Rav Spotting In China!

[Fujisan]

Back to the Madhouse! :D

......and the freezing British weather! After three wonderful (warm) weeks in central Sichuan, China.

First things first, this might be a long story, spread over 2, maybe 3 posts, so stay with me :P

I hope to give a brief description of the cars presently on the road in central Sichuan and then a bit of detail on the the RAV's for sale in China. I would not like to comment on what is on the roads of the coastal mega-cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou where the roads might be better or equally about more remote areas of China where the roads could be worse.

My apology's to Chinese car makers, I can recognise the different makers, Chery, Geeley etc. but the model names escape me (except for the Roewe 750, a nicely updated version of the old Rover 75, which seems to be selling rather well). This is a great shame because some of the larger Chinese saloons are quite nicely and elegently designed, on the otherhand, the small hatchbacks tend to be a bit fussy and over styled. So I will have to concentrate on manufactures we generally known in Europe.

OK, in central Sichuan, four main types of car be seen regularly. The Saloon still dominates the market in all sizes. Next there is the MPV's, usually of the mini-van type MPV, if not it's Buick mid size or full size MPV's. Thirdly, it is the Hatchback, usually in small to mid size. The number of hatchbacks has definately increased since the last time I was in China a few years ago. And finally it is the SUV, either full sized or mid sized.

Estate cars and Coupes / Sports cars are very rare on the roads of central Sichuan. I can understand why Coupes / Sports cars might be rare, the roads outside the cities can be a bit rough and even in the cities raised manhole covers are common and changes in level at bridges and underpasses can send a shudder though the softest riding cars. Big alloy's and low profile tyres are not recommended and it is quite usual to see new Merc's or Jag's with what look like 65 (or bigger) section tyres.

All the usual big European Saloons are common (Audi, BMW, Ford - with the new Mondeo, Merc and VW). With Buick, Chevy and Cadillac holding the flag for GM. Actually Buick is very popular in all market segments! Maybe of more interest is the Japanese models we hardly if ever see in Britain, the Nissan Teana, or from Toyota, the Reiz, the Camry or Crown.

Mid and small sized saloons are also quite interesting when you get use to seeing booted versions of familar hatchbacks. The saloon version of the Megane looks a lot better that the big bottomed hatch, the 307 saloon is slightly awkward, the saloon Focus and Fiesta are very nice, has is the saloon version of the VW Polo.

Also interesting to see the saloon version of the Civic in petrol engined form, I think we can only get this car in Hybrid form.

Two things to note at the this point. When I was last in China, you were hard pressed to see a Ford. The Mondeo, the Focus and Fiesta have made significant in-roads into the market.

Secondly, VW dominate the mid-sized saloon market with the Santana, Jetta, Bora and Sagitar (current European Jetta) - all common in massive taxi fleets, as well as the Passat.

As stated Hatchbacks have taken a bigger slice of the market since I was last in China. The days of the Citroen ZX being the "only" hatchback are well and truely over. Now the Honda Jazz is King! The Focus, Golf, Polo and Fiesta are all doing well along with Buick and Hyundai.

Right on to the main event - SUV's

Most of the big SUV's can be seen, Q7, X5 (old and new), new Disco (including a very nice one decked out in the full treking the Himalayas kit), ML and GL from Merc, Cayenne, XC90 and Touareg. There is also a lot of Ssangyong's around including the Actyon. Rare to British roads spotted a couple of Infiniti FX's and three Hummer's, H2's I think!

But the big man in the big SUV market is the Landcruiser! Especially the Landcruiser Prado (did we call them Colorado a while back? ). They out sell other big SUV's 2 to 1 easily.

In our mid-size SUV market a couple of local lads stand out has big sellers. The Chery Tiggo and the Great Wall Hover.

The Tiggo is confusing at first sight, a quick glance from the rear or the side and you would say it was a 5 door RAV 4.2 but from the front the headlights and grille look like the old model CRV!

The Hover is a also quite interesting and looks quite nice, all the better for being a bit original.

RAV 4.2 can still be seen and most look in good nick. Slightly more old model CRV's can also be seen. I did spot one 3 door 4.2 with an unfamilar Badge which I suspect was the Jonway UFO.

The range of current mid-sized SUV's on sale appears to slightly small then in Europe. Didn't see any X3's, Kugas and if I read my friends Chinese motoring magazine right, the Tiguan doesn't make it over there until next summer. Captiva's and Forester's are rare. Spotted a few Outlanders (old and new but no Citroen or Peugeot sister cars) and a few new Freelanders (in the main city ). A number of Terios's, Kia Sportages and Sorento's and quite a lot of new CRV's :( (I will explain why later)

Has for Toyota, spotted a few Highlanders and quite a few RAV 4.3's, which I suspected straight away were American Spec from the size of them. But I get the feeling that if you walk into a Toyota showroom wanting to buy an SUV, you drive out with a Landcruiser Prado!

But the big winner among "foreign" mid sized SUV's is Hyundai! There are lots of Tucson's on the road, quite a few Santa Fe's and even a few Terracan's.

More detail on the RAV 4.3 on sale in China, in a minute.

[Fujisan]

OK the RAV 4.3 in China!

From the information I gather from some rather confused sales staff in a north Chengdu Toyota dealers (Thank you very much, greatly appreciated ), the basic dimensions are 4600 x 1855 x 1720, with a wheelbase of 2660 which suggests its the American long wheelbase version but without the extra row of seats.

There is only one engine / transmission choice : the 4 cylinder 2.4 litre 2AZ-FE VVT-i petrol engine mated to a 4 speed (I think) automatic gearbox, then on to the usual 4WD system. The engine appears good for 125 Kw (169 Bhp) @ 6000rpm and 224 Nm of torque @ 4000rpm. And this appear to take the RAV to 180 km/h and (I guess) a 0 - 100 km/h time of 9.8 seconds.

The car runs on 225 / 65 R 17 tyres.

There are two trim levels. The higher spec model gets a sunroof and 8 way electric adjustable heated leather seats.

Now price. If I remember correctly the lower spec model was 315,000 Yuan (£30,000) and the higher spec model was 358,000 Yuan (£34,100)

To put this in context, the Mazda 6 range started from 160,000 Yuan (£15,200). And if I have my figures right, now I'll tell you why there are more new model CRV's on the Chinese road then RAV's. The basic 2.0 CRV starts at 180,000 Yuan (£17,150) and the top of the range 2.4 CRV is 250,000 Yuan (£23,800).

Pictures, sorry no roadside pictures. Standing by the side of the road is dangerous enough, even on the pavement you have to keep an eye open for electric sooters and mini-vans. So standing by the road with a camera to my eye was out of the question! So these where taken inside my friendly Chengdu dealer.

[Fujisan]

And finally!

Hope you enjoyed that little bit of RAV spotting! B)

[chatman]

Nice photo's Fuji....Like the white Toyota's as well...

My local Toyota Dealer Lookers, is offering a free Aygo Platinim when you buy the Toyota Amazon....

Nice if you have 34K...........

[local hero]

brilliant Fuji, by any chance were there any (black cabs) out there, the company you mentioned Geeley are said to be making them under licence in China for about 1/2 the cost they are here, the wiring looms and most of the electrics are already sourced in China, All the Toyotas in the showroom were white, was that just a theme in that show room ?

[dave.m]

Welcome back mate, looks like you had a great trip

[Fujisan]

brilliant Fuji, by any chance were there any (black cabs) out there, the company you mentioned Geeley are said to be making them under licence in China for about 1/2 the cost they are here, the wiring looms and most of the electrics are already sourced in China, All the Toyotas in the showroom were white, was that just a theme in that show room ?

Thanks for the welcome back everybody! :D

I didn't see any Black Cabs Stewart....but the country is that large, each province seems to have it's own favourite cars for taxi's. In Sichuan it seems to be mid sized VW's, with a few Citroen ZX's (saloon and hatch) and Hyundai Elantra's (? ) scattered in the mix.

I know when we visited Xi'an about 5 years ago, it was all ZX's.

But what ever car they are driving Chinese Taxi drivers are to put it politely ...fearless! :o

They could teach Lewis Hamilton (well done by the way Lewis ) a trick or two about making the most of the smallest gap (and I do mean tiny gap) when overtaking.....or undertaking!

The mearest hint of free tarmac ahead and they will go for it, wrong side of the road, on-coming traffic, forcing the car your passing to chuck out the anchor...all no problem to them!

The Basic Rule of Road it seems for all drivers (private, bus, taxi, HGV, motorcyclist's, the lot) is

"I'm in this space now....you avoid me!"

Left turns at junctions are comical.

One or roughly two lanes of traffic waiting to turn left, dissolves rapidly into 4 or 5 or even 6 abreast, when the lights turn green, all trying to get into the one or two lane exit road!

There is no room for Miss Daisy on Chinese roads. Hesitate of a micro-second at traffic lights and you will die the death of a thousand car horns screaming at you as they pass you on all sides!

It's not for the faint-hearted and my hats off to those who drive on those roads every day.