Long before the popularity of mpv’s, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation made prototypes of mpv’s.
MPV’s made in Shanghai long ago.
Category: All Brands
FAW-Volkswagen Jetta SDI Was A Rare Diesel-powered Sedan In China
Diesel engines in passenger cars have long been problematic in China. Many large Chinese cities, including the capital Beijing, ban diesel-powered passenger cars within the city limits because diesel is considered a dirty kind of fuel only suitable for trucks and buses.
Still, in the early 2000’s, several car makers launched diesels in China, pointing at the low fuel consumption and low greenhouse emissions. A well-known local diesel proponent was Hawtai, which developed its own 2.0 turbo diesel engines. From the foreign side there was really just one car maker that was serious about diesel, and that was, no surprise, Volkswagen. In 2002 the Germans launched a diesel-powered variant of their popular Jetta sedan, made by the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture.
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Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: The Brilliant Wedding Cars And Other Oddities Of Jinma Auto & Soar Auto
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Jinma Auto / Soar, famous for their gigantic Rolls-Royce ‘wedding cars’. But there was more, much more!
Jinma (金马) means Golden Horse. The brand was owned by a company called Qingdao Shengma Classic Car Co., Ltd. (青岛圣马老爷车有限公司). The designation was QJM. In 2001, the company changed its name to Qingdao Suo’er Automobile Co., Ltd. (青岛索尔汽车有限公司). This was abbreviated to Soar Automobile (索尔汽车), and that is the name they are best known for. That same year, the Jinma brand name was replaced with the Soar name.
China Concept Cars: Guangzhou 4-Door Coupé And Cabrio-Coupé
Today in China Concept Cars the Guangzhou Auto Corporation (GAC) 4-Door Coupé and Cabrio-Coupé. The two cars were closely related in design and GAC called them “sister cars”.
The 4-Door Coupé debuted on the 2007 Guangzhou Auto Show and the Cabrio-Coupé on the 2008 Beijing Auto Show. On the 2009 Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC unveiled a new variant of the Cabrio-Coupé.
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Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong: Hangtian Auto
Last month I posted a post on the cars of Hangtian Auto. Like many of automakers at the time, the company was also involved in the misty business of the Crazy Car Production Days of Guangdong (CCPDoG™).
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Bamin redone.
In 2012 my friend Tycho wrote in Car News China about Bamin. Time for a make over.
Bamin started as a repair company of the People’s Liberation Army in 1950. In 1955 it moved to Xujia Village, Jingxi Town, Fujian Province. Since 1965 the company was named People’s Liberation Army Factory Number 7427.
The Sanshan Company made the other Dacia.
When my friend Sam wrote about the Xingtai made Dacia, he told us that there was another factory that has made a Dacia pickup copy: the Shenyang Sanshan Company.
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Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Hangtian Auto
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Hangtian Auto. This brand was owned and manufactured by two closely related companies: Guizhou Hangtian and Zhongguo Jiangnan Hangtian. Both companies were based in Guizhou Province and their core business was military aerospace, including spacecrafts, airplanes and missiles.
Hangtian Auto (航天汽车) literally means ‘Aerospace Auto’. The brand was founded in 1984 and existed until about 2005. During that time, Hangtian Auto made a series of vans, small trucks, and minibuses.
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A Hongqi for the common people.
After their life times efforts to make cars for the leaders, mr. Hua Fulin and two other FAW senior researchers and engineers decided to develop a real “people’s car”. The project was named “Sankoule”(literally “Three Mouths”) the name revers to the then standard Chinese family with two parents and one child.
Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot: Haisheng Auto
Today in Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Hainan Haisheng Auto, a brand based in the great city of Haikou in sunny Hainan province. They used the English brand name Hiseng, without the ‘H’. From the late 1990’s to the mid 2000’s they made a series of pickup trucks, legally-licensed Mitsubishi Pajero’s, semi-legal Suzuki Vitara’s, and much more.
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