A white Roewe W5, seen in a cold winter’s day in south Beijing. The W5 was a mid-size luxury SUV that was produced between 2011 and 2017, with a facelift in 2014. Our W5 is an original pre-facelift car. The good Roewe was in a fine shape, painted in white with the plastics intact and fitted with the factory wheels.
The Roewe brand is owned by SAIC. It was established in 2006 so serve as the brand for the assets SAIC had bought from bankrupt MG Rover, including the rights to the Rover 75. However, SAIC was unable to buy the Rover name so they came up with Roewe. It sounds like Rover and the badge had a very Bristish design too. The Rover 75 eventually became the Roewe 750.
The Roewe W5 debuted in 2011. It was based on the South Korean SsangYong Kyron. At the time, SAIC held a controlling stake in the troubled automaker, and planned to launch several Roewe models based on SsangYong’s. In the end it didn’t really work out.
SAIC got into a messy fight SsangYong and with the South Korean government and pulled out. SAIC’s share was eventually sold to India’s Mahindra & Mahindra, which is still the owner of SsangYong today. They only SsangYong-based production car that Roewe sold was the W5.
The Roewe W5 was available with two engines: a 3.2 liter straight six and a 1.8 turbo. The former was a SsangYong engine, originally developed by Mercedes-Benz. The latter was developed by SAIC. The car I saw in Beijing is a 1.8 turbo 4×4 version. The 3.2 six is ultra rare and I have never seen one on the road. Output of the 1.8 turbo engine was 160 hp and 215 Nm. Gearbox was a 6-speed automatic. Price of the Roewe W5 1.8T 4WD was 199.800 yuan (2013).
Black leather seats with a gray dashboard. The LCD screen was only standard on the top-end versions. The audio system had 8 speakers. The owner added some extra stuff, like a triple cup holder, neck pillows, and…
… infotainment in the rear compartment. The Roewe W5 was a five seat car, measuring 4676/1888/1765, with a 2740 wheelbase and a 1990 kilo curb weight.
The Ssangyong Kyron was not a particularly pretty car. Roewe tried very hard to make the W5 look better, and I think they succeeded. Design is more grown-up and comprehensive compared to the somewhat messy Kyron.
Characters: 上汽集团, Shangqi Jituan, or SAIC Group.
Roewe badge and lettering.
The Roewe W5 was not a very big success. It was expensive and not very fast. Top speed of the 1.8 turbo was only 178 km/h with a 0-100 in 12.4 seconds. It was basically too old when launched. I remember seeing a dozen of them left to dust in a parking lot near a Roewe shop, waiting for buyers that never came. I’ll try to find the photos for a later post.
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