Here we have a pretty Volkswagen Santana sedan, seen in the far east of the Chinese capital Beijing in 2019. The good Santana was in a fine shape, a bit battered up perhaps, but that is part of the appeal of these great old cars.
The Santana was painted in purple red with darkened windows and with the original wheels. Something was wrong with the suspension, as it stood much higher aft that fore.
The interior was in a very good shape, the plastics looked fresh and everything seemed original bar for the after market radio. The seats were neatly protected with seat covers.
The Santana was manufactured by the Shanghai-Volkswagen joint venture, it was based on the German Volkswagen Passat B2. Production of the sedan version started in 1985 and only ended in 2007. The joint venture also manufactured the Santana Variant wagon, which was made until 2013 (!).
The Shanghai-Volkswagen Santana is a Chinese automotive icon. It was the first modern luxury car that was available, and affordable, for a relatively large part of the population. It was also a very popular taxi, thanks to its space in the back. Even today, some of these first generation China-made Santana’s are still in use as taxi’s, some with a million km on the clock.
Initially, the Santana was powered by a 1.6 with 87 hp and 128 Nm. In 1987 Volkswagen added a 1.8 with 94 hp and 145 Nm. Gearbox was always a five-speed manual.
Badge on the left is the classic logo of Shanghai Auto. The characters simply read 上海, ‘Shanghai’.
Our car is a GLi model, which debuted in 1996, so we got a real oldie here. The GLi was powered by the 1.8 liter engine. When new in 1996 it cost 108.000 yuan. Later on prices went down a lot. In 2007 you could buy a brand new 1.8 powered car for just 76.800 yuan! I wish I had bought one.
The super solid Volkswagen badge.
The license plate appears to be as old as the Santana itself.
When I took the pictures the car was owned by the owner of a small nearby shop. He told me he drove it regularly to his family home near Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province, a distance of about 300 kilometers by road. That indeed should be no problem at all for this Santana, no matter how old.
[table id=402 /]