http://www.chinacartimes.com Explaining the Chinese Car Industry and Chinese Cars Fri, 16 May 2008 15:17:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Sedan sales for the first quarter of 2008 are in, and the old winners are at the top of the pile as per usual! Shanghai VW - Santana - 69,214 Shanghai GM - Excelle - 62,750 FAW VW - Jetta - 61,202 Guangzhou Toyota - Camry - 54,123 Tianjin FAW Xiali - Xiali - 48,421 Chery ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/16/china-first-quarter-sedan-sales-santana-wins-again/ The Besturn sedan from FAW has found itself to be pretty popular in China, that popularity level is sure to be raised over the next coming months as the Besturn 1.6l Hybrid model hits the market later next year. Pricing of the Besturn has yet to be announced, but we cant ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/16/besturn-16-hybrid-next-year/ The new Foton Mini MPV, named the MIDI is expected to go on the market in June this year. The little MPV is a 5 seater with a generous sized cargo hold. Foton have the capacity to make 50,000 MIDI vehicles per year, the vehicles will be powered by 1.3 and ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/16/foton-mini-mpv-soon/ The Chang'an MPV (above) is a pretty car, its got 7 seats, its loaded with tech (inc DVD and GPS Nav), its a 2.0l engine paired to a 4 speed auto, and best of all, its 130,000rmb. Not bad, eh? Now that the good is out of the way, lets ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/16/changan-mpv-you-gotta-roll-the-good-with-the-bad/ The MGTF is about to be launched in China (third time lucky, eh?) just in time for summer. The 1.8l two seater soft top seems to be popular with the Chinese motoring press, but will it be popular with consumers, after all, the price is far from low for a ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/15/mgtf-china-pricing-250k-to-300k-rmb/ SOAR Automotive are a small custom coachbuilder out in the suburbs of Qingdao that make some ghastly interesting vehicles. The below vehicle is a Rolls Royce Phantom (?) like wedding car that they've knocked up. Interesting points include the RR grill (where did they source that from?) and the rather ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/15/qingdao-auto-show-soar-automotive-at-it-again/ China Car Times once said the Roewe 550 was the most beautiful Chinese car to date, however, since these photos came to light of a 'sports' 550, we retract our statement. The 550 Sports is not an improvement on exterior aesthetics at all! The black one on the left is the ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/15/saic-possibly-loses-marbles-makes-roewe-550-sports-edition-as-ugly-as-possible/ China Car Times is currently at the 2008 Qingdao Car Show, possibly the biggest car show to be held to date in Qingdao. Many of the vehicles that were preseant at the Beijing Auto Show are in Qingdao today, including the MG and Roewe range. We'll keep you updated and ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/15/2008-qingdao-car-show-china-car-times-reporting-live/ The current Europecostar RCR (thats racer) is a CKD import from Malaysia's Proton, these kits are then assembled in China and sold to Chinese consumers. Europestar sales are currently very low, around 30 cars a month, according to a previous article we posted, but Youngman appear to be aiming for ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/14/europa-rcr-to-be-made-in-cihna-as-of-august/ The Haima 3 sedan is quite a popular sedan, it has the style of its previous joint venture partners vehicles, Mazda, and has the cheapness of a domestically made vehicle. The Haima 3 hatchback follows on with the design theme from Mazda, especially the Mazda 3 hatchback. The pictures below, ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/14/haima-3-hatchback-spyshots/ The interestingly styled QQ5 will go on sale in the second half of 2008 according to our sources. The QQ5 is dubbed as being the sports version of the regular QQ series, the 1.3l engine although much smaller than most 'sporty' hot hatches can pack a punch with its top ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/14/qq5-on-sale-in-second-half-of-2008/ From 1994 to 2002, the Renault Traffic Master was made in China with the Sanjiang Space Industry Group. Sales and production of the van sadly ended in 2002 after selling just 4,906 vans over the time of being in partnership together, sales were reportedly poor due to high prices as ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/14/renault-coming-back-into-the-prc-via-its-old-joint-venture/ http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/14/a-friendly-warning-from-the-chinese-police/ VW are being secrative about the platform that will be used on the new China only VW Lavida. Previous news reports have stated that it will be the newer PQ35, but later reports have said that it may actually be the old PQ34. VW havent been forthcoming on either denying ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/14/pq34-or-the-pq35-platform-for-the-lavida/ Despite the car not actually going into production yet, or being unlikely to be on sale until 2009, the Changfeng CP1A's price has been leaked to the press - 50,00rmb, which makes it one of the best looking (in CCT's humble opinion) and cheapest cars on the road. The downside ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/13/changfeng-sports-model-50k-rmb-yes-50000rmb/ NAC MG have had more delays than we can actually remember of late, but there is good news at the end of the tunnel. The MGTF is set to go into mass production in China very shortly, and will be on the market by the second half of 2008. The second ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/13/mg3-delayed-again/ Yesterdays 7.9 earthquake in the Chengdu area of Sichuan has shut down production at a Toyota plant, and the Chang'an plants were evacuated during the day. The earthquake has claimed a death toll of an estimated 10,000 people, thus making the evacuations and work suspension at the factories a wise ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/13/chengdu-quake-shuts-down-auto-production/ Emissions standards on vehicles will be raised nationwide by July 1st to the Chinese 3 standard, which is the same as Euro 3 specification. However, some cities, such as Xi'An are delaying plans to enforce the emissions standards to give local truck makers the chance to play catch up in ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/12/chinese-3-emissions-standard-to-be-enforced-nationwide/ The second hand car market is exactly what it sounds like. Its a big empty car lot, people that want to sell their cars drive them to the market, and leave their motor their with a card in the window saying how many KM's it has on the clock, the ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/12/a-visit-to-the-local-second-hand-car-market/   From the grainy pictures below, you may be able to make out a new front end on the FAW CA6480P6E SUV. We're not sure why FAW likes to use a serial number instead of a name, after all, who can remember CA6480P6E? The new SUV is surely inspired by the Chevrolet ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/12/faw-gives-suv-an-american-make-over/ From Reuters: BEIJING (AP) -- China has established a homegrown company to make passenger jumbo jets, state media reported Sunday - a step forward in the country's quest to become less dependent on Boeing and Airbus. China Commercial Aircraft Co. was established in Shanghai with registered capital of 19 billion yuan ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/12/china-to-start-buidling-jumbo-jets/ Could the foretold global recession be hitting Chinese consumers, or is it just a lull before the summer driving season? http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/11/china-car-sales-slowing-down/   The Bora was a previous generation Jetta in Europe, but it continues to thrive in China via the FAW (First Auto Works) VW joint venture, the Livida on the other hand, is a completely new car from SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp) and VW. The two cars are roughly the ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/09/vw-bora-vs-vw-lavida-just-what-the-heck-is-different/ The Changfeng CP1A sedan that was unveiled at the last Beijing Automotive show is expected to be launched next year, rather than in 2008. The CP1A comes with a 1.8l Mitsubishi engine as the power plant which is a bit of a dissapointment for such a good looking automobile. Good news ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/09/changfeng-cp1a-sports-sedan-we-have-to-wait-until-09/ SAIC and Dongfeng recently signed an agreement to supply Rover designed 1.8T K-Series engines to Dongfeng for use in their own brand automobiles. Dongfeng currently lacks any of its own engine designs for their own vehicles, and are relaying on third parties for engines. Dongfeng dropped a Cummins diesel engine ... http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/05/09/rover-never-died-saic-supplies-18t-k-series-to-dongfeng/