A very special Buick New Century sedan, seen in the far north of Beijing. The New Century was the first car produced by the Shanghai-GM joint venture in Shanghai. Production started in 1998.
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The China-made New Century was based on the sixth generation U.S.-market Buick Century sedan, which in turn was an up-market variant of the fourth-generation Buick Regal.
The China-made Buick New Century had very little local content, is was basically CDK production, with kits shipped in from the United States. These cars are easily recognizable by their column-mounted shifter.
This was very unusual for China where customers expect the lever to be on the center tunnel. In 2004, the Buick New Century was renamed Buick Regal. Production had quickly become more localized, and the shifter had moved down to the tunnel.
But confusingly, the New Century name didn’t completely disappear. It became a trim level of the Regal, sold until at least 2005.
1999, the fist Shanghai-GM Buick New Century rolls of the line in Shanghai, wearing a SGM-0001 license plate.
1999 factory photo.
Back now to the car at hand! It was in perfect shape, painted in dark green, and totally original, down to the wheels.
The China-made Buick New Century was powered by a 3.0 ‘LW9’ V6 engine, good for 167 hp and 250 Nm. Price in 1999 started at 369.000 yuan, which was a whole lot of money in those days.
Characters read: Shanghai General Motors Auto. Later on this badge would be replaced by an English badge saying Shanghai-GM, later on again it would go back to Chinese with Shanghai General Motors (without the ‘Auto’), and that is how it is until today.
New Century.
A truly historic Buick in Beijing. Sadly, there aren’t many of these around anymore. May this one ride a many miles more.
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