A sweet black SouEeast Lioncel sedan, seen in the Chinese capital Beijing. And no, SouEast is nit a spelling error, is is how this company spells it English name. Catchy, eeh..?
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The SouEast Lioncel was manufactured in China from 2004 until 2007 by SouEast Motor Corporation, then a joint venture between Taiwan’s China Motor Corporation (wiki) and China’s Fujian Motor Industry Group. The Lioncel was based on the Taiwanese-made fifth generation Mitsubishi Lancer (the 1995-2003 Mirage-based lancer).
In 2006 Mitsubishi Motors joined the SouEast joint venture by buying a 25% stake. Mitsubishi also owns 15% of the China Motor Corporation.
In 2008 the SouEast Lioncel was replaced by the SouEast V3, which was basically no more than a facelifted Liaoncel with a new name, and still based on the fifth generation Lancer.
Amazingly, production of the V3 continues until today, and even more amazingly, the fifth generation Lancer is still made in China too, at the closely related SouEast-Mitsubishi joint venture.
The interior was in fine shape as well. Radio-cassette player is factory original. The SouEast Lioncel was powered by a 1.6 liter four-cylinder petrol engine with an output of 100hp and 136nm, mated to a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic.
Size: 4430/1700/1415, and wheelbase is 2500.
In 2007 price started at a very reasonable 79.800 yuan for the manual base model and ended at 159.800 yuan for the top trim automatic.
Bench looks like nobody ever sat on it, probably the best preserved part of the car.
The wheel covers are factory original.
The original Lioncel badge. The badge is in English, which was common at the time. Nowadays most badges are in Chinese characters.
The SouEast badge, with a very cool ‘E’, but sadly the T dropped off.
The license plate is very cool, with two eights. ‘8’ is a lucky number in Chinese culture. The plate appeared to be real, so this must be a lucky car; a lucky SouEast Lioncel.
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