Shenyang Songliao and Polarsun. Part 1: Songliao.

Shenyang Songliao Auto Works were born in a military factory in the East China Military Region, established on April 24, 1949. The original site was located in Nanjing; in the early days, their main business was to repair cars for the army. On March 8, 1952, the military factory was ordered to go to Dandong on the bank of the Yalu River in Liaoning Province to participate in the Korean War, and to repair vehicles on the front line day and night.

After the end of the Korean War, the factory settled in Shenyang in Liaoning Province and was reorganized to become the auto repair shop of the Logistics Department of the Shenyang Military Region. The name of the factory was Sujiatun (nowadays a district of Shenyang) Auto Repair Works. Their first product was a GAZ69  copy, name August 1st (this is the founding day of the People’s Liberation Army in 1927).

In July 1965, the factory was renamed in the People’s Liberation Army Works 7416 Factory.

In 1983 the factory changed its name again, now named the State-owned Shenyang Songliao Auto Works. With the name change, new cars were introduced: a minibus in several versions: 15-seats (SL620), ambulance (SL420); also as a small truck, crew cab with a payload of 1 ton (SL120) and a cross country vehicle (JY6420).

The design of the SL620-series was similar to that of the Beijing Yanjing YJ620.

The SL620 minibus series was for years Songliao’s best selling product, in the 1980s and 1990s, when the buses were named SLQ6500/ SLQ6501.
Production capacity was 15.000 vehicles, but the best year was 1993 with a production of 7.660 vehicles.

Songliao worked together with the Nanjing Yuejin Auto Works. The Yuejin NJ136AS 1.5-ton truck and the Songliao (Iveco) 40-8 medium bus were made in Shenyang.

In 1990 Songliao came with the 9-seat SLQ6450 suv, as 4×2 and 4×4, 4.650mm long and equipped with the 492/100Q engine. The car was designed by FAW together with the Changchun Automotive Research Institute. The factory was now called the Songliao Automobile Co. Ltd.

In 1993 Songliao had a quite extensive range of vehicles in production.

Here an overview:
The basic SQL65401 minibus. the best selling product.

The ambulance version.

The crew cab pickup version.

The 4×2 SUV, here with the Cherokee front.

The 4×4 version of the SUV.

The pickup version.

The SLQ6450Y models.

In October of the same year Songliao built a prototype of a new minibus, strongly based on the Hyundai H100. The Tianjin Automotive Research Institute designed the minibus, named Songliao SLQ6502. Songliao ordered and paid the stamping dies by FAW (First Auto Works) , but FAW never delivered the dies. Songliao filed a lawsuit for 87.483.500 yuan, for breach of contract by the FAW Mould Technology Development Co. Ltd.  Nearly ten years later the case was settled.

In 1996 Songliao succeeded in signing a technology agreement with the Ford Motor Co. A team of 100 men came to Shenyang. The idea was to start a joint-venture, producing a Ford suv under the name SLQ2033 and a mini-van as SLQ6430. When the new production lines were ready in 1998, the state forbid the joint venture, Songliao was still a military factory and the military were blocked in participating in business activities with foreigners.  In June 1999 the plans were blown up and the factory completely ceased production.

Songliao was then sold by the military to a civil party and had a chaotic period, ownership and managers changed all the times.

Until 2003, when Songliao returned to life with three new vehicles, designed by the American bodywork stylist mr. Roger.

At the Shanghai Auto Show 2003  (the SARS show, after a couple of days the show was cancelled due to the virus outbreak) the three vehicles got the name Songliao Century.

After the show, the vehicle production qualification of Songliao was transferred to the newly established Shenyang Zhongshun (Polarsun) Automobile Co. Ltd.

Here the Songliao production figures, as far as I could find them:
1984: 826; 1985: 1515; 1987: 1400; 1990: 1703; 1991: 1293; 1992: 4863; 1993: 7660; 1994: 7075; 1995: 5610; 1996: 4001; 1997: 2413; 1998: 722; 1999: 104; 2000: 49; 2001: 0.