A Beijing-Jeep Grand Cherokee, seen on the road in Beijing in 2017. The big Jeep was dusty but otherwise in a good shape, and its best part was, without a doubt, the rare white 京·A MWZ-001 license plate.
White license plates for passenger cars were only issued in 2002 and 2003 in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen. It was an experiment were citizens were allowed to come up with their own alphabetical/numerical combinations.
The experiment was cancelled after citizens came up with far too much creativity, choosing for various combinations with ‘sex’, ‘CIA’, ‘FBI’, and the infamous USA-911 which appeared on a Beijing car not long after the September 11 attacks. After the ensuing uproar the experiment was killed off but owners were allowed to keep the non-offensive plates.
The Beijing-Jeep Grand Cherokee (WJ) was made by the Beijing-Jeep joint venture from 2005 until 2008. This joint venture also made the Jeep Cherokee XJ.
The Chinese Jeep Grand Cherokee was available with two engines: the 4.0 inline and the 4.7 V8. Our white-plated car has the designation BJ2021G, which means it has the 6 cylinder engine under the bonnet. Output was rated at 197 hp and 311 Nm. The motor was mated to a 4-speed automatic gearbox sending horses to all wheels. Top speed was 180 km/h and 0-100 was gone in 11.3 seconds.
The interior was in a fine shape with the classy black leather protected by slightly less classy seat covers. The radio unit appears to be original and the owner didn’t make any other obvious modifications.
The rear with the designation and a Jeep badge. Normally, there should be a Beijing-Jeep badge as well but that’s missing here.
The designation is a sticker. The font has a cool shadow. How very hip of Jeep!
The alloys are original too and where the same as in North America. Price in 2005 started at 358.000 yuan. The inline 6 was far more popular than the expensive and thirsty V8, but they both getting very rare today as ever stricter environmental regulations send most of ‘m to the scrapyard. May this fine example, and its white license plates, stay with us a little longer.
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