One of the most interesting things about life in Beijing is the unpredictability and spontaneity of the place – its honestly a city where you’ll rarely meet the same people or have the same experiences day-to-day. This also applied until fairly recently to the car-scene in the city, and what brings us to this Lancia Thema, one of the most interesting and unique cars I came across in China’s capital.
Author: Ali Khalili
This MK2 Jetta was THE ultimate taxi in China!
The MK2 Volkswagen Jetta can be called the people’s car of China, its success together with the Santana in the Chinese market from the early 90s till well into the millennium the reason that Volkswagen is currently the most popular-selling car brand in China…although with the way ID4 sales are going this might be at risk in the future.
Anyways, the Jetta was also for a long time the most popular taxi-model in mainland China, and I remember very well often getting rides in examples pushing over 800,000km (600k miles)!
Continue reading “This MK2 Jetta was THE ultimate taxi in China!”
This rare Morgan Roadster Four-Seater is the first example in China
Here we have what is likely one of the very first Morgans imported into Mainland China, a super-clean and classy Roadster Four-Seater, which was the start to Morgan’s strange and unfortunately temporary presence in the country.
Continue reading “This rare Morgan Roadster Four-Seater is the first example in China”
This Peugeot 505 SX was once a rare daily-driver survivor in China’s Capital
Here we have a super-clean Peugeot 505SX, produced by the once-pioneering Guangzhou-Peugeot Joint-Venture established back in 1985.
Continue reading “This Peugeot 505 SX was once a rare daily-driver survivor in China’s Capital”
The Chinese-market Buick Regal was a technological-powerhouse, a thorn in Volkswagen’s side, and a sign of things-to-come
Back in the late 90s and early 00s, when you thought of Buick, what probably came to mind would have been images of giant landyachts with supremely-comfortable (ohh those pillowly leather benches…) but outdated interiors being driven 20 below the limit by some old Geezer holding you up in the left-lane. In China though, things were a little bit different.