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The 京A Ford Ka

Here we have a first generation Ford Ka with black license plates, painted in purple with gray bumpers, sporty five-spoke wheels, a red grille, and with 京A license plates. I saw it on a dreary morning on the road right across the building where I lived at the time, in the Chinese capital Beijing in 2005.

The first generation Ford Ka was made from 1996 until 2008. It was never officially sold in China.

Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the early 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, and they were also allowed to import their own cars. When they sold these cars, the license plate would go with it. This only changed in 2016, when a new rule ruled out any continuation of the old 京A license plates.

The 京A Ford Ka became somewhat of a famous car in Beijing later on. I remember seeing it on all sorts of local car websites and such, and it took me a while before I realized I had met it first. Great Ford, and a good Ka.

Volkswagen Citi Golf CLX Is White In China

Volkswagen Citi Golf
Volkswagen Citi Golf

A super cool Volkswagen Citi Golf CLX, seen on a snowy winter’s day in 2009 in the faraway Tongzhou District in east Beijing, capital of China. The good Volkswagen stood parked on a corner near a public gym, complete with two table-tennis tables! That day, nobody was playing.

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A Wondrous White Beijing Commercial Vehicle BJ2020M

This is an ultra are Beijing Commercial Vehicle BJ2020M, a hard-top 4×4 off-road vehicle. The one we saw was fully loaded with dealer accessories. Including: a three-phase bull bar, flag poles, side bars, ultra shiny wheel covers, roof-mounted mirrors, and for spotlights on that same roof. A dream as much a car a dream can be.

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RHD Nissan 180SX Drift Car Times Three And Some Other Nice Cars

Nissan 180SX

Here we have three (03) right-hand drive Nissan 180SX sporty cars, seen on the Golden Port race track in Beijing, capital of China, back in 2007. In China, folks drive on the right side of the road, so why did we we have these righties there?

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A Rare BAM BJ2020SA in Yellow Brown In Beijing

This beauty is a very rare BAM BJ2020SA, a two-door 4×4 off-road vehicle. I saw it in Beijing all the way back in 2003, just across the street from the Workers’ Stadium. The building on the left has long been razed to the ground and replaced by something new, and recently the stadium went down as well! Note the purple trousers and the old 京C license plate. Continue reading “A Rare BAM BJ2020SA in Yellow Brown In Beijing”

Beijing-Hyundai Sonata Police Car In Beijing

Hyundai Sonata Police Car

A very pretty Hyundai Sonata police car in Beijing, painted in blue-white with a large lights & siren unit on the roof. I saw it in 2005 near Tiananmen Square, parked in a narrow street.

The fourth-generation (EF) Hyundai Sonata was the first generation Sonata that was made in China, by the Beijing-Hyundai joint venture. Production started in 2002 and continued all the way, with various updates, until 2017!

The police car has the 2.5 liter V6 under the bonnet, which was good for 164 hp and 225 Nm. Gearbox was a 4-speed automatic. The China-made Sonata was also available with various other engines, including a 2.0 and a 3.0 V6.

A Dusty Moskvitch Aleko 2141S In Beijing

Moskvitch Aleko 2141S
Moskvitch Aleko 2141S

A truly rare car for China this is. A light blue Moskvitch Aleko 2141S, seen at a small car repair shop in north Beijing, back in 2011. The good Moskvitch was very dusty and looked neglected. Staff at the store told me they were planning to restore it. Well, they always say that when I ask…

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A very Early Beijing-Jeep Beijing BJ2020 N In Blue

Beijing-Jeep Beijing BJ2020 N

The Beijing-Jeep joint venture, or fully the Beijing Jeep Corporation (BJC), is best known making the Jeep Cherokee XJ and Jeep Grand Cherokee in China. But this busy joint venture also manufactured the Beijing BJ2020-series, based on the long-running Beijing BJ212-series.

The BJC badge on the grille.

The idea was to use American technology to gradually improve the BJ212/2020. The blue car we have here, which I saw in 2006 in Yunnan Province, is a Beijing-Jeep Beijing 2020 N.

The N model was the second improved variant of the BJ212 made by BJC. It was launched in 1990. Compared to the BJ212, it had better brake ad cooling systems, new mirrors, new lights, and new wheels.

It was powered by the 2.4 liter Beijing 492 QA engine, good for 70 hp and 160 Nm. Transmission was a four-speed manual, four-wheel drive. With that, the 1530 kilo heavy vehicle could reach a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

Beer!

Dongfeng truck loaded with Yanjing beer in China.
Dongfeng truck loaded with Yanjing beer in China.

Here we have a big Dongfeng truck, in the correct worker’s blue, loaded with about a hundred crates of delicious Yanjing beer, standing in front of a restaurant in central Beijing.

I saw the truck in 2007, 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 beermakers have since changed their bottle size to the internationally more acceptable 0.5 liter.

The Dongfeng was already an oldie in 2007, and it was clearly not having an easy day with its heavy load of booze! I love the frames on the sides, with reflective 3M tape, intended to prevent bicyclist from ending up underneath. Cheers old Dongfeng, hope you are still around somewhere.