FAW, like SAIC, have been busy squirrling away over the past few months with the goal of creating their own brand name which they can sell domestically and internationally. FAW came up with the Besturn sedan, not really a great name to be honest, is it to be read as ‘Best Urn’ or if you’re from Northern England is the car to be named “Best ‘un” regardless of the funny name, the car doesnt look that too bad. Erik tells us the car is basically a Mazda 6 (FAW seemed to have successfully negotiated for the rights to use it from Mazda) underneath, and a design that was done by an Italian firm. The Besturn comes with a range of 2.0L to 2.4l engines with a mixture of auto or manual transmissions, and the best part is, these cars start at 130,000rmb now for the 2.0 146BHP offering, thats with an automatic box. This car is amazing for its price!
By 2009, FAW will have complimented their solitary car line up with a mini car, watch this space…
Now this is an example of a car company doing it in the right way, this is a car that I would buy. I hope they keep going well. That was a wise movement to ask an Italian firm to design this car for them, I wander wich one of the firm was.
*Most* Chinese co’s do use Italian design firms now.
I think the Besturn was Bertone - Erik told me, but I forgot…
Maybe all this design are still in chinese concept cars or waiting to be introduce.