1009]

Another example of "Ctrl-C" and "Ctrl-V" (major facepalm)

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by Sreesh1009

Another example of "Ctrl-C" and "Ctrl-V" (major facepalm)

Not just the current gen Honda City, Honda has been closely following the BMW 3-Series for 3 generations now!

It is almost like the Vodafone Pug following its owner faithfully

Cross posting the images from the 5th gen Honda City thread -

[Overlander]

Originally Posted by Sreesh1009

This was my thought when I read the threads title.
I have mistaken the Thar thrice for the car it's "Ctrl-Ced" on

Every-time I see the new Thar, I can’t help but reenact the design team’s conversation when they came to the rear arch:

“Nahi. Nahi. Ab bas! Bahut ho gaya” (No! No! This is enough”

What could possibly be the thought process? People admonishing the team for “blatantly copying” than just “copying”. I wish they had gone the full hog.

[chetancm7]

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[somspaple]

Not exactly a rip off but in this case A4 is a 2021 model and my Verna pictured here is 2019 one [pic taken before I changed that chrome loaded grill]

[Iceman33]

Originally Posted by Sreesh1009

This was my thought when I read the threads title.
I have mistaken the Thar thrice for the car it's "Ctrl-Ced" on

Thar is literally crt-copy-paste in 3D life.
It like that school joke when a child copies another child’s essay on ‘my father’ and even keeps father’s name as in the original essay.

I think this thread name should be ‘Design Rip Offs in India( other than New Thar). Because Thar is just super obvious 😅😂

[saikishor]

2014 Fiesta and Aston Martin DB9. The Fiesta was a wonderful car, and so was the DB9. But the Fiesta ended up being a sales dud, so much so that Ford reintroduced the old Fiesta as the Ford Classic.