Oddly Named Brilliance Produces Attractive New Sedan

Brilliance hopes to increase sales from 17,500 units to a total of

Wavy form dash is certainly fresh by Chinese standards. (Photo: Brilliance Auto)

30,000 this year, and believes its new Jinjue will push it over the top. This said Brilliance has been openly critical of the Chinese government, stating in a press release that "the implementation of macro-economic policies and austerity measures in China has resulted in a significant slowdown in growth in domestic demand for automobiles," pointing to a top-down effort by the Chinese authorities to reduce the number of automakers through direct intervention rather than waiting for the markets to take their natural course and, through attrition, thin out China's overpopulated assortment of automakers.

Brilliance's

Power provided by a Chinese subsidiary of Mitsubishi. (Photo: Brilliance Auto)

strategic partnerships with BMW and Mitsubishi should save it from heavy-handed Chinese autocracy, mind you, which makes it a good bet for continued global expansion. And incidentally, BMW, Mitsubishi and Giugiaro aren't the only strategic partnerships Brilliance enjoys, having built relationships with Toyota for the development and production of its lineup of passenger vans (www.jinbei.com.cn), and Porsche for engineering and prototype construction of its new sedans, Johnson Controls for seat and interior component manufacturing, FEV for design, engineering and prototype construction of engines, and TRW Automotive to design new safety and airbag systems.

Look for Brilliance to show up at a major North American auto show, just like Chery, through Malcolm Bricklin's Visionary Vehicles, and Geely have gone before. No doubt, the stylish Jinjue will get a more favourable response than its rather frumpy Chinese forerunners.