Here we have a pretty white car with a long and complicated name. This indeed is a Citroen ZX Shenglong Fukang 1.6i AX, seen in Beijing in 2018, painted in white with the factory wheel covers.
A Shandong license plate in Beijing. The owner of the shop where I found this car was from Shandong. His business model was to drive cars from Shandong to Beijing and sell them with a profit. Earlier on we saw their Beijing-Hyundai Sonata.
Production of the China-made Citroen ZX started in 1994 by the Dongfeng-PSA joint venture. At that time, they still used the Citroen ZX name, in Latin script, on the backside, alongside the Chinese name.
Shenlong (神龙) is the Chinese name for the Dongfeng-PSA joint venture. Fukang (富康) is the Chinese name for the ZX. Finally, 1.6i is for the engine and AX is the trim level, not to be confused with the Citroen AX mini car!
Later on the Citroen ZX name was deleted. The Shenlong name too disappeared from the car. It was replaced by a new Dongfeng-Citroen script, in Chinese.
But our car here is a very early one, and those even had a Dongfeng badge on the back! Later on, this rear Dongfeng badge was replaced by a Citroen badge.
The 1.6i engine badge was on the front fender, under the indicator light. The 1.6 liter engine had an output of 90 hp and 135 Nm. The engine was mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic, as in this car, sending all horses to the front wheels.
The AX trim level came with fancy wheels, bumpers in body color, and a double spoiler on the back: one atop the window and one below.
The interior with lots of beige plastics and a bit of faux wood on the center stack. The interior of this car was in reasonable shape, with after-market seat and steering wheel covers. The beige storage container on the left side, between the seats, is an after-market extra too. These containers were very popular in the 1990’s and 2000’s.
The seat covers cover the entire seat, front and rear, adding an additional storage bag. The original faux leather seems in good shape.
This by the way is the goal of those seat covers: to preserve the original seats. Even today, when people buy a new car in China, they tend to put seat covers on immediately.
It is rare to see these oldies in such a good shape. In Beijing there aren’t that many around anymore. Happily, Shandong still got plenty!
The ultra cool ABS badge. In that time, ABS was uncommon on cars of this price level. Price of the 1.6i model in 1998 started around 75.000 yuan, which was not a lot of money for a comfortable French sedan with five seats.
The unique single windshield wiper was continued on the China-made cars.
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