About China's Coolest Cars
Here we have a red ‘n pretty Daewoo Racer STi, seen at a temple complex in Beijing in 2020. The good Daewoo was sadly in a pretty bad shape and seemed abandoned.
Continue reading “Daewoo Racer STi Is Red In The Temple In China”
Pink cars always look good. Proof: Check this pink Hyundai Coupe. Without pink, nobody would see it. Now we do. It is a wrap and the original color was white; note the areas around the door handle and mirror stalk.
The second generation Hyundai Coupe was made from 2002 until 2008, with facelifts in 2005 and 2007. Our pinkie is a pre-facelift example. The Coupe was sold in China from 2004 until 2007. It was available with a 140 hp 2.0 and with a 170 hp 2.7 V6.
They were quite popular and quite a few are still around today, most of them modified in one way or the other.
The China-made Ford S-Max was a slow seller and is therefore a rather rare sight on the road. But here we got one! A silver example that seemed somewhat abandoned, looking very dusty and with a deflated rear tire.
Continue reading “The Ford S-Max Was Made In China For Just A While”
This is the Infiniti Q50 S, a sporty variant of the Q50 sedan for the Chinese market. It comes with a racy body kit, giant 19-inch wheels, darkened windows, darkened head light visors, and winglets in the bumper.
Continue reading “The Infiniti Q50 S Is A Speedy Sedan In China”
A Volkswagen Santana 2000 in heavy rain in Beijing. Note the cool Xiali sedan in the background on the right.
This vehicle belongs to fire prevention and control (消防) department of the police, so it is a bit of both a police car and a fire brigade car. The white license plate are used by the police, People’s Armed Police (PAP), and by the armed forces.
I took this photo in 2010, when the old white license plates were still in use. WJ stands for wujing (武警), a collective abbreviation police and armed forces. 31 stands for Beijing.
The Santana 2000 was one of many Santana variants manufactured by the SAIC-Volkswagen joint venture in Shanghai. It was rather rare to see Shanghai-made cars in public service in Beijing, as the local government mostly bought locally-made cars, like Hyundai’s and Beijing’s and such.
In any way, with so much rain the fire fighters probably had an easy night!
A white Hyundai Sonata GLS V6 Gold sedan on the streets of Beijing, right after a nasty dust storm, covered in dirt from the endless steppes of Inner Mongolia and Mongolia. Happily, it was in very good shape.
And it isn’t just any other Sonata. This is the Sonata GLS V6 Gold, the top-trim level Sonata made by the Beijing-Hyundai joint venture. It had a special grille with horizontal bars and it was equipped with loads of luxury.
Continue reading “Beijing-Hyundai Sonata GLS V6 Gold In White In China”
Two pretty French sedans at sunset in the mountains to the north of Beijing. To the left a gray Guangzhou-Peugeot 505 SX2 with very early 京·A license plates and classy darkened windows. The 505 was made in China from 1990 until 1997, powered by a 105 hp 2.0 liter petrol engine.
On the left a far more modern Dongfeng-PSA Peugeot 307 sedan, painted in a dark green shade. The 307 sedan was made here from 2002 until 2014, a very long run that saw various facelifts and new variants. Power come from 108 hp 1.6 and 138 hp 2.0 engines.
The Peugeot 505 has sadly largely disappeared from the roads in China. But happily the 307 sedan is still all over the place, as it was a very popular car.
Here we have a dark red Dodge Caliber, seen on the streets of east Beijing. The Caliber was dusty but otherwise in a very good shape.
Continue reading “Dodge Caliber 2.0 SXT Is Dark Red In China”
This is the Toyota Camry Classical, a China-only continuation of the Camry XV40 . It was made from 2011 until 2013 by the GAC-Toyota joint venture, alongside the new Camry XV50.
Continue reading “Toyota Camry Classical Was A Camry For China Alone”
I have always been, and I will always be, a big fan of the Changan-Suzuki Alto. It is one of the coolest cars ever made in China. In fact, when I arrived in China in 2003 I seriously considered buying one but it was just a tad too small for my needs.
