Extreme Tuning from China: Citroen Fukang II
Published on January 27, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
Another extremely tuned Citroen Fukan from China, well, not that extreme but still 8 outta 10. The good car got an entirely new front with big head lights and a huge spoiler, car got a new matte-white paint job as well. The front, makes a good start…
Fake 1961 Rolls Royce Phantom? Soar Automobile from China got one for you!
Published on January 27, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
This might look like a real 1961 Rolls Royce Phantom but it is not. In fact it is a ‘wedding car’ made by a Chinese company called Qingdao Soar Automobile. Essentially a coach-building outfit that makes ambulances and police vehicles, but they also have a department that makes special vehicles for weddings.
As for today their line-up consists of only one car; this brilliant Rolls Royce Phantom-clone. It doesn’t really have a name, Soar simply calls it ‘classic style wedding car’.
BYD F0 police car from China
Published on January 27, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
In October last year police in the great city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province started chasing thieves in 30 BYD F0 police cars. Funny indeed, considering this BYD F0 is a shameless 1:1 copy of the Toyota Aygo. In any other country but China BYD would have been punished, big time…
History: the first Wuling minivan from China
Published on January 27, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
Back in time again!, to 1982. Here we have a very nice picture of a very pretty old minivan. This is the very first Wuling-branded minivan, its full name was Liuzhou-Wuling LZ110. The small pick-up version on pic has the original Wuling-logo up front, much more a ‘W’ than the current over-styled logo.
Great Wall to Start making Cars in Bulgaria on February 21
Published on January 27, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor will open on February 21 a plant in Bulgaria, producing the first Chinese cars assembled in Europe, its local partner Litex Motors said Thursday.
The plant in the northern village of Bahovitsa near Lovech has been test-producing since mid-November. It has a planned annual capacity of 50,000 cars for the Bulgarian and European market and will employ up to 2,000 people.
Old Pic: first China-made Citroen ZX rolls off the Line
Published on January 27, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
1994. Party-time in the great city of Wuhan in Hubei Province. The very first China-made Citroen ZX hatchback rolls off the line. The ZX was called ‘Fukang’ in China and made by the Dongfeng-PSA joint venture, its full name therefore was: Dongfeng-Citroen Fukang.
Price started at 98.000 yuan in 1994, engines available: 1.4 and 1.6. China liked the ZX hatch and the ZX sedan that followed later, over the years more than a million were sold and many different variants appeared on the market, like stretched limousines and vans.
The basic hatch and sedan however, are still in production today:
History: the Dongfeng EQ7200 HEV hybrid concept
Published on January 27, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
Back to 2007! The Dongfeng EQ7200 HEV was a concept for a Dongfeng-branded hybrid sedan based on Nissan Bluebird that was made at the time by the Dongfeng-Nissan joint venture. Dongfeng sais in 2007 they wanted to start production within three years, price was to start around 250.000 yuan. Sadly, it never happened.
Big Trucks and sexy Chinese girls
Published on January 26, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
Car news is still slow due to the Chinese New Year-holiday in China. Therefore, as a holiday-special, we move to trucks. Not just trucks, oh no, but Big Trucks with sexy Chinese girls.
The joint-venture structures in the truck-production world are even more complicated than with passenger cars. On the first pic a sexy Chinese girl with a SAIC-Iveco-Hongyan Genlyon New Kingkan. Nope, I am not making that up.
Introducing the Greatwall Haval Limousine from China
Published on January 26, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
The Greatwall Hover Limousine debuted in 2006 at the Guangzhou Auto Show and is still in production today as the Greatwall Haval Limousine. First about the name:
Hover/Haval is Greatwall’s brandname for SUV’s. In Chinese it is called Hafu (哈弗). The English name was ‘Hover’ but Greatwall changed it to Haval in 2009. By that time they started to export the SUV’s to Europe where the Hover-name was already taken. Confusingly, Greatwall still uses ‘Hover’ as the English name in China.
Back now to the limo!
(recent) History: the Chery Eastar Limousine
Published on January 26, 2012 by Tycho de Feyter
Back now to the April 2009 Shanghai auto Show. Chery surprised friend and foe with this massive Chery Eastar Limousine based on the cheap and no-nonsense Chery Eastar sedan. According to Chery it was ‘the first China made western-style limousine’, and that was likely truth indeed.
