I don´t know how, but suddenly a batch of photos for sale showed up on Wechat. The origin was the Traffic Bureau of Qujing City, the photos were originally from the small blue car registration books. Among these automobiles was an unknown sedan.
There were 10 photos of this sedan, all (of course) with a local Qujing registration plate (Yun D …..). I will show them all 10 here.
After some research I found out that this car was made by the Yunnan Lanjian Auto Works, a factory in the same city as the traffic bureau.
Lanjian Auto Works was the successor of the State Operated Factory No. 9807, in 1983. These military works started automobile production in 1980 with a copy of the Beijing BJ130.
In the first year Lanjian showed already a new cab design.
In the beginning of the 1990s, Lanjian started to introduce Isuzu technology. Assembling of the Isuzu NKR552L besides of the production of the Lanjian LJC1041, both with an Isuzu N-type cab, took place.
And, in cooperation with the Hong Kong & Taiwan Trading Co. Ltd., a sedan was developed. The idea was to create a standard Asian car.
Already in 1992, Lanjian was in financial trouble. The local tobacco industry stepped in with financial help. In 1996 the problems were still not solved.
FAW bought, together with the Hongta Tobacco Group, the company in 1997 . The name of the new company became FAW Hongta Yunnan Lanjian Automobile Co. Ltd. They redesigned the cab of the light truck.
Another decision was to abandon the sedan project. That was the end. I don’t know how many were made. Probably they were made for less than five years.
You can see at the photos of some cars that the car had a logo. Helas is it not clear if this was the Lanjian logo you can see here under.
I promised you ten photos of the sedan, still four to go.
In 2003, FAW got a license to produce the Daihatsu Move, in Tianjin and in Qujing.
FAW Hongta continued. In 2009, General Motors came in and a new joint venture was established: the FAW-GM Hongta Yunnan Automobile Co. Ltd.
They developed the FAW Hongta T340 pickup.
And the last two photos:
This is it about the Lanjian mini car.
I still miss the designation and the engine, plus the production numbers. Who knows?
I had some help from this article: https://m.163.com/dy/article/FFMGSKD805427GES.html?spss=adap_pc.
Wow, that is incredible find! Those cars do look pretty good, shame it didnt work out… The first car of the type (on the assembly line) looks like a Charade derivative (much like the Zhonghua BS111 hatchback), maybe it was not a sedan after all. Only time will tell.
Did the later FAW-GM Hongta Yunnan Automobile build the Kuncheng pickup aswell, or was that a different branch?