MK it real
This is what almost 50 grand gets you if you simply have to go Chinese
Overwhelmingly plastic interior, strange smell, low overall build quality Geely’s smart-looking MK sedan trades on being an affordable budget sedan, but how does it hold up to the competition?
By Derryn Wong
The proverbial 800-pound gorilla refers to something so large or powerful that it can do anything it wants to unhindered. In the automotive industry that would be big players like Toyota with its super-successful Corolla sedan, while the rest either follow or carve out success with strong alternatives.
Due to the vagaries of translation, the rather sensibly named Geely MK is known as the King Kong in some other markets. No, I am not making this up, because it comes from the Chinese word ‘jing gang’ which transmits ideas of steel, strength and adamantine qualities and not from a gigantic gorilla living on an island.
It’s widely known that Chinese cars aren’t the best built, since you really do get what you pay for. On the outside, Geely has done quite a good job of creating a nice-looking small sedan. It looks better than its sister car the CK, which seemed to be created out of a conglomerate of other eye-catching features from its contemporaries.
Since the MK is meant to compete in the small-sedan market, its general shape resembles the ever-popular Toyota Vios (more on this later though) with more angular treatment. In this respect, it is wholly a car in its own right and quite a recognisable one at that too.
Overall, Geely’s designers went straight for the ‘sharp and mean’ school of styling. Most of the visual action happens on the front, dominated by a hexagonal-motif grille split by a single chrome louver with the new Skoda-esque Geely badge adorning it.
The wedge-shaped front headlight clusters are actually quite visually appealing and even manage to include a pair of nice looking projector-style lamps. It’s a pity that they don’t work particularly well, and one even began to fog up, despite the test car being almost brand new.
Rounding out the rest of the nose are fog lamps and a lower air dam. The rest of the car is also pretty normal with not much going on except for an interesting central feature line, which runs from the tip of the bonnet and resumes on top of the boot. It spices up an otherwise bland looking exterior.
