Today in Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™): Beijing Zhonglian. Earlier, we saw their normal cars.
CCCPDoG was a ‘creative’ scheme to get around China’s extremely high import tariffs for foreign-made cars in the late 1990s. Several companies would collaborate to ‘produce’ cars in China, piggybacking on an existing Chinese car maker with a valid car-making license.
They would ship near-finished cars from abroad to China and assemble them there. This assembly wasn’t much more than attaching the wheels and such like. Under the rules then valid in Guangdong Province, this counted as ‘local production’, so there were no import tariffs. A foreign-made car had magically become a China-made car. Please read all the details about it here. Beijing Zhonglian produced four cars under the Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong:
- Toyota Land Cruiser (J80).
- Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (J90).
- Toyota Previa (XR10/XR20).
- Subaru Legacy wagon (BJ).
Toyota Land Cruiser J80
The Land Cruiser J80 was ‘manufactured’ by various companies under the Guangdong scheme. The J80 was also imported into China, officially by Toyota and unofficially via the gray market. To make matters even more complex: many Chinese car makers made clones and copies, with some using genuine Toyota parts. So it is no surprise that Beijing Zhonglian had the J80 in its lineup. Officially, the J80 was produced from 1990 until 1997, but production in China continued for much longer.
Eric saw a Zhonglian J80 in China in the 1990s, it was a beautiful dark green car with period striping on the doors and large off-road tires. It didn’t have any Toyota badging.
Each of the Beijing Zhonglian Guangdong-scheme cars had the full name of the company on the back: 北京中联专用汽车厂 (Beijing Zhonglian Special Purpose Vehicle Factory). The J80, however, is the only one we know about that had a Beijing Zhonglian designation on the back: WL6460. There is no Toyota badge again, but it does have the typical J80 4WD, 24 valve, and GX badges.
The Beijing Zhonglian WL6460 was a real car. Here we see the piggybacking at work. The CCCPDoG companies used the real designation of a real car for the ‘unreal’ Land Cruiser.
Toyota Land Cruiser Prado J90
The Toyota Land Cruiser Prado J90 (second generation) is a much rarer Guangdong-scheme car. The purple car in the photo is a pre-facelift example, officially manufactured from 1996 until 1999. It has Toyota badges on the grille and the back. The license plate is from Guangxi Autonomous Region in southern China. The car was seen in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi.
At the back, it has the 北京中联专用汽车厂 name on the door handle. Normally, the Prado would have a ‘Land Cruiser Prado’ name there.
Toyota Previa XR10/XR20
The first-generation Toyota Previa was an absolute favorite under the Guangdong scheme. It was ‘manufactured’ by a lot of companies. In addition to that, it was also officially imported by Toyota and unofficially imported via the gray market. It was officially manufactured from 1990 until 1990. The car in the photo is painted dark green with a license plate from Guangdong Province. It has the Toyota name above the license plate area. It has sporty after-market alloy wheels that seem about as old as the car.
On the right, it has the 北京中联专用汽车厂 name.
And this is interesting! It is the only car, not the only model, but the only car, with an additional Zhonglian badge on the back.
Another Zhonglian Previa. It has the Previa name on the left, above the light bar. The license plate is from Guangdong Province again. The car in the photo is painted dark green, with some after-market shiny bits over the wheel arches and the doors.
It has the 北京中联专用汽车厂 name on the back again but in another position: on the right, just above the bumper. We see that a lot under the Guangdong scheme, workers just put the badges wherever they saw fit.
Subaru Legacy wagon BJ
This is the first Subaru Legacy that we have seen under the Guangdong scheme, and it is also the first wagon. The first-generation Subaru Legacy was not officially imported into China, nor was there any gray-market import. Wagons have never been popular in China and the Subaru brand was comparatively unknown. So it is a bit of an odd one.
The Legacy was officially manufactured from 1989 until 1994 with a facelift in 1992. The car in the photos is a post-facelift flat-roof example. It seems a base model, with simple steel wheels and black bumpers.
The full name is on the left side of the rear.
Those were the Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong cars of Beijing Zhonglian. If I get more photos or information, I will update this article. If you know more, please let me know in the comments below.
似乎这个品牌是和Ministry of Public Security 有些联系，当时打击走私，罚没的整车和零配件，为了不浪费，就利用起来，进行组装，销售
google translation of Cuson’s comment: : It seems that this brand has some connection with the Ministry of Public Security. At that time, during the crackdown on smuggling, the confiscated vehicles and spare parts were used, assembled and sold in order not to go to waste.
That is really interesting, I did think it was rather unusual for a company from beijing to be involved in the guangdong scheme. That would also potentially mean that there was another company who did the Legacy wagon aswell
Zhongllian has a branch factory in Zhanjiang city ，Guangdong province. Zhanjiang is the location of Sanxing and Wanli’s headquarters.
The picture shows a WL5020X model assembled by Zhonglian The prototype is the Hyundai Galloper I (Photo from Weibo)