This little pretty car is a Chery Cowin 1, parked alongside the road in 2018 in the Chinese capital Beijing. The good Cowin was in perfect shape, painted in a dark shade of red, with a shiny grille, and with the original gray wheel covers.
The Chery Cowin 1 was made from 2010 until 2014 with a small facelift in 2012. The car in the photos is the facelifted variant. The Cowin 1 was an updated version of the Chery QQ6 sedan, which was made from 2006 until 2010.
Chery QQ6: 2006-2010.
Chery Cowin 1: 2010-2014.
The Cowin 1 is a tiny sedan with a very basic but it looked quite cool, with a short hood and an even shorter trunk lid. It is very rounded, with soft corners and edges. The owner of this particular car fitted wind deflectors on the rear windows and film to darken the windows.
A cool sticker on the fuel tank door.
The size of the Cowin 1 was 4150/1640/1535, with a 2340 wheelbase and a 990 kg curb weight. Power came from a 1.0-liter 3-cylinder petrol engine with an output of 69 hp and 93 Nm, driving the front wheels via a 5-speed manual or a 5-speed automatic.
The top speed was 145 km/h. The fuel consumption was a surprisingly steep 6.7 liters per 100 kilometers. Happily, the Cowin 1 had a 45-liter fuel tank on board, large for this kind of car.
The interior looks great for its age. The owner only added seat covers, a mobile phone holder, and a lucky charm. The design of the interior was nice for the segment, with a partially digital dashboard, big round air vents, a gray panel on the center stack, and an extra-large perfectly round steering wheel.
The rear compartment is spacious, with enough room for two adults, or a child’s seat. The seat is just as red as the exterior color. Good choice!
The entire trunk is located behind the rear axle.
Character time! This is 奇瑞汽车, Qíruì Qìchē, Chery Auto.
And this is 旗云1, Qíyún 1, Cowin 1. The literal translation is Qiyun is Flag Cloud, but Chery never used that name, instead, they went for ‘Cowin’. Over the years, the Cowin name has been used as a vehicle name and for various sub-brands and series.
The Chery Cowin 1 was a perfectly basic sedan for China, covering all bases. It was small enough to go everywhere, easy to run, and cheap to fix. It was cheap to buy too. In 2014, the price ranged from 39.900 to 45.900 yuan. Today, the Cowin 1 is largely forgotten and they are quite rare on the road, especially in the larger cities.