A Great Wall Hover SUV, seen on a car accessories market in Beijing in 2011. The good Hover was pretending to be a Toyota, with Toyota logo’s on the grille and on the back. We are not that easily fooled!
The car was otherwise looking great, fitted with a bull bar, a roof rack, side bars, an additional rear bumper, and a lot of stickers. At the time, Chinese brands were still considered somewhat inferior to foreign ware, so many buyers changed the logo’s to something non-Chinese. These were often available at the Chinese-brand dealer itself. So when you bought a Hover at the Great Wall shop, they would also sell you a set of Toyota badges. And if they didn’t, well, a trillion of after-market shops surely did.
Three times Toyota at the rear! The logo, Toyota badge, and a 4WD badge.
The Great Wall Hover was produced from 2005 until 2012. It was Great Wall’s first really successful passenger car, sales in China were great and it was exported to numerous countries around the world. It was sold under various names, including Great Wall H3, Hover CUV, X240, and Hafu.
In 2013, the Hover became the new Haval brand. The Chinese name remained the same (哈弗, Hafu). The original Great Wall Hover received an update and continued as the Haval H5. After many more updates, production finally ended in 2020.
Nearby stood a similar example, a few years older than the ‘Toyota’. It was totally standard bar for the fake air intake on the bonnet. Pretty SUV it is, nothing to be ashamed about. Nowadays, many Chinese car buyers are rather seen in a Great Wall product, perceived as fashionably high tech, than in a Toyota, perceived as old-fashioned low-tech. Yes, things can change really fast in China.