South Africa recently saw the introduction of the Chana range of light utility vehicles. There are astonishingly cute little bakkie things that come in 1 and 1.3 litre engine capacities with a load capacity of a respectable 800kg.
The Chanas are a product of the Changan Ford Automobile Co., Ltd., of Chongqing, China. The model range is soon to be expanded with the addition of a double cab, club cab and fully enclosed van. Reliability seems to be a strong selling point. As I type this, a fleet of Chanas are being driven from the factory in China to the South African office in Johannesburg as part of the Chana Trax project.
The most astounding thing about these cars, however, is their logo.
Yes, folks, the Chana logo is startlingly similar to the logo of our favourite science fiction military force, Starfleet!
This, alone, makes me consider buying one. It also poses some interesting questions about the future development of humanity. Would a hypothetical United Federation of Planets really be headquatered in the USA, or is China becoming a real possibility? Does the warp drive, and the destiny of humanity, really depend on an alcoholic American inventor, or should we be looking out for a brilliant Chinese automobile engineer named Zeflam Cochlane*?
*: With no offense intended to the idiosyncratic consonant pronunciation used by some East Asian people, who might not even be Chinese. Basically, it is impossible to make this joke phonetically. I know, I tried.
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It seems that the Internet and Chinese car companies don’t really mix well.
The URL of the South African Chana Web site has changed completely. The Chana Trax site has disappeared and Ford no longer includes the Changan Ford article in their press release library.
The little cars are still being produced and vigorously sold on our shores, notwithstanding these marketing disasters. I have updated this post to include the latest resources relevant to the original subject matter.