Archive for April, 2009
Haima SUV – First Glimpse
Haima are doing good things these days, but they are still happingly using their Mazda links to further their plans to become a large manufacturer in the next few years. The Haima SUV is based on the Mazda Tribute, which in turn was based on the Ford Escape. The Haima SUV will come with a [...]
BYD S8 Convertible – Ready for the warm days!
BYD first unveiled their S8 soft top to the crowds at the Beijing 2006 auto crowds, who were blown away by the design. Not blown away in a ‘that design is totally awesome‘ way, but more of a ‘Jesus – They cloned a Merc, a Renault, and had a giant party!‘ The S8 is now [...]
New China Only Passat Spotted out
Although the official pictures have already been released by VW, it’s always nice to see photos of a real vehicle: The new Passat Lingyu seems to have taken on a more elegent stance, something that might have been borrowed from its cousin the Audi A8. Engine offerings are expected to be a 1.8Turbo, a 2.0l, [...]
BYD F3DM Sales Officially Poor
From China Auto Info, a new China auto blog, possibly better than CCT: A compact battery-operated sedan by Chinese-based BYD Auto has sold only 80 units since its launch last December and may be running into quality control problems with its batteries. According to Auto Biz Review, 20 of the vehicles, named F3DM, were purchased [...]
Roewe 250: Once was a Rover 25
We’ve been wondering just what exactly SAIC had in store for the Rover 25 platform, they received it along with the Rover 75 platform (which they subsequently developed into the Roewe 750) but the Rover 25 was left neglected for a few years, until now: The Roewe 250 is radically different from the Rover 25, [...]
Roewe 350: Truth at last?!
China Car Times posted pictures of an unnamed SAIC model earlier this year, confusion reigned over what we were exactly looking at. Was it an electric mule (a lack of a tail pipe give us this clue), or some other SAIC mule. Now the secret appears to be out, the pictures we posted appear to [...]
SAIC shopping for Vauxhall
The Telegraph leads with a scary headline today, ‘SAIC makes approach for Vauxhall‘ it might be a scary headline to those that worked for MG-Rover which SAIC took over via the backdoor once MG-R was bankrupt and no longer in need of a partner, but someone to buy its assets. To everyone else though, it [...]
Lifan Minivan Spy Pics
Lifan are eager to get into the super cheap mini van segment that is mostly controlled by local rivals Chang’an. The below pictures show what Lifan have in store: It’s possible that Lifan wont be awfully succesful in the first year of launch, but its worth remembering that Lifan are extremely succesful in the South [...]
GWM to make Hover H3
The Hover H3 will be Great Walls strike into the sub 100,000rmb price bracket, where several other Chinese car manufacturers are poised to launch their own mini sports utillity vehicles: The H3 is essentially a renamed Hover. GWM have been taken aback by the popularity of the original Hover, and have now begun to make [...]
Wowsers – Greatwall Sports Sedan Concept
Greatwall said late last year that they plan to launch their first sedan in 2009, we’re not quite at the sedan producing stage quite yet, but Great Wall have this rather fantastic looking concept in store for automotive fans: The concept, codenamed CHC011, is to be shown off by a proud GreatWall Motors (GWM) next [...]
Roewe N1 Concept Sedan Pics
The Roewe N1 concept will be launched next week at the Shanghai Auto Show: The N1 is rather similar to the W2 concept, that went on to become the Roewe 550. The N1 concept will be unveiled next week, but is the N1 concept the recently spotted test mule in Australia? Also, could this N1 [...]
Dongfeng Coupe – Makes God Angry
We were going to post this tomorrow, but with tomorrow being Good Friday, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to anger the Lord with this monstrosity. So now that we’ve got it out of the way, we can tell you something about this ‘coupes’ creditals. First off, it will come with the usual off the shelf [...]
Chang’an SUV Prototype
Chang’an have got a new prototype ready for the Shanghai show, Chang’an have shown fantastic prototypes before now, but they’ve yet to make it to production: The concept SUV has been codenamed e301, but other information on the SUV concept have yet to be announced. Chang’an also plan to launch the new Landwind X9, updated [...]
Brilliance to launch FRV electric at Shanghai show
The Shanghai Show is set to be a show stopping event this year, with many automakers finally ‘coming of age’ and displaying cars that are capable of entering the international stage and taking on their more international counterparts. Brilliance, despite their recent ADAC ‘failure’ of not getting a single star in the ‘crash test’ that [...]
Tianjin FAW to launch ‘New Xiali’ brand
For those readers who have visited the North Eastern city of Tianjin will be highly familiar with the Tianijn ‘Xia Li’ brand of cars that flood the streets. The local car marker is obviously quite (read as extremely) popular with the native populace, even though the top selling car is essentially an ancient (by motoring [...]
Smart Fortwo hits the market
The miniture Smart fortwo has hit the market at long last in China, priced from 150,800rmb to a whopping 200,600rmb (thats 16,000Euro to 23,000Euro), which makes it a smart purchase only for the rich. The Smart car range has actually been available in China for quite some time, albeit through gray market channels. Also the [...]
Changfeng to make first Chinese Hybrid SUV
Changfeng have been busy lately, their CS6 SUV (below) has been selling reasonably well, but not as succesfully as the Great Wall Hover, but that is probably due to a large price difference between the two cars. Changfeng are planning to take their SUV success to the next level and produce China’s first hybrid SUV. [...]
Chrysler: “We’re not quitting China”
Chrysler currently only make the Chrysler Sebring in China, as well as the Chrsyler Voyager MPV. The rest of their line up, such as the Dodge and Jeep models are imported into China: Apr. 6, 2009 (China Knowledge) – Chrysler LLC said it has no plan to quit the Chinese market and it will join [...]
SAIC to purchase Buick? Rumor mill in overdrive
Rumors regarding the possible purchasing of Buick by SAIC have been going around since the probability of GM going bankrupt started early last year. Various media outlets are linking SAIC to the possible purchase of either Buick or Saturn. The potential Buick purchase is linked to the brand only, which which give SAIC the rights [...]
Hover H7 – Great Wall Luxury SUV – It’s a bit…
Great Wall are keen to turn their Isuzu based Hover SUV into a brand within itself, to feed off the Hovers impressive success in the Chinese market place. A Hover H3 is set to be launched, which will be a mini Hover with a 2.0l engine, but this Hover H7 is a new one on [...]
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