Here we have a pretty Geely Merrie Uliou MR7130X1, seen in Beijing in 2012. The little sedan was in a fine general shape but was missing a part of its grille. The sporty alloys are original. The Geely Merrie Uliou was based on the Geely Merrie hatchback, which was based on the Tianjin Xiali, which in turn was based on the Daihatsu Charade.
Geely was very creative with the platform. Besides the sedan, the also designed a notch-back, a wagon, and several pickup trucks.
Geely’s naming in those early days was a bit of a mess. They made two series based on the Xiali/Charade platform. One series was called Haoqing/HQ,and the other Merrie/MR. The base Merrie was the hatchback, called Merrie. The sedan was the Merrie Uliou. The Merrie series was made from 2003 until 2006.
The Merrie Uliou sedan came in various variants, all with different names and designations. The top model, for example, was called the Ouliou King. Today’s car carries the designation MR7130X1.
It was powered by a 1.3 liter four-cylinder engine, developed and built by Geely. Engine code was MR479Q. Output was 86 hp and 110 Nm. The motor was mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. Size: 4150X1620X1450, 2440.
Price in 2003 for the MR7130X1 started at 57.000 yuan.
Character time! Left: Jili Meiri (吉利美日)= Geely Merrie. Right: Youliou (优利欧) = Uliou. Designation: MR7130X1. I always liked the old Geely logo, with a black-blue background a a triangle in the middle.
Nowadays there aren’t many Merrie’s around anymore in the big cities, but you can still find some down country.
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