This is a Brilliance Junjie FSV, a cool Chinese sedan with large headlights and wide wheel arches. The car that I saw was painted in dark blue, with sporty five-spoke alloy wheels.
The Brilliance Junjie series was designed by none other than the Italian design studio Pininfarina. At the time, many Chinese car makers had their new cars designed by Italian design companies, who made a lot of money in China at the time. The Junjie-series was divided into the FRV hatchback and the FSV sedan. Size of the FSV: 4510/1758/1460, with a 2580 wheelbase.
The interior looked okay. The owner heavily protected the original seats with a set of seat covers. The covers look quite old, with a classic pattern, and with an extra lower-back support on the driver’s seat.
The rear is even more of a mess, with a beige seat area.
The front-wheel drive Jinjie FSV was available with only one engine: a 1.5 petrol unit with 105 hp and 141 Nm. The gearbox was a 4-speed automatic (like in this car) or a 5-speed manual. The top speed was 170 km/h.
The rear with the super-sized Brilliance logo.
The first two characters are 华晨 (Huáchén), or Brilliance. In China, this is the name of the group company, but elsewhere in the world, it is used as the brand name. The second two characters are 中华 (Zhōnghuá), which is an alternative name for China (the country). Zhonghua is the brand name in China. This is as confusing as it sounds. Sorry! Sadly, the Brilliance brand is no longer with us, the brand went bankrupt in 2020 due to declining sales and all sorts of misty corporate shenanigans. Too bad, they had a good chance in the early 2000s, powered by money from their joint venture with BMW.
Characters: 骏捷, Jùnjié.
The photo shows Pininfarina did put some work into it indeed, with a sculpted hood that ends up in the Brilliance logo in the grille. In that period, the hatchback was more popular than the sedan, and the Brilliance brand was relatively unknown, so these sedans are rather rare.