A pretty SouEast V3 sedan, seen in the Chinese capital Beijig in 2013. The good V3 was modified quite a bit; with a body kit, lowered suspension, darkened windows, a white lower-grille, and…
… a set of interesting 3-spoke alloy wheels. Their design is really special, I cannot remember ever seeing wheels like this on any car, let alone on a SouEast V3. They do the car very good.
SouEast is the brand name of South East (Fujian) Motor Corporation (SEM). This is a joint venture between China’s Fujian Motor Industry Group Corporation, Taiwan’s China Motor Corporation (CMC), and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors. The joint venture was founded in 1995, building cars under the SouEast and Mitsubishi brands.
The English name is a bit odd, SouEast instead of SouthEast. The Chinese name is Dongnan Qiche (东南汽车), literally east south auto. In China, compass directions are written in the opposite way compared to the Western way. So north west becomes west-north, and south east becomes east-south.
The SouEast V3 was based on the 7th generation Mitsubishi Lancer. SouEast and Mitsibishi had a joint venture where Mitsubishi cars were manufactured and sold under the Mitsubisi and SouEast brand names. This was a common arrangement back in those early joint venture days.
A white spoiler, black light visors, and no less than four exhaust pipes. It looks very fast indeed!
Well, we cannot be sure if this car’s engine was modified, but in standard form the 2013 SouEast V3 pooped out 120 hp and 143 Nm from a naturally aspirated 1.5 liter four-cylinder petrol engine. Only transmission was a 5-speed manual, sending horses to the front wheels. Base price started at 73.800 yuan, which was an absolute steal for the amount of car you got.