This is a Toyota Previa MPV, or minivan, seen on a sunny day in the Chinese capital, Beijing. The Previa was in good general shape, painted silver with black window frames, with the original five-spoke wheels, and with black 京A license plates.
The Toyota Previa
The second-generation Toyota Previa (XR30) was a full-size MPV, manufactured from 2000 until 2005 with a facelift in 2003. The car that I saw is a post-facelift example.
The second-generation Toyota Previa was officially sold in China as an import, but only in the facelifted form, in 2004 and 2005. The China-spec Previa was powered by a 2.4-liter four-cylinder petrol engine with an output of 156 hp and 225 Nm. The motor was mated to a 4-speed automatic gearbox, sending horsepower to the front wheels. The top speed was 175 km/h, and 0-100 took 11 seconds.
The interior of the Toyota Previa
The dashboard of the Previa was wild, with a complicated design with semi-circles over the center console. The China-spec Previa had a top trim level with luxurious leather seats and wood trim. It had a small screen for the infotainment and an audio system with a CD player. Toyota mounted the gear selector on the steering wheel column.
The Previa was a seven-seat car in a 2/2/3 setup. The seats in the second row were wide and comfortable. The owner of this particular example put a child seat in. Somehow, it doesn’t look very safe.
Toyota sold the Previa with only one trim level and only one engine in China, priced at 430.000 yuan in 2004. That was quite a lot of money compared with locally built MPVs like the Buick GL8 and the Honda Odyssey. So sales were slow, and the Previa has always been a rare sight on the road, even more so today.
Black license plates
Chinese authorities issued the famous black license plates to foreign-owned companies from the 1980s to the mid-2000s. These companies could either buy a car locally or import one, with no restrictions on quantity, price, or engine type.
The numbering started at 京A·00001 and increased sequentially, meaning lower numbers indicate older vehicles. Any black plate that begins with 京A·0 or 京A·1 is ultra-rare. I know, I had one too! This Previa has 京A·52250, so that’s not super early.
The Chinese name for Previa is 普瑞维亚 (Pǔléiwéiyǎ), an unusually long name for a car in China. Toyota also sold the fifth-generation Previa in China as an import, but its sales were even slower. In 2017, sales of the Previa in China ended. Toyota has since launched several locally-made MPVs, manufactured by GAC-Toyota. More on those cars in later posts!