Yema F99 launched!
Yema, the Chengdu car maker, has finally launched its Subaru Forrester like wagon earlier today.
The F99 is running on the Austin Montego chassis, yes, that Austin Montego from two decades ago (fond memories of my Aunts Montego stopping at the traffic lights, but one of the rear wheels continued merrily on its journey into the middle of the intersection). The F99 is carrying a 1.5l Toyota engine, and meets Chinese 4 emissions standards. Chengdu Yema are not a large company, they are a local player but hope to grow larger.
Yema claim they have pre-sales of 500 already, and are going for total sales of 5000 by the end of the year.
The question remains, whats the condition of the Austin Montego tooling like after it’s been used continously by Austin, then Etsong, then FAW, and now Yema.
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It’s terrible that they can just rip off a Subaru Forester (which looks really good) and put it on such an old chassis. If the want to build a cheap AWD for Chinese farmer, I don’t mind, but they can at least try to be a bit creative.
These companies have no vision of brand value or their future. They only seem to care about what they can sell as quickly as possible. They all seems to have the attitude of get in there now while it is good and then get out.
Is it even AWD bearing in mind it is based on a Montego which was never AWD!!! This must be the worst car ever made….a cut and shut Forrester rip off based on the chassis of a car considered to be a dull heap of junk 20 years ago! What next….create a Rolls Royce look a like made from glassfibre with just 1 rear seat?? What, you mean…..LOL!!!
I first rode in a Yema in 1998 – it belonged to a senior colleague of mine that was based in Chengdu at the time. It was a “fabricated” SUV-type of off-roadish demeanor, the 4-speed manual gear was so hard you needed to quadriple-clutch it. It rode like a bit of a tractor and probably the safest top speed of it was around 80km/h. The fact that my colleague then had a car at his disposal (in 1998 that is) was already a miracle. From that experience alone I can tell you, from looking at this new F99, that not much has improved with them – while the chinese car market moved forward (look at greatwall, chery, BYD, Geely) at least they are making some sort of an effor to make their licensed/copies safer. Yema’s cars were all “unique” due to their fabrication methods!
Scary….