In December last year I posted a long post on my 1998 Beijing-Jeep Cherokee BJ7250 City Special. I took those photos in 2013. After some digging I found a set of photos of my Jeep in November 2004, nine years earlier, taken on the very first day she was mine. I proudly stand behind the door.
The photos were taken on the premises of the Dutch embassy in Beijing, where I worked at the time, hence my suit and haircut. The embassy is still located at the same place.
I bought Jeep from a good friend of mine, who hadn’t used her very much. I had just picked it up from a dark underground parking lot and it seemed as if Jeep hadn’t seen the sun in years! It was very dusty and needed quite some work to get it back in shape. But that day I was happy as a bird because I had my first car in Beijing. And that was actually also my first car ever.
The 2.5 liter four was running fine. Note the spare wheel. I never needed it. When I donated Jeep to the Beijing Classic Car Museum in 2019 that original spare wheel was still there! A real 1998 spare wheel. I changed the other tires twice but always held on to the original spare.
My shoes are way too shiny for November. What did I know in 2004..? Happily under the dust lay a perfectly fine car that was mechanically totally great. Over the 15 years that I owned it the engine and gearbox never faltered, but I changed to clutch plate once.
Black 京A license plates were issued to foreigners and foreign companies from the 1980’s until the mid 2000’s. They started with 京A·00001, so the lower the number the earlier the registration. My car was the 14277th black-plate car registered in Beijing.
My Jeep in 2009, after a couple of upgrades, in front of a gigantic Toyota Land Cruiser.
Still more on my Jeep to come!