Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Qingyuan Bende. This company made the Chrysler Neon LS under the infamous Guangdong scheme in the 1990’s.
Under the Guangdong scheme, scheming parties would look for an existing Chinese car maker with a valid license to piggy-back on. They would ship in near-finished cars from abroad, and ‘produce’ them in China using that car maker’s license and designation. Usually, the original manufacturer of the car had no idea that this was happening. Read all the details about it here.
Qingyuan Bende was a small manufacturer based in the great city of Qingyuan in Guangdong Province. They made a series of minivans and minibuses under the Bende brand. The company is no longer around today.
Since the company was based in Guangdong, it seems likely that the vehicles were assembled in their own facility. The Chrysler badges came off and were replaced with Qingyuan badges. But they were too lazy to remove the LS-badge from the C-pillar. All Qingyuan Bende Chrysler Neon’s that I have seen have the LS trim level.
The license plate area is too small for the Chinese plate, indicating that the Qingyuan Bende Neon’s were originally intended for the North American market. Somehow during the distribution process, a trader got his hands on them, shipped them to China, and turned them into Qingyuan Bende’s.
The ‘new’ Chinese Neon got the designation QY5011XLD. Most were registered in 1995 and 1996. Power came from a 2.0 liter four-cylinder petrol engine, with a stated output of 150 hp and 180 Nm. Gearbox was a four-speed manual. There were no other engine options available.
On the left: QY5011XLD designation badge. On the right: Qingyuan Bende logo.
How many cars were assembled is unclear, but it seems they made quite a lot of them. Even today some are offered on second-hand car websites, and that is a rare thing for these Guangdong-scheme cars.
These are the standard wheel covers.
Chrysler logo on the steering wheel. Qingyuan Bende didn’t care to change that…
All the cars that I have seen have Guangdong license plates, so it seems unlikely they were sold outside the province.
Badge on the bonnet.
Badge on the rear, under the brake light.
Seat covers are after-market, but they look great in this…
… very pretty red Neon.
There is more to the Chrysler Neon in China. For a short while it was officially sold by Chrysler, and for an even shorter while it was officially manufactured in China, by Beijing-Jeep in Beijing.
And at almost the same time, it was assembled by Qingyuan Bende during the Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong! If you want to research this interesting company; here are a few starting points:
Qingyuan Bende: 清远奔得.
Qingyuan Bende Autmobile Group: 清远奔得汽车集团.
Designation: QY.
Sources: iAutos, cn2che, jm273, Edwin豪, 轨迹1984, chinaepu.
More CCPDoG soon!