China Car Times

China Car Times hails from the UK, yes, Gods own little island paradise. We (were) quite used to seeing hot hatches flying all over the place driven by young lads who usually have bad skin, and a penchant for low quality cider. The death mobile hot hatch of choice had to have any/all of the following properties:

1. Small, but anything up to Ford Escort/Focus size was ‘mint’
2. Fast, or at least look fast. This was achieved by adding stripes down the side, and odd spoilers/skirting to the car
3. Big exhaust, big enough so you can fit your clench fist inside and loud enough so that the windows shake, ensuing a melody of tutting and curtain twitching from your elderly neighbours.

Since moving to China some years ago, we discovered that China doesnt really have a hot hatch scene, but all of that is slowly changing: modified Mitsubishi Lancers are everywhere, QQ’s with gravity defying demonic spoilers hanging off the rear windshield and armadas of Wagon R’s cruise the streets at night with blue neon under car strip lighting. You may be thinking ‘What a bunch of wankers’, but fear not, some Chinese companies are actually starting to kick start the hot hatch revolution in the mainland with some classy motors, rather than the usual rust bucket self modified contraptions.
Certain Chinese automobile manufacturers are at least giving the appearance of making your average little hatchback, or even saloons, a little bit of extra ‘juice’ under the bonnet these days, not quite they heydays of late 80’s early 90’s British Motoring when cars were cars - they were dead fast and little or no safety features other than a seatbelt, and even then, only seat belts were for your Mother to wear, or just pretend to wear when the old bill was around. Just a few years ago Chinese manufacturers were pacing up and down their factories, trying to figure out how to get the world to believe that its cars can have that Chinese price that we’ve all become used to, without that Chinese quality that the worlds citizens all knowingly mock. Times have changed, Chinese cars are getting better quality wise, and whats more, they are being made with speed in mind. What Chinese hot hatches are on the market today? China Car Times has a look.

Hafei Saibao
Hafei cars are made in the frozen tundra of Harbin, (it is cold up there) by the Harbin Aircraft Industry group. Hafei have a great deal of cash from their parent company, who it seems one day told a few guys ‘Go forth, and make a car company!’ and they did. Hafei saloons aren’t often seen on the roads, but their smaller model, the Hafei Lobo is a favorite with housewives up and down the country. Which leads us to this, the Hafei Sai Bao 4

You may notice a small similarity to Subaru’s logo, thats because the Hafei one is pretty much the same, except they chopped a star off - good thinking guys! Logo aside, the Saibao 4 is a great looking car from every angle, its a little smaller than the Ford Focus, but bigger than a Kio Rio. Under the hood the Saibao 4 is carrying a 1.8 litre engine, backed up with a 5 speed manual transmission giving out 133 horses all together. Price? Its absolute bargain, 80,380 for the cheapest standard model, going up to 90,980rmb for the top end luxury edition. The Hafei is one to one watch.

Lifan 520
You may be forgiven for not knowing who Lifan are. They are just quite possibly the biggest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world, their empire stretches all over south east Asia and is starting to attack North America with its motorbikes. Their automobile range is a new wing of Lifan, and thus you dont often see them on Chinese roads, perhaps because they’ve only got the one model. However, its not all gloom, Lifan also have a race team that doesn’t do too badly.

Given the lack of models in the Lifan autos line up, they’ve gone in the other direction and have given the Lifan 520 a wide range of engines and options, ranging from a 1.3 economy model to a 1.6 luxury model. The 1.6 luxury model has 115 horses and a 5 speed manual gearbox, pretty much the same as their race team. Price? From 40,970rmb to a 80,690rmb depending on what you want.
Suzuki WagonR

The WagonR is not made via the Chang’an Suzuki joint venture, but rather with Changhe motors - a maker of minibuses and minipick up trucks in China. The WagonR is pretty popular as a ‘buy it, tune it’ model for loads of Chinese, and even more Japanese drivers, but it looks like Japan has the nicer version. Some people spend a lot more than the cars original cost. The WagonR comes with a 1.4 engine as standard, but with different option specifications. Starting at 40,590rmb to 60,090rmb.

So what else is there?
China Car Times has only showed 3 models here, but there is a few other autos available in China that you think wouldnt be here. One car that China Car Times always wants to buy every time we see one for sale is the VW Jetta GT. China is still making the mark 2 VW Jetta (alongside the Bora) with a few face lifts though. The GT isn’t in production anymore sadly, but you can still pick them up second hand for around 40,000rmb for a 2000 model, pricey, but worth it! Another noted hot hatch that can be seen cruising around the mean streets of China is the SouEast Lancer (Mitsubishi Lancer). China Car Times can think of one young man who just passed his test and bought one of these, he took the exhaust off to give it a louder sound （he’s on a budget) and has covered it in stickers, especially the bumpers, although that is probably to cover up all of his bumps and scrapes.

In short, the Chinese hot hatch market is small, but growing. Keep your eye on it, there will be lots of room for investment in the future.

Sites of interest:

Beijing Motor Sports