About China's Coolest Cars
A Nissan Cefiro 20G sedan, seen in China in 2018. The pretty Nissan sedan was in a very good shape. It was painted in dark blue with tinted windows and classy factory-standard alloy wheels.
Continue reading “Nissan Cefiro 20G With White License Plates”
A Changan BenBen Mini with diplomatic license plates, seen in Beijing in 2017. The good BenBen was painted in white and appeared to be in a fine shape.
Continue reading “Changan BenBen Mini Of The Embassy Of Serbia In Beijing”
A Mercedes-Benz SLK200 Kompressor, seen in Beijing in 2012. The sporty Merc’ was made sportier with a nice body kit including a front spoiler and side skirts. It had darkened windows and stood on five-spoke gray alloy wheels.
Continue reading “Mercedes-Benz SLK Has A Special License Plate In China”
A heavy truck seen on the mighty Fifth Ring Road in Beijing on a cloudy and polluted winter’s day in 2014. The truck was dusty but extremely lucky: the license plate has four sixes, and 6 is a lucky number in Chinese culture, associated with good fortune in business.
Continue reading “A Very Lucky Truck On The Highway 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
Continue reading “A Lucky ‘8’ Overload On The Fifth Ring Road In China”
A super rare super early FAW-Volkswagen Audi 100 sedan, seen in 2015 in the Wangjing District in the the Chinese capital Beijing. The good Audi was in a reasonable shape for its age; paint was a bit tired and there was some damage under the left light headlight.
Continue reading “A Very Early FAW-Volkswagen Audi 100 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 pretty Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 roadster, seen in 2014 in Beijing, capital of China. The coolest thing first: the 京E·60000 license plate. I can’t remember ever seeing another car in China with four zero’s behind the first number. truly unique plate on a relatively rare car.
Continue reading “Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 Kompressor Is Pretty In Yellow In China”
A Rolls-Royce Phantom super luxury car, seen in the Lido area in Beijing in 2016. The giant Roller was painted in black with a dark silver grille, a red-orange stripe on the side, and a totally red leather interior.
Note the Element Fresh restaurant in the background. They had a small restaurant chain, hugely popular in the mid- and late 2000’s, with ‘healthy’ sandwiches and such more nonsense. They filed for bankruptcy in late 2021. Too bad for the owners but I won’t miss them for a minute. Gimme pizza!
Continue reading “Rolls-Royce Phantom With A Special 京A License Plate In China”
A black Audi A6 sedan with white license plates, seen in Beijing in 2015. The big Audi was in a fine shape with darkened windows and the original allow wheels, which looked nice and shiny for their age.
White license plates for passenger cars were only issued in 2002 and 2003 in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen. It was an experiment were citizens were allowed to come up with their own alphabetical/numerical combinations.
The experiment was cancelled after citizens came up with far too much creativity, choosing for various combinations with ‘sex’, ‘CIA’, ‘FBI’, and the infamous USA-911 which appeared on a Beijing car not long after the September 11 attacks. After the ensuing uproar the experiment was killed off but owners were allowed to keep the non-offensive plates.
The second generation Audi A6 (C5/Type 4B) was made in China by FAW-Volkswagen in Changchun. Production started in 2004. Wheelbase was extended by 9 centimeters to 2850 for more space in the back. It was available with three engines: a 150 hp 1.8 turbo, a 170 hp 2.4 V6, and a 190 hp 2.8 V6. Prices started at 348.500 yuan. White plates are priceless.
