This is a Geely Jinying, seen in the Chinese capital Beijing in 2016. The good old Geely was in reasonable shape, painted silver, with slightly darkened windows, and some damage on the front bumper. The license plate is from Henan Province in central China, with the unusual sequence 豫L·C9569.
The original Geely logo on the grille! The Geely Jinying was a small hatchback. It was produced from 2008 until 2010. After 2010, it was moved under Geely’s Englon brand. Production for the Chinese market ended in 2012. The export name was Geely MK.
The Geely Jinying was a fina-looking little car, with a sporty spoiler above the rear window. Size: 3999/1692/1435, with a 2502 wheelbase. The trunk space was 486 liters, pretty good, and 1152 liters with the rear seats down.
Not my best photo, but it’ll have to do. The dashboard design centered around the center stack, with the instrument panel on top and a radio CD player in the middle. It had a large-diameter 3-spoke steering wheel. The owner of this particular car added a set of seat covers to protect the original cloth seats.
The twin-eight-spoke wheels were factory standard. Very sporty for the time, especially for the Jinying’s segment. The wheels had the Geely logo in the center.
The Geely Jinying was a front-wheel drive car. Power came from a 1.5-liter MR479QA four-cylinder petrol engine with an output of 94 hp and 128 Nm. The motor was mated to a five-speed manual (pictured) or a 4-speed automatic. The top speed was 163 km/h and the fuel consumption was a rather steep 7.9 liters per 100 kilometers. In 2008, the manual version sold for only 52.800 yuan. That was a super good deal for the car you got.
Characters: 吉利金鹰, Jílì Jīnyīng, Geely Golden Eagle.
At the time, ABS was still a rare feature on Chinese cars. So many ABS-equipped cars had ABS badges. The Jinyjing has a cool ‘1.5+ABS’ badge, combining the engine size with the braking system. I haven’t seen this combination on any other Chinese car, ever.
The most amazing thing is how fast Geely has developed since the Jinying launch. That was in 2006, only 19 years ago. At the time, Geely was a small Chinese brand that nobody took seriously. How times have changed! Today, Geely runs a dozen brands, making advanced electric cars, and a line of commercial vehicles, and it even has a space program. If someone had predicted that in 2006, no one would have taken it seriously. A brilliant rise indeed.