About China's Coolest Cars
A very black second generation Lexus ES sedan, seen in the far east areas of the Chinese capital Beijing in 2014. The good Lexus sat under a thick layer of dust and dirt, and was missing the Lexus logo on the bonnet, but seemed otherwise in reasonable shape.
Continue reading “Second Generation Lexus ES Is Black In China”
A pretty Volkswagen New Beetle, seen in east Beijing in 2014. The jumpy Beetle was wrapped in a matte pink wrap, and further dressed up with a black Volkswagen badge, a black roof, dark-gray wheels, tinted windows, black mirrors, and cartoon-wrap side skirts.
Continue reading “Volkswagen New Beetle Is Matte Pink In China”
A dusty Y31 Nissan Cedric, seen on the parking lot of my apartment complex in 2010. Apart from its dustiness, the big Nissan appeared to be in a very good shape, fitted with period old 京C license plates.
Continue reading “A Dusty Nissan Cedric Brougham VIP V6 In China”
A very pretty and very clean Nissan Fengshen Bluebird EQ7200 SSS, seen on a sunny day at a car wash in Beijing in 2010. The good Nissan was in a perfect shape, just washed, painted in a wine red shade with factory multi-spoke sporty alloys. As you can see it has a Dongfeng badge on the grille, not a Nissan badge.
Continue reading “Nissan Fengshen Bluebird EQ7200 SSS Is Red Under The Chinese Sun”
A beautiful black Lincoln Town Car, seen on a snowy day in front of a Buick dealer in China. The big Lincoln had some trouble down at the rear axle but looked otherwise okay. The blue 京A·U0448 license plate is as old as the car, and indicates this Lincoln was one of the very first privately registered cars in Beijing.
The second generation Lincoln Town Car was made from 1990 until 1997, and some were officially sold in China by General Motors. Power came from a 4.6 liter V8 engine with an output of 210 hp. The motor was mated to a 4-speed automatic, sending horses to the rear wheels. This generation Town Car was also the basis for the Hongqi CA7460 series.
Here we have a slightly modified sixth-generation Cadillac Sedan de Ville, seen in a residential compound somewhere in east Beijing in 2010. The Caddy was fitted with a set of ultra bling alloys, wide tires, and a fake 京A·00006 license plate.
Continue reading “Cadillac Sedan de Ville And Yunbao YB6470 Wagon In China”
A mildly modified Brilliance Coupe, seen in a village up in the mountains to the north of Beijing. The car stood parked in front of a restaurant. It was made pretty with an extra body kit, a red grille, orange window frames, two fat exhaust pipes, and a set of racy alloys.
More beer! A Beijing-branded tricycle carrying empty bottles of Yanjing beer, standing in front of a neighborhood beer distribution point. The blue crates behind the trike are filled with new bottles of delicious Yanjing beer. The green crates are for Tsingtao beer but they too are filled with Yanjing bottles.
I saw this tricycle in the hutongs of central Beijing when Yanjing beer bottles still contained 0.645 liter of easy drinkable beer with an alcohol percentage of 3.6%. In my good old days I drunk a truck of the stuff each week. Sadly, most Chinese beer makers have since changed their bottle size to the internationally more acceptable 0.5 liter.
Back then many people in China still preferred to drink their beer at room-temperature instead of cooled. So at distribution points beer was mostly kept uncooled and out in the open. Cheers!
A dark blue Volvo 960 sedan, seen in the Sanlitun embassy district in Beijing in 2011. License plate is an early one too, 陕A·00547 from Shaanxi Province. Judging by the the number, this was one of the very first privately-owned cars in that province. Continue reading “An Early Volvo 960 In Dark Blue In Beijing”
A fantastic Maybach 57, seen in Beijing in 2011 on a side road of the Fourth Ring Road. The long-wheelbase Maybach 62 limousine is not uncommon in China but the shorter 57 is quite rare. Whenever I see a Maybach from those days I am always surprised by how huge they actually are. Even the 57 is 5.7 meters long, 1.98meters wide and 1.5 meters tall.
The car that I met was painted in black over dark gray. At first I thought the sporty alloys where after-market but they were actually standard in China on the 2009 and 2010 model years. Power came from the mighty 6.0 twin-turbo motor, good for 640 hp and 1000 Nm. Price in 2009 started at 5.38 million yuan. The Maybach 62 started at more than double that; 12.98 million in the same year. That made the 57 look like a great deal!
In anyway, the Maybach name is still very popular. China is the largest market worldwide for the new common Benz-based Maybach line.
