The Austin Maestro in China

Chinese Car News | Ash | November 24, 2006 at 1:05 am

I was talking about this with my friends back in the UK, and they never seemed to believe me that the Austin Maestro and the Austin van were still being produced in China after almost 15 years of not being produced in the UK. I once saw an entire factory full of them in Qingdao， I was shocked beyond belief. In China the Maestro is called ‘lu bao‘ meaning land treasure, or rather Chinese treasure as Lu is often used to refer to the Chinese mainland, in English its called ‘Ruby‘, ironic, as the Maestro was probably one of the worst cars that ever came out of the UK.
So here you go, the Austin-China connection.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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