Haima Fstar Is A CNG-powered Chinese Minivan

A Haima Fstar, seen in Tai’an in Shandong Province in the summer of 2018. It was painted in a classy shade of wine red with a beige interior and sporty ‘five spoke’ wheel covers. The Haima Fstar was a popular minivan.

The roof-line goes up a bit, but not by much and not for long. It only ups from the A-pillar to about half-way the front seat area.

The Haima Fstar was marketed by Haima Commercial Vehicle (海马商务汽车), a subsidiary of Haima Motors (海马汽车), in turn a subsidiary of First Auto Works (FAW). To make matters a bit more complex: the Fstar was manufactured by Haima Zhengzhou Automobile (海马郑州汽车), another subsidiary of Haima, headquartered in Zhengzhou city in Henan province. Haima Zhengzhou has its own distinctive logo, which differs from the normal Haima logo.

Haima on the left and Haima Zhengzhou on the right.

The Chinese name of the Fstar is Fúshìdá (福仕达). Production started in 2009 and lasted until 2012, when it was replaced by an updated version called the Fúshìdá Hóngdá (福仕达鸿达).

A period factory photo for a better look at the raised roof.

The interior was quite nice for the segment, complete with an FSTAR-branded radio with USB connectivity. The gear lever is tall, in old-school minivan style. The owner added two seats of seat covers, and to protect the original cloth seats and one to keep him warm. Well, the winters can be very cold in Shandong but this was in the middle of the summer. Must have been a sweaty ride.

The Fstar could be had with five to eight seats. The seats in the middle and back were again covered with two seats of seat covers. The warm ones looked rather dirty.

The Fstar was powered by a 1.0 liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, good for 61 hp and 85 Nm. Horses went to the front wheels via a 5-speed manual gearbox. Fuel consumption was 6.4 liters per 100 kilometers. This was not very good for such a small car, and Haima offered a CNG natural gas option.

This car has the CNG package, with the obligatory green-white CNG stickers on the rear and front. Another obligatory oddity is the license plate number, spray-painted below the license plate itself. Back then, every commercial vehicle had to have this. The idea was that a vehicle’s load could obscure a license plate, making it hard for authorities to identify. Hence, the plate number had to be repeated in a large font on the back of the vehicle.

Characters on the badge and on the sticker: 福仕达, Fúshìdá.

The Haima Zhengzhou logo.

These Haima minivans are very rare in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, so I was always very happy to see some in smaller towns and places. The Fstar is typical for its kind, but nice nevertheless.