A Seat Leon Cupra, seen on a car market in China in 2018. The Cupra was in great shaped and looked fantastic in silver with black trim and darkened headlight visors. The black trim theme was applied all over the car, from grille to window frame to the tiny faux air inlets under the grille.
Author: Chairman MacPherson
Maybach 62 Is A Giant Limousine In China
A big ‘barge Maybach 62, seen in China’s capital Beijing back in February 2011. The 62 was in a great shape, painted in a dark shade of black with a white stripe over the side. Thee was nobody inside, not even a driver, but it had the window open.
Range Rover Is Bling-Bling Gold In China
A super shiny Range Rover SUV in China, seen in the far eastern suburbs in Beijing in December 2016. It was a cold winter’s day but the Range Rover was as warm and bright as the summer’s sun.
Opel Insignia Sports Tourer 2.0T OPC Line Is A Cool German Wagon In China
An Opel Insignia Sports Tourer 2.0T OPC Line, seen in 2016 in the great city of Changchun in Jilin Province. The cool German wagon was in great shape and looked fantastic in black with darkened windows and sporty gray alloy wheels.
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Infiniti FX35 SUV Is Super Bling-Bling In China
An Infiniti FX35 SUV, seen in China in 2014. The sporty Japanese SUV was bling’ed up to the max with an incredible shiny wrap. The wrap was of top quality and neatly applied over the entire body, including the bumpers, mirrors, and the roof.
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Porsche Cayenne Is Shiny Purple In China + A White Porsche Panamera
If all Porsches were as pretty as this one! Here we have a Porsche Cayenne SUV in China, seen in Beijing in 2014. The good Porsche is seriously prettified with a shiny purple wrap, black alloys wheels, a body kit, and darkened windows.
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A Lucky ‘8’ Overload On The Fifth Ring Road In China
Back we go to our license-plate obsession mode. We are talking May 2015, driving on the mighty Fifth Ring Road in the Chinese capital Beijing. Sitting on the front-passenger seat, I suddenly see an old Range Rover with Inner Mongolia license plates, with an even older Jinbei van in front. License plates: 京·7886 and 蒙D·A8888
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Fiat Barchetta Is A Cool Red Italian Roadster In China
A pretty red Fiat Barchetta, seen in China near the Dashanzi area in northeast Beijing. The little boat was in a very good shape; the paint looked fresh, no rust or rot, nothing broken or missing, and everything original up until the six-spoke alloys. License plates are of Jiangsu Province.
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BMW 7-Series With A 京N·77AA7 License Plate In China
As our good readers may know, the team at CoolCarsInChina has a very healthy obsession with license plates: black plates, embassy plates, white plates, and otherwise special plates. The license plates of this F01 BMW 740Li fall in that final category: 京N·77AA7. That’s a triple seven on a 7-Series. That can’t be a coincidence and it likely wasn’t any. Great plate for a great car. I met it in east Beijing in 2015.
The fifth generation F01 BMW 7-Series was made from 2008 until 2015, it was only the second generation 7-Series that was officially sold in China. Beige color was a popular color on the Chinese car market. I remember many were sold in this shade. Our 京N·77AA7 has a beige interior too.
BMW only sold the long-wheelbase L models in China, and only powered by petrol engines. The 740Li was powered by a 3.0 liter win-turbocharged six-in-line with output of 322 hp and 450 Nm. Top speed was 250 km/h and 0-100 was all gone in a speedy 6 seconds. Price started at 1.18 million yuan (2009). Lot of money but lot of car, especially with that license plate!
A Toyota Crown Super Saloon Of The Vietnamese Embassy In China
A Toyota Crown Super Saloon 3.0 Twin Cam 24 sedan, seen in central Beijing in 2017. The Crown is painted in white, a relatively rare color for this great Japanese sedan.
The eight generation S130 Toyota Crown was manufactured from 1987 until 1995, in Nagoya, Japan. The Super Saloon was the second-most luxurious trim level after the Royal Saloon. It was powered by a 24 valve 3.0 liter six-in-line engine with 204 hp and 265 Nm, sending horses to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic.
This particular car belonged, or perhaps still belongs, to the Vietnamese embassy. Like in most countries, cars used by foreign embassies have special license plates in China. In the capital Beijing, diplomatic license plates start with the character 使 (shi), is short for 大使馆 dashiguan, meaning embassy.
Each embassy has its own 3-digit number. In this case the number is 228, which stands for Vietnam. The next 3 digits are the car number. The ambassador’s official car is always 001 but there are no specific rules for the other numbers, and plates may be carried over from car to car. Our Toyota Crown has car number 039, which means that the license plate, when it was issued, was for the 39th car used by the Vietnamese embassy.