Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Guangdong Guangtong

Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangdong Guangtong Automobile, a company based in the great city of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province.  They produced a series of small and medium sized buses under the Guangtong brand name, using the designation GTQ.

In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least two cars for the infamous Guangdong scheme in the 1990’s. Read all the details about it here. Under this scheme Guangdong Guangtong would be approached by a third-party company to ‘manufacture’ cars, using Guangdong Guangtong’s car-making license.

These cars weren’t really manufactured. Companies would send a shipment of cars to China. The cars would miss some crucial parts like the wheels, mirrors, or door handles. This was enough to classify these cars as car parts, avoiding the import taxes.

Companies would then send the missing parts in another container. Both containers would end up in a shed in Guangdong were they would be reunited into a working car and could be sold as a China-made vehicle, netting huge profits for everybody involved.

Usually, there would be a Guangdong company which did the assembly, a Hong Kong company that took care of the money, another Hong Kong company that orchestrated the whole thing, and a trader or car company that delivered the original vehicles.

The trader could be a completely independent entity, working without any backing or even knowledge by the vehicle’s manufacturer.

But manufacturers were involved too, using a web of shell companies to get their cars into China. Most notorious were Japanese and Taiwanese auto makers, operating on a thin edge between legal and illegal.

The biggest obstacle for the whole scheme was that every company that wanted to make cars in China, no matter how much ‘making’ they really did, needed an official car-making license by the central government.

The government however would not give a license to a misty Guangdong business, so the scheming companies had to find an existing car maker with a car-making license to piggy-back on. One of those car makers was Guangzhou Guangtong.

In this case we can be pretty sure that only traders were involved, since most of the cars that Guangdong Guangtong ‘manufactured’ were of  different brands. The known Guangdong Guangtong cars are:

1. Daewoo Racer four-door hatchback.
2. Kia Pride four-door hatchback (Y).
3. Toyota RAV4 (XA10).
4. Mitsubishi Pajero (V33).
5. Mitsubishi Space Wagon (UF).
6. Nissan Sunny (B310) Yulon YLN 303.
7. Suzuki Vitara 5-door (ET/TA).

Guangzhou Guangtong still exists today, using the name ‘Guangtong Auto’. They make a large series of electric and hybrid buses, and a series of electric cars including a clone of the Nissan NV200 taxi.

Back now to the 1990’s:

The most common of the Guangtong cars was Daewoo Racer hatchback. The Racer was based on the Opel Kadett E and made from 1986 until 1994. It was also exported to the the United States where it was sold as the Pontiac LeMans.

At Guangtong it was designated GTQ5010X. The only engine for the GTQ5010X was an Opel-developed ‘L73’ four-cylinder petrol engine with 73 horses. This engine was also available in the Daewoo and the Pontiac.

The interior is standard Daewoo. Note the badge on the steering wheel. It looks like a Pontiac badge but it is actually a specially designed badge for the Racer with the same shape as the Pontiac badge, so it would be easy to replace it with the real Pontiac badge for the U.S. export cars. There was a similar badge on the grille.

The Guangtong cars simply kept the badge on the steering wheel but they changed the badge on the grille for their own badge; a styled G and T.

The Guangtong badge.

The wheels are interesting. They are factory standard but I can only find them on Daewoo-branded exports to Chile. This could be a clue to the origins of the Guangtong Racer. Perhaps our trader somehow got his hands on a Chile-bound shipment, and diverted the cars to China instead. License plates of this black car are of Guangdong Province.

The second-most common Guangtong is the Kia Pride five-door hatchback, complete with a Guangtong badge on the grille. It was manufactured by Kia Motors in South Korea from 1987 until 2000, and it  was also made in China by Yueda-Kia, later Dongfeng-Yueda-Kia. This was an official Sino-foreign joint venture, unlike the Guangtong operation.

The Kia Pride hatchback was designated GTQ5010XA. It seems that the Guangtong Pride was a somewhat sporty variant, note especially the red lines on the doors. License plates are of Guangdong again.

The badge on the Guangtong Kia Pride.

This is probably the most bizar Guangdong-scheme car I have seen so far. It is a first generation Toyota RAV4 (1994-2000). But not just any. This is the RAV4 Fun Cruiser, see badge on the door. The Fun Cruiser was a trim level that was marketed in Europe, so that is likely where this car was originally intended for. I only have one picture of the it, showing a green example with a Guangtong badge on the grille, and again with Guangdong license plates. Designation was GTQ6440.

Moving on to the Pajero, the most popular cars of the Guangdong scheme. At least a dozen companies ‘manufactured’ the second generation Mitsubishi Pajero, in all sorts and kinds, and Guangtong was one of them. It doesn’t have a Guangtong badge on the grille, retaining the original Mitsubishi badge instead. But…

… it had a Guangtong badge in red on the back and the word Guangtong in Latin script. The Pajero was designated GTQ5490.

The next Guangtong car is another Mitsubishi; the second generation Space Wagon (1991-1997). This too was a popular car under the Guangdong scheme. At least four companies ‘manufactured’ the Space Wagon. The

The type plate under the bonnet. Top line, in characters, ‘Guangtong Auto’. Below that the designation: GTQ5020XZH. Power came from the 2.0 4G63 four-cylinder petrol engine.

This is probably the most interesting Guangtong car. It is a Yulon YLN303, based on the Nissan Sunny B310 (1977-1981). Yulon Motor was, and is, a large Taiwanese automaker, which made the B310 under license from 1981 until 1992, and they called it the Yulon YLN303 Sunny.

In the late 1980’s Yulon tried twice to setup an official car making joint venture in China, but failed. Apparently, things did finally work out under the Guangdong scheme, but by that time the B310 was truly an ancient car. Only picture I have shows a dusty car seen from the rear with a Sunny badge between the lights. Designation was GTQ5011. License plate is of Guangdong Province.

The last Guangtong we know about is the first generation Suzuki Vitara 5-d00r (1988-1998). The car on the photo is a post-1994 model with the facelifted grille, and powered by the 2.0 V6 petrol engine.

The Vitara has Suzuki badges fore and aft, including a cool ‘V6 2.0’ badge. The wheels are original and were standard on the U.S. market Sidekick Sport. The Vitara, in 3-door and 5-door form, was made by a few other Guangdong-scheme companies. More on those later on.

The Vitara was designated GTQ5020XLZ.

And that was Guangdong Guangtong’s contribution to the Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong.

Sources: C3aizuoyou, Xuanliangge, Che168. More photos Guangtong Pajero: Cheshi. Photos Vitara via Navigator84.

If you want to research this interesting company; here are a few starting points:

Guangdong Guangtong Automobile: 广东广通汽车.
Designation: GTQ.

If you know of any similar ‘Guangdong car’ from this period please contact us.