A beautiful Beijing-Jeep Cherokee XJ 2.5, seen in 2011 in Beijing. The good Cherokee was painted in beige. This was a factory color but almost nobody went for it, so beige Chinese Cherokee’s are very rare. The car was in a good shape when I met it. The gold colored alloy wheels and fog lights were standard on high-spec models.
The Jeep Cherokee XJ was manufactured in China by the Beijing-Jeep joint venture from 1984 until 2009 in countless versions and variants. I had one too! It was such a fantastic car for China at the time. It’ll go on any sort of road and could be repaired at any sort of shop.
It really looks great in beige. Note the spare wheel inside rear and the lack of a rear windshield wiper. Power came from the 2.5 liter four-cylinder petrol engine with 136 hp and 180 Nm. Power went to the rear-wheels via a five-speed manual. The China-made Cherokee XJ was also available with the 4.0 liter six and four-wheel drive, but the 2.5 version is much more common.
Blue 京A license plates are not the same as black 京A license plates. The blue ones were issued to the very first batches of privately registered cars in Beijing, as opposed to cars registered to companies or the government. Most blue 京A plates were issued in the early 1990’s. Like with the black plates, numbering started at 0001. This Cherokee has 京A·D3409, so not super old, but still early. Badge above the plate: 北京 Jeep, Beijing Jeep.