Replacement of the Shanghai Saloon.

Just before the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966), Shanghai Auto started to work on a replacement for the SH760 Sedan. The prototypes were bigger than the SH760.

Factory photo of a proposed successor of the Shanghai Sedan, photo sold at Kongfz. Car registration 08-02384.

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Crashed Export Dreams: The History of the Landwind X6 and X9

A yellow Landwind X9 in beautiful Liping, Guizhou Province

Landwind has always been a minor Chinese car brand, yet it is also a brand that quite some car enthusiasts will have heard of. Outside China, the Landwind X7, a copy of the Range Rover Evoque, received widespread media coverage across the world. However, one decade in advance an older SUV made headlines in Europe for being one of the first Chinese carmakers to enter the European market, and for a disastrous result in a slightly fishy crash test by European national consumer motoring associations. This article will cover the eventful history of the debut model by Landwind: the X9/X6-series.

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MPV’s made in Shanghai long ago.

Long before the popularity of mpv’s, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation made prototypes of mpv’s.

The Shanghai Santana SVW7181, later SH7181. The Institute gave me this brochure, they had crossed out the SVW denomination by hand.

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FAW-Volkswagen Jetta SDI Was A Rare Diesel-powered Sedan In China

FAW-Volkswagen Jetta SDI

Diesel engines in passenger cars have long been problematic in China. Many large Chinese cities, including the capital Beijing, ban diesel-powered passenger cars within the city limits because diesel is considered a dirty kind of fuel only suitable for trucks and buses.

Still, in the early 2000’s, several car makers launched diesels in China, pointing at the low fuel consumption and low greenhouse emissions. A well-known local diesel proponent was Hawtai, which developed its own 2.0 turbo diesel engines. From the foreign side there was really just one car maker that was serious about diesel, and that was, no surprise, Volkswagen. In 2002 the Germans launched a diesel-powered variant of their popular Jetta sedan, made by the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture.

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Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: The Brilliant Wedding Cars And Other Oddities Of Jinma Auto & Soar Auto

Soar Automobile

Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Jinma Auto / Soar, famous for their gigantic Rolls-Royce ‘wedding cars’. But there was more, much more!

Jinma (金马) means Golden Horse. The brand was owned by a company called Qingdao Shengma Classic Car Co., Ltd. (青岛圣马老爷车有限公司). Designation was QJM. In 2001, the company changed name to Qingdao Suo’er Automobile Co., Ltd. (青岛索尔汽车有限公司). This was abbreviated to  Soar Automobile (索尔汽车), and that is the name they are best known for. In that same year, the Jinma brand name was replaced with the Soar name.

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China Concept Cars: Guangzhou 4-Door Coupé And Cabrio-Coupé

GAC 4-Door Coupe
GAC 4-Door Coupe

Today in China Concept Cars the Guangzhou Auto Corporation (GAC) 4-Door Coupé and Cabrio-Coupé. The two cars were closely related in design and GAC called them “sister cars”.

The 4-Door Coupé debuted on the 2007 Guangzhou Auto Show and the Cabrio-Coupé on the 2008 Beijing Auto Show. On the 2009 Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC unveiled a new variant of the Cabrio-Coupé.

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Bamin redone.

In 2012 my friend Tycho wrote in Car News China about Bamin. Time for a make over.

Bamin started as a repair company of the People’s Liberation Army in 1950. In 1955 it moved to Xujia Village, Jingxi Town, Fujian Province. Since 1965 the company was named People’s Liberation Army Factory Number 7427.

Bamin advertisement, Shanghai Qiche Bao, Automotive China 1988.

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DAF in China.

Writing for China Car History is sometimes dull, and sometimes exciting. This is such an exciting moment! My Chinese car friend Robert from Poland, who I know for 20 years, has sent me yesterday some pages of a Chinese language  magazine called Auto News, edition late 2000. The writer describes the mini-auto’s made by the Qinghua University in 1958-1961. I have written about these cars in China Car History in December 2018.

Qinghua nr. 7 at Tian’an men.

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