A very pretty Nanjing Yuejin Encore Sports Star, as seen in a village high up in the mountains north of Beijing, the capital of China. The Nanjing appeared to be in great shape and very well maintained, complete with its original alloys, mud flaps, and badges.
Yuejin Automobile was, and still is, a subsidiary of Nanjing Automobile, itself a subsidiary of SAIC. The logo is still used today on Yuejin’s trucks. The Nanjing NJ6400 was a rebadged and slightly updated Mk1 Seat Ibiza. Yuejin Automobile bought the production line from Seat in 1997, shipped everything to China, and restarted production in 1999.
The Chinese designation was NJ6400GHR. The Chinese name was 英格尔, Yīnggé’er, which has no real meaning. The English name was Encore. In 2001, the car received an update. There were 2 trim levels: “Family Star” and “Sports Star”. The car that I saw is the post-update Encore Sports Star. Production of the Encore ended in 2004.
The Sports Star came with cool factory standard spoilers and mud flaps.
The engines were from Seat too: power came from Seat’s “System Porsche” 1.2 and 1.5-liter engines, good for 70 and 86 hp respectively. Our silver car has the 1.5 under the bonnet.
The interior was dressed up with a set of seat covers and a steering wheel cover. Note the Nanjing-branded mud flap.
Characters: 中国 南京, Zhongguo Nanjing, China Nanjing. In those days it was common for car makers to put ‘China’ in front of their brand names. Geely and FAW, to name just two, did it too.
The Encore was a popular car in China, it was reliable, cheap to run and cheap to buy. Back in 2004 a brand-new Encore cost only 48.300 yuan. Sadly, not many are left alive today. May this great example in the village survive a little longer!