Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangdong Wanli Automobile, a company that was based in the great city of Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province.
Guangdong Wanli was heavily involved in the infamous Guangdong scheme in the 1990’s. Read all the details about it here. Wanli was a company similar to Sanxing, making all sorts of deals and running all sorts of operations.
Some of their vehicles were assembled under semi-official and semi-legal CKD-production deals. Other deals were more shady, of the Guangdong Guangtong kind, where ‘assembly’ wasn’t much more than putting the wheels and badges on.
Wanli used the designation WLZ.
The known Guangdong Wanli cars are:
- Mitsubsihi Pajero V20 (in various kinds).
- Toyota Land Cruiser J80.
- Suzuki Vitara ET/TA. 3-doors and 5-doors variants.
- Kia Sportage NB-7.
- Toyota HiAce H100.
- Toyota LiteAce R20/R30.
- Toyota HiLux N90.
- Toyota bus.
- Hyundai Grace.
The Wanli badge on the grille of a Mitsubishi Pajero.
A word on sources:
The main photo source of this article is Lau0212, a fanatic car spotter living in Zhangjiang, who has a Weibo full of beautiful cars from Guangdong Province, with loads and loads of Wanli. Many thanks! Other sources: Fr33-L00k, Goodluck_葉, Navigator84, Sam Faulkner.
Wanli, Wemry, or Wenli?
The Chinese name of the company is Wanli (万里), meaning ‘10.000 miles’. The Chinese li is not the same as the English mile. It is a traditional unit measuring 500 meters, but it is rarely used today.
Wanli uses the English brand name Wemry, as you can see on the photo of the building. However, on their cars they use two different English names, apparently at random: Wemry and Wemli.
Wemly on a Kia Sportage.
Wenri on a Toyota HiAce.
Wemli on a Mitsubishi Pajero.
Wemry on another Mitsubishi Pajero.
It is unclear why they used these two different names, even on the same kind of vehicle. I doubt it was a R-L mistake (this does happen in China), there are simply too many cars, somebody should have noticed.
Chinese car makers do sometimes use different English names for international markets and their local market, in addition to their Chinese name. Perhaps the Wemry name was intended for international markets and the Wenli name for the local market. Maybe exports didn’t happen and Wanli decided to use both names in China instead.
Sadly Chinese sources aren’t of much help here since they always use the Chinese name. If I find out more I will update this story.
The factory has long ceased production but the dormitories for factory workers are still standing, and still inhabited. Some of the people living there now must be former Wanli employees, with many stories to tell…
Moving on now, finally, to the cars:
Mitsubishi Pajero
Wanli made a whole lot of Mitsubishi Pajero V20’s. Most were of the V33 type. The V33, and V31 and V32, are designations for China-spec facelifted Pajero’s. In the official Pajero timetable they go between the V20 and the V60, but they are always based on the V20.
At Wanli, all the Pajero’s were designated WLZ5030XLD.
The first car is a base GLX police car with Guangdong police-plates and beautiful steel wheels.
Two badges on the back: a GLX trim level badge and a Guangdong Wanli badge.
Next up is a high-spec car with a factory bull bar, fender flares, side steps, and speedy stickers. This version is the most common Wanli Pajero.
Wemry name above the license plate, Wemry – 4WD on the sticker under the third-side window.
A high roof Pajero with the Mitsubishi name on the side and above the license plate, and above that…
… a full Guangdong Wanli Qiche badge (Qiche = car/auto).
On another Pajero.
Another high roof example with a Mitsubishi badge on the grille.
A very beautiful ultra-high end car with the Wanli badge on the grille.
The reason that they used Mitsubishi and Wanli badges on the same car is likely that they had a joint venture with Mitsubishi, selling the Mitsubishi-branded cars, and that they also sold the Pajero under their own Wanli brand. This sort of arrangements are very common in China even today. As part of a joint venture deal the foreign partner grants the Chinese partner the right to sell some of the JV’s producs under their own name.
Another high end high roof car with speedy stickers, and curtains for the windows!
Guangdong Wanli Qiche badge on the left. GLX badge on the right. Under the GLX badge a badge with the full designation WLZ5030XLD.
A fiery red fire patrol car. This particular car belongs to the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.
Toyota Land Cruiser
I only have pictures of one Wanli Land Cruiser, a gray example with red stripes. The Land Cruiser J80 was manufactured by various companies during the Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong.
The Wanli logo and badge. 24 valve badge indicates a 4.0 six-in-line petrol engine.
Suzuki Vitara
And this little white beauty is the only Wanli I have ever seen myself. It stood abandoned in the Wanjing district in Beijing, but it is gone now. It had license plates of Yunnan Province. The Vitara too was a very popular car in the Crazy Car Production Days.
Lot of stuff going on with this one. Roof rack, ladder, spare wheel, bumper extension, side steps.
The Guangdong Wanli Qiche badge.
The designation of the Wanli Vitara was WLZ5020XLD. JLX is a Suzuki trim level.
Another Vitara with a tiny red Wanli badge on the grille.
There was a 5-door version too, with the same designation.
Kia Sportage
An unusual car, even for those days. As far as I know Wanli was the only company making the Kia Sportage. It had a Kia badge on the grille.
Period-correct 4WD Sportage spare wheel cover. To the right of the cover the ‘Wemly’ badge.
A Guangdong Wemli badge on the left side.
Toyota LiteAce
Wanli made two Toyota vans: the LiteAce and the HiAce. The LiteAce appears to be quite common even today.
Wanli badge on the grille.
Beautiful original stickers.
Guangdong Wanli Qiche.
Another one with different badging: Wemry above the license plate and LiteAce on the left. No character badges on this one.
The front of the same car, showing a Toyota badge on the grille. Likely a similar agreement as with Mitsubishi; selling the LiteAce under both the Toyota and the Wanli names.
A steel-wheel police version with the Wanli badge.
Triple police. No visible badges on the rear.
Toyota HiAce
The HiAce was only made with Wanli badging, and only in the Commuter trim level.
An ultracool 1996 boarding pass showing the HiAce in an American landscape, complete with the Wemry badge and name and a handy 1996 calendar. In those days it was very common to advertise on boarding passes, especially in southern China. It also learns us the designation: WLZ6460.
Another example with Toyota stickers on the side.
Same car with the original Commuter badge, and below that the Wanli badge.
Toyota Coaster
Buses were relatively rare in the Crazy Days. Sanxing made some, but I don’t know of any others. The car on the photo appears to be short-wheelbase, with space for about a dozen travelers. Toyota badge on the nose.
Toyota badge on the rear, and on the low-right side…
… the Wanli badge.
Toyota HiLux
A few other Crazy Guangdong companies made vvariants of the Toyota HiLux pickup truck. Wanli made a four-door short-bed variant, seen here with steel wheels, again at the Baiyun airport. Toyota badge on the grille.
Wanli badge on the lower-left.
Hyundai Grace
The last Wanli I know about is the Hyundai Grace, a van based on the third-generation Mitsubishi Delica. The Grace was made by at least one other company in the Guangdong Days. The Delica was made by so many companies I have totally lost count. More on those in later posts. This particular blue car has Peugeot badges for and aft. Not sure why. Perhaps the owner was a fan of the brand..?
A busy rear with the designation on the left: WLZ6470. On the right the Guangdong Wanli Qiche badge, and below that a Wemry badge.
And that was Guangdong Wanli’s contribution to the Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong. If you want to research this interesting company; here are a few starting points:
Guangdong Wanli Auto: 广东万里汽车.
Designation: WLZ.
English names: Wemry and Wemli.
If you know of any similar ‘Guangdong car’ from this period please contact us or leave a comment below.
The Delica van has a Peugeot badge because it is a Peugeot service car which it says on the back 😉