A hall with the last Visa’s, 1997. I counted about 25 vehicles in this hall. The photos are made by Dorus Aarts., who gave me 16 pictures of the last ever made Citroën Visa’s, stored in a hall.
Not made in a Citroën factory in France, Spain or Portugal. But assembled in China, the pictures show the Wuling LZW7100 in Liuzhou city, Guangxi province.
Dorus Aarts was a Dutch business man who visited Liuzhou in 1997. We know Dorus already as a member of the group of people who was responsable for the import of the Beijing Jeeps in the Netherlands, 1987.
In 1987 the Guangxi Liuzhou Mini Auto Works introduced an imported Citroën Visa Mk. II, which was the base for their own Wuling, named the LZW7100. From 1991 on till 1994 Visa´s were built in Liuzhou. In total 1.314 were made.
You can find more here: Tycho wrote at Carnewschina in 2012, Julian Marsh at Citroënnët in 1999.
When Dorus Aarts visited Liuzhou in 1997, to discuss the sales of Wuling minivans and mini pickups in Europe, the last about 50 China made Visa’s were stored in halls. Unexpectedly Wuling discussed a deal about these Visa’s with Aarts, but they couldn’t agree the price. The cars were stored as the Beijing authorities had forbidden the sales, Wuling had no license to produce cars.
Wuling wanted 2000 dollar for each car, Aarts offered as a start 100 dollar. He was prepared to give 500 dollar. With the transport costs, the import taxes, the adjustments to get a license etc. he would end at about 2000 dollar as a selling price for each car in Europe. Wuling was willing to do the cleaning.
It was clear that they didn’t reach an agreement.
We don’t know what happened then to the cars. Probably they were sold somewhere in backward China or exported to Africa.
Aarts got a Wuling instruction booklet:
Wuling got the cars from Citroën, with possible help of Thierry Peugeot, an entrepreneur who helped Citroën with selling difficult to sell batches of irregular vehicles.
It is unclear from which Citroën factory they came from, the bodywork is from the diesel version of the Visa, but the engine was missing. Wuling put in the Xiali (Daihatsu license) 993cc petrol engine.
Like always there are questions left. Who knows where the Wuling Visa’s were going too?
I do wonder how did Wuling obtain the car’s designation in the first place, when they were not allowed to sell passanger cars. As for the fate, it would have been possible to sell them as “spares” aswell I suppose.
It seems that some factories just chose designations without having the right to use them.
Hasn’t it always been this way when it comes to China?