Following the unbridled success of the new Nanjing MG TF, there's about to be another invasion of Chinese ingenuity and originality, this time in the form of the Great Wall car company.

You read that right; it's a Chinese car maker, it's coming to the UK and it's called Great Wall. The IM Group, that's the import firm that brings us Imprezas, Copens and Troopers, will be responsible for getting the cars to UK customers by 2011, just after the maker has conquered Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Interestingly, IM's statement says nothing about the cars apart from that they'll 'deliver high standards of crash-worthiness, equal to those of modern European and Japanese vehicles.' It's as if the first thing everyone thinks about when they hear the phrase 'Chinese cars' is harrowing YouTube crash test videos. Weird.

So what next? Well, once Spyker gets its Dutch paws on Saab, we predict it'll rename it the Windmill car company. Who wouldn't buy a Windmill 9-5? We'll take the poppy pack too.

Mark Nichol - 21 Dec 2009