I was very happy to find this Dongfeng Yueda Kia Pride hatchback in China. The hatchback is much rarer than the sedan. The Pride was in a fine general shape but it was seemingly abandoned, with the license plates taken off.
The Kia Pride was made in China by the Dongfeng-Yueda-Kia joint venture. The Kia Pride was one of the first affordable cars on the Chinese car market. The Chinese name was 普莱特, Pulaite, a literary sound-translation of Pride.
Production began in 1997 at Jiangsu Yueda Auto Works, in 1999 this formally became the Yueda-Kia joint venture. In 2002, Dongfeng bought half of Yueda’s share and the joint venture changed name again to Dongfeng-Yueda-Kia, as it is still known today. Production of the Pride ended in 2003.
The Kia Pride was made by Kia Motors in South Korea from 1986 until 2000. It was based on the first generation Ford Festiva which was designed and manufactured by Mazda from 1986 until 1990. Over its long and restless life the Festiva/Pride was also made, under various names, in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Taiwan and Venezuela.
The interior was in a pretty shabby shape but the typical faux wood seemed still okay, and the radio-cassette player is original. The owner added two sets of seat covers to protect the seats.
The China-made Kia Pride sedan was designated YQZ6390, the hatchback YQZ6370 or YQZ7141. Power came from a 1.4 liter four cylinder mated to a three-speed automatic (!) or five-speed manual. The manual is very rare, it had only 3 speeds which was old-fashioned even for China in that period. The ‘box is controlled by a huge black plastic lever.
The tiny 1.4 had an output of 75hp and 120nm. Top speed was 140km/h and 0-100 was gone in 10.4 seconds. The last year the Pride was officially sold at the dealer was 2004, by then price ranged from 59.800 yuan to 89.000 yuan. The base hatchback model with automatic gearbox cost 68.800 yuan.
The rear end with the fog light attached to the bumper on the right. Somebody who wants to buy the car left his telephone number on the license plate area, this is a quite common sight in China on abandoned cars.
The characters say ‘悦达起亚’, Yueda Kia.
The pretty old Kia logo.
The ‘pride’ badge, in Latin characters.
The Pride stood an a street in a newly developed part of Beijing in the far east of town. Just 10 years ago this was countryside land, with small villages, small farms, and small businesses. Today there are high-rise apartment buildings all over the place, many still under construction. Once nice advantage of this kind of areas is that there are lots of older and cooler cars, belonging to folk who moved in from more remote areas, or parked there simply because it is still free.
The Kia badge on the nose, with a speedy red background.
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