The Santana-look alike minicars of the 1990s.

One of the interesting periods of the Chinese automotive development were the 1990s; private car ownership was exploding and there were many companies who jumped into this market to make small family cars.

Most of these companies never had made cars before.

In general, two concepts were existing:
– one based on the chassis of the Beijing BJ121 and BJ212, with different bodywork, there were hardtops and soft tops, pickups and suv’s;
– and the other based on the platforms of the “mianbaoche”, these were  small minivans and minibuses derived from the Chinese copies of the Japanese examples (in Japanese: keitora or kei trucks) made by Daihatsu, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Suzuki.

The companies who used the “mianbaoche” (bread car) platforms to make their cars, these companies made their own mini car bodies, mostly made of FRP (glassfiber), inspired by existing models from the foreign companies, like the Shanghai-VW Santana or the Tianjin-Dafa Xiali (Daihatsu Charade).

Here I give you an inside in the Santana-look alikes. They all have the typical third side window, like the original Santana. First I show you two photos of that car.

The order of the vehicles I use here is the alphabetic order by province and city name.

The Anhui Langxi Xiyate Automobile Co. Ltd. made around 1996 the Xiyate LQC1010S. The name is interesting, as ‘Xiyate’ is also in use for the transcription in Chinese of the Spanish company name Seat. In 2011 the Langxi Xiyate company went bankrupt.

Xiyate LQC1010S.

The Wuhu Benda Automobile Industry Co. Ltd. in Anhui province made the Chibao.

People’s Liberation Army (Jiefangjun) no. 3403 Works, also named Chongqing Shanhua Automobile Works,  started the production of the Fulai minicar in 1992 and ended the production in 1999.

The famous First Tractor Works (Auto Sub-Works) in Luoyang city, Henan province not only made tractors and heavy trucks. In 1991 the Dongfanghong (East is Red) LT6390 was taken into production.  The platform was from the Harbin WJ1010, the engine a Suzuki licensed 797cc.
I informed Tycho, who wrote an article in 2012.

Luoyang Bus Works, Henan province, came in 1992 with the Aoshen  LYK6420. These cars were made in very low quantities.

Changjian JZK6420 taxis were very popular in the 1990s in Central China. They were made by the Jiaozuo Bus Works in Meng county, Henan province.
There were many different versions, including a Santana clone.

Dalian city (Liaoning province) Changda Auto Works had its own Santana clone named Changchi. The engine was about 1-litre.

Jinyang Qinxing Auto Works in Shaanxi province has its Santana clone with a perfect copied Santana front end. The Qinxing QX6401 was available with two different engines; 462Q  (797cc) or 465Q (970cc), both from Dong’an or Chang’an. The platform was a SFJ1010. There was a sedan, a station wagon and a pickup, available as single cab or double cab.

Shandong Jinan Lubin Company Auto sub-company Huaxing sub-Works (also named Jinan Huaxing Auto Refit Works) was responsable for the Lubin JLB5010KH. The engine was a DA462 (797cc) or a 376QB (993cc).

Not identified, this white car, from the movie Qingfengxia (1994). A low waist line and a high third side window.

Like always, most certainly, there were more. Please give your comments!!