This is a very special car: a Yunbao YB6470, a China-made Y30 Nissan Cedric wagon. I found this beauty parked on a small road in south Beijing, looking perfectly fine for its age, and painted in a sweet kind of wine red.
The Yunbao YB6470 was manufactured by a company called Guangzhou Yunbao. This company was closely related to a Taiwanese company called Yulon Motor.
Yulon Motor manufactured the Y30 Cedric wagon for the Taiwanese market, using Complete Knock Down (CKD) kits shipped in from Japan.
Some of these kits were now forwarded to China, and turned into the Yunbao YB6470. There were basically no local parts, even the windows were original Japanese! Production in China started in 1990 and ended in 1998.
Yolon Motor has been very active in China for many years, with all sorts of schemes and dealings, some perfectly legal, some slightly less so. Currently, their largest venture on the mainland is the Dongfeng-Yulong joint venture, making Luxgen-branded cars for the Chinese market.
It was branded ‘Yunbao’, with an YB badge on the grille. There were no Nissan badges or logo’s on the exterior of the car.
The YB6470 was powered by the Nissan 6V87Q 2.9 liter V6, with an output of 146 hp. The engine was mated to a five-speed manual, sending horses to the rear wheels. Size: 4740/1696/1510, wheelbase was 2730.
The steering wheel has a Nissan logo on it. I guess designing a new wheel was too much trouble. The interior seems mostly in a fine shape, and the wood looks good. But best of all: is had the original radio-cassette player!
How many of these great cars were assembled is sadly unknown, but numbers were likely very low. There were no official dealers for Yunbao, so sadly it is impossible to find the period price. These cars were mostly sold by traders on large car markets, of the kind almost gone today.
It appears that this car is still being used. It looked very well, it had inspection and insurance stickers, and when a friend of mine wanted to look at it a few weeks later it was gone. Too bad for him, but happy to know the old Yunbao is still somewhere on the road.
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