FAW-Volkswagen Jetta SDI Was A Rare Diesel-powered Sedan In China

FAW-Volkswagen Jetta SDI

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

Soar Automobile

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.

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China Concept Cars: Guangzhou 4-Door Coupé And Cabrio-Coupé

GAC 4-Door Coupe
GAC 4-Door Coupe

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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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.

Bamin advertisement, Shanghai Qiche Bao, Automotive China 1988.

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DAF in China.

Writing for China Car History is sometimes dull, and sometimes exciting. This is such an exciting moment! My Chinese car friend Robert from Poland, who I know for 20 years, has sent me yesterday some pages of a Chinese language  magazine called Auto News, edition late 2000. The writer describes the mini-auto’s made by the Qinghua University in 1958-1961. I have written about these cars in China Car History in December 2018.

Qinghua nr. 7 at Tian’an men.

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Chinese Car Brands That Time Forgot (CCBTTF): Hangtian Auto

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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Shenyang Songliao and Polarsun. Part 2: Polarsun.

Polarsun (Zhongshun) started with just a name change, continuing the production of the new Roger-designed minibus. This vehicle is based on the fourth generation of the Toyota HiAce. Polarsun is still using the SLQ  denomination, the minibus is called Polarsun Century SLQ6503.

Polarsun Century SLQ5023 at the Shanghai Salon 2005. There were several different front ends.

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Shenyang Songliao and Polarsun. Part 1: Songliao.

Songliao SLQ6450, Beijing 1995, photo Erik van Ingen Schenau.

Shenyang Songliao Auto Works were born in a military factory in the East China Military Region, established on April 24, 1949. The original site was located in Nanjing; in the early days, their main business was to repair cars for the army. On March 8, 1952, the military factory was ordered to go to Dandong on the bank of the Yalu River in Liaoning Province to participate in the Korean War, and to repair vehicles on the front line day and night.

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