California men buy the world's first fake Chinese Toyota from Alibaba to see how it compares to the real thing

These Californians bought the world’s first fake Chinese Toyota from Alibaba in order to compare it to the real thing.

YouTube channel BigTime spent around $10,000 to get their hands on a Chinese-made Toyota AE86 ‘1:1 replica’ shell.

They wanted to swap parts from a real AE86 onto it to see if it was actually usable.

But once the teardown began, reality began sinking in.

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Testing out this fake Chinese Toyota

You’ll have no doubt heard plenty about Chinese replicas of popular cars, whether it’s a BMW X5 or a Lexus.

The reason why this market exists is obvious – people like the look of the original car, but don’t want to shell out the cash.

But how do these copycat cars compare?

It really does depend on the car.

In the case of this fake Toyota AE86, the idea was to transfer some parts onto it from the real AE86 in order to test the quality.

We’re talking engine, brakes, wiring, all the stuff that actually makes a car run.

At first glance, the Chinese Toyota looked pretty convincing, but upon closer inspection, problems soon emerged.

There were some odd welding decisions, and the taillight holes didn’t line up properly.

For their real AE86, they sourced a $4,000 donor car, in order to harvest drivetrain, subframes, and interior pieces.

Once the teardown began, reality began sinking in and they realized just how much work was ahead of them.

There was bound to be some misalignment as metal layers didn’t line up cleanly.

There was also the fact that differing construction standards meant that bolts weren’t matching Toyota’s hardware.

However you looked at it, there was just something ‘off’ about the replica shell.

Whether it was the asymmetry of the chassis or the cracking welds, it was clear that this car wouldn’t pass the sniff test with an eagle eyed fan.

But the guys weren’t aspiring for perfection here – they just wanted to see if they could get the car to run with genuine Toyota parts.

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The ultimate test – did this car work with all the new pieces?

It was time for the moment of truth.

They took their new and not quite improved Toyota out for a spin, and were pleasantly surprised.

“That’s pretty quiet, over some bumps,” one of the hosts remarked.

“Dude, this is going to be so much fun,” the other host said.

“The chassis worked out about as well as we could have hoped for.”

These guys were no under illusions, while they saw promise, there was still work left to be done.

But they were off to a good start.

To keep up with their project, you can visit BigTime’s YouTube channel.

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