A very pretty Nanjing NJ6400 Encore, seen in a village high up in the mountains north of Beijing, capital of China. The Nanjing appeared to be in a great shape and very well maintained, complete with its original alloys, mud flaps, and badges.
The NJ6400 was basically a rebadged and slightly reworked Mk1 Seat Ibiza. Nanjing Yuejin Automobile bought the production line from Seat in 1997, shipped everything to China, and restarted production at their Nanjing-Soyat subsidiary in 1999. Production ended only in 2008. Over the years, the car was updated and renamed several times, but our mountain car is an early original. Nanjing also made a van-version.
The spoilers were factory standard.
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 carhas 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 the top trim level of the NJ6400. The characters are: 英格尔, the Chinese translation for Encore.
The NJ6400 was a popular car in China, it was reliable, cheap to run and cheap to buy. Back in 2004 a brand-new NJ6400 Encore cost only 48.300 yuan. Sadly, not many are left alive today. May this great example in the village survive a little longer!
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