About the History of Cars in China
This beautiful red sedan is First Auto Works Dongfeng CA71, officially known as ‘China’s first car’. It was born in 1958 on the special request of Mao Zedong, who demanded a Chinese state limousine. I met it at the Beijing Classic Car Museum to the far north of the capital.
Continue reading “The First Auto Works Dongfeng CA71 Was China’s First Car”
Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Guangtong Passenger Car, a company based in the great city of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province. They produced a series of small and medium sized buses under the Jinhui Auto brand name, using the designation GTZ.
In addition to that they also ‘made’ at least five cars under the infamous Guangdong scheme in the 1990’s. Read all the details about it here. Under this scheme Guangtong Passenger Car would be approached by a third-party company to ‘manufacture’ cars, using Guangtong Passenger Car’s car-making license.
Continue reading “Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Guangtong Passenger Car – Jinhui Auto”
In the mid 200’s Fiat was in big trouble, so they went to China. Not to sell cars but to offload entire production lines to Chinese car makers.
In 2007 they sold the platform for the Alfa Romeo 166 to Guangzhou Auto, and then the Italians went to Zotye for a more complicated deal that included cars of Fiat, Fiat do Brasil, and Lancia.
Continue reading “China’s Zotye Auto Almost Made The Lancia Lybra And The Fiat Strada”