This was just found on a Chinese language blog:
Possibly the actual car that the showed off in Beijing!
Archive for the 'Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto' Category
FAW to buy Brilliance Autos?
Published by August 18th, 2008 in First Automobile Works and Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 0 CommentsFAW may well be planning to IPO later this year, and use the funds raised to buy out their smaller Shenyang rival, Brilliance Automotive.
FAW’s massive profit growth in 2007, and the first half of 2008, has given the Chinese motoring giant the funds and the confidence to start buying up smaller rivals, either domestic or foreign.
Brilliance is relatively small company when compared to the automotive giants of China, such as FAW and SAIC. Brilliance sold only 300,000 vehicles in 2007, a mixture of self developed vehicles, and BMW’s which it builds with its joint venture partner, BMW.
Despite low sales, Brilliance have invested deeply in R&D, developing turbo assisted engines, hatchbacks, saloons, and station wagons in the past few months. Brilliance have only been in the car building industry for several years, however, their devotion, and speed of development in building cars has been phenomenal.
New Brilliance BS4 on its way to Germany
Published by July 23rd, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 1 Comment
China Car Times cant think of a harder automobile market to crack than Germany, VW, Audi, Porsche, and Mercedes are all at home in the Rhineland. Perhaps Brilliance believes if it can crack the German market, than it can crack any market in the world. The reworked Brilliance BS4 will be heading its way to Germany after HSO Auto Trading, a safety inspection company, cleared the BS4 for export. HSO Auto Trading say the BS4 meet all of the strict safety requirements to enter the German market.
Brilliance is aiming for sales of 30,000 vehicles in foreign markets in 2008, which they plan to double in 2009.
2008 Brilliance BS4 - Updated, and lookin’ good
Published by July 22nd, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 4 Comments The Brilliance BS4 has been updated for 2008, and has also been given the option of a 1.6l engine. The biggest updates to the excellent selling sedan are on the inside, although the exterior has been given new wheels and a 3 series style shark fin. The wheels were critisized by the Chinese motoring press for being too conservative for a larger sedan, the 195/65/R15 wheels really are too small.
The interior are where the vast majority of changes took place, the interior has turned black, and the fake wood trim has taken on a darker tone.
The cloth seats have also undergone a change in material, apparentely the newer cloth is much smoother to the touch, and much more pleasing on the eye than the previous tan color.
The final word from the Chinese press was basically, the 1.6 BS4 is priced in the 100,280rmb price range, which puts up the BS4 against the Korean-Chinese joint ventures which have good quality levels. The BS4 is large and roomy for the price, but in certain areas the quality level needs to be raised. In the end, the BS4 gained a reasonable 8.4 out of ten in a review.
Brilliance FRV - 6000 orders already
Published by July 3rd, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 0 CommentsBrilliance seem to hit the market right every time, first it was their BS6 - Probably the first good looking Chinese car ever made, secondly it was the smaller BS4; a runaway success. The Coupe seems to have found itself a niche market, but sales of that dont appear to be approaching critical mass yet, on the other hand, the Brilliance FRV will make up for any losses on the Coupe.
According to Shenzhen Automotive World News, total orders for the Brilliance FRV in the first month have reached 6000 cars.
The manual versions of the FRV will be delivered to customers in August, but those who opted for a manual version may well have to wait until September. Demend is reportedly greater than Brilliance’ can produce, leaving some customers with no choice but to wait. The base model of the FRV starts at 60,680rmb, which no doubt entices many younger customers who are on a budget.
The FRV is based on an entirely new platform from Brilliance, and will no doubt be a great seller in the coming months.
As for China Car Times, we think we’ll wait for the rumoured FRV GT - a 1.8 Turbo assisted model.
High Fuel Prices Will Not Extinguish The Chinese Automotive Dream
Published by June 25th, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto and Chinese Car News. 1 CommentAn interesting article discussing the failed attempts by Brilliance to build ’state cars’, cars for use by national leaders, and state guests for use in China. The original article was by Xue Bing (薛冰)
Despite high fuel prices, and inflation in general having a massive effect on car markers in the Western world, the Chinese auto market is just emerging in a troubled time. Talk of Co2 emissions, and the backing away from massive gas thirsty V6, and V8 engines by consumers has not dampened Chinese automotive spirits in anyway, shape, or form. The Chinese automotive companies that are in existence now are set on becoming domestic, regional, and international automotive players.
With FAW making the Audi A6 for the domestic markets, the Chinese market for upmarket cars received a massive boost, now they had a platform to build on.
The luxury car industry in China grew in three different stages: After liberation in the 50’s China mostly used Soviet luxury cars; in 1966 Hong Qi’s CA770 series was launched. After modernization and the opening of the markets Audi and Mercedes came into the market and essentially controlled it. Cars for state leaders and state guests, we can make these cars in small numbers, that is not a problem.
Hong Qi (Red Flag), Hua Cheng Zhonghua (Brilliance), and Chery all have different plans to create a state car. Hong Qi have the HQE, Chery have the F11 both of which are in development still. Brilliance are working on the above state car in cooperation with the Shanghai Han Feng (Hidea) auto design company. Brilliance and Hidea have been working on the car since 2003. Previously, Hidea had 60 people working on desings for Brilliance, previously Hidea were apperently working on the Brilliance Coupe, before the design contract was awarded to Pininfarina.
Brilliance started their state car project in 2005, and created a full size mock up car (above picture). The wheel base measures 2.9m, and the power plant was rumored to be either a 3.0 V6, 4.5l V8 from Mitsubishi. The front grill was supposed to be the same as the current Brilliance Coupe, however, Brilliance appear to have gone for a large mesh design instead. The front end of the car features two poles fitted with an electric flag atop of each one. This appears to be a design trait carried over from previous Hong Qi’s and before that, the Soviet state cars.
Because of the costs involved with designing and building state cars, Brilliance have already stopped work on the state car designs, at the same time, Chery have run into some troubles with the F11. This year saw FAW launch their V12 engine, so the possibility of the HQE becoming the state car of choice, is looking more like the likely option. Although work on the Brilliance state car has stopped and was not made into a production car, the Brilliance state car still deserves to be praised, after all, it was designed by China.
Brilliance FRV 1.8T - Hot hatch for the masses
Published by June 10th, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 4 CommentsThe Brilliance FRV is an up coming star of the Chinese car industry, its bubbly design, combined with a decent interior, and a range of engines will prove that the Shengyang based Brilliance are well on track with their future plans for world domination.
Brilliance plan to sell 30,000 models of their FRV with a range of engines, including a 1.3l, a 1.6l and a 1.8 engine, and as an addition, a 1.8 turbo assisted model; the same engine as their coupe.
The 1.8Turbo model FRV will be paired to a 6 speed manual gearbox, although we’re unsure of the pricing, we can guess it will be in the 80,000rmb to 100,000rmb. Brilliance recently announced that they were making waves in bringing their 1.8T BS4 to the sub 100,000rmb price range, something which other marques (Chinese and Foreign) have so far been unable (or unwilling) to do.
Brilliance FRV production models spied
Published by May 29th, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 20 CommentsThe Brilliance FRV is a China Car Times favorite, or at least the GT version that was spied is!
Final production photos of a base model FRV have been leaked onto the internet, where Chinese auto fans were able to comment on it. The comments were largely in favor of the car, many saying they believe Brilliance to be one of the best automotive companies in China.
The production model shows that the interior has been given a serious look at by Brilliance - Brilliance were often criticized by foreign automotive media who believed the interior design could have been better made. As we have seen with the Brilliance Wagon, Brilliance are clearly heading in the right direction when it comes to car interiors, and exterior designs!
Beijing Man crashes Brilliance BS4, lives to tell tale
Published by May 5th, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 13 CommentsThe Brilliance BS4 was given a bad crash test result when it was tested by ADAC in Germany a while back, it was tested in Spain again and received 3 stars. Crash tests arent always conclusive, they only test front, front offset and side impact (most of the time) but they dont account for real life crash tests such as the below BS4.
The BS4 driver was on the empty highway to Harbin cruising at 100kph, the car slipped on the wet road (it was a dry day, but the previous night it rained) the car went through the barrier, flying 150m down into a ditch, rolled two times, hit a pile of dirt, span 360 degrees and then landed again.
The driver reported that the drivers door would not open, so he climbed out of the passenger side. He was the only occupant. Surprisingly, for what is possibly unfairly lauded as an ‘unsafe’ vehicle, the only injury to the driver was where the seatbelt pulled against his waist during the crash. Bruising was his only complaint, that and the money he had to pay out: 1000rmb to have it lifted out of the ditch, 9000rmb to have it towed back to Beijing, Towing the car 750rmb, Accident Investigation fee 1350rmb.
The car is reportedly going to be scrapped, although negotiations are underway with the mans insurance company.
Brilliance BS4 Station Wagon: A Wagon we could roll in!
Published by April 30th, 2008 in Brilliance/Zhonghua Auto. 11 Comments
Brilliance seem to have learned quite a lot since the BS6 came out onto the market a few years back, formally a truck maker that got into the car making business with a loud splash - the BS6 was their first sedan. The BS4 came next, then the FRV hatchback, then the coupe, and now the BS4 Wagon! The wagon was unveiled at the Beijing show, but pictures of the interior were hard to come by, below you can see quite detailed pictures of the interior, showing that Brilliance has definitely learned a hard lesson in design:
The interior of the BS4 Wagon looks to have been completely redone when compared to the original BS4 sedan:
DVD’s in the back for the kids, and plenty of room for storage with the seats down. The dash looks to have been re-done as well.
The Brilliance BS4 wagon was designed by the Italian design house, Pinifarina, who are most certainly doing some swift business these days thanks to the Chinese manufacturers. The BS4 Wagon is expected to go on the market later this year, prices are expected to start from 90,980rmb for base 1.8 manual models, 2.0l models are expected to be sold, as are potential diesel models for the European markets.
One thing is for sure, China Car Times sure thinks this Brilliance Wagon is a whole lot better looking than the (occasional) 3 series wagons we see going around China!
Source: Carscoop, and the ever friendly Shanghai Mark for sending it in!
Latest Comments