Here’s a Geely Merrie hatchback, seen in Beijing in 2016. It was in fantastic shape for its age, with the insurance stickers on the windshield going back to 2003! The Merrie is completely original, down to the wheels and even the mud flaps. A real time capsule on the road.
Geely and the Merrie
Geely was originally a company producing refrigerator parts, founded in 1986. In 1994, it started to make motorcycles, and in 1997 it entered the automotive industry.
Geely’s first car was the Number 01, a bizarre mix between a Mercedes-Benz and an Audi. Geely’s second car, and first mass-production vehicle, was the Haoqing hatchback.
The Geely Merrie hatchback, the subject of this story, was a modernized variant of the Haoqing. Both the Haoqing and the Merrie were based on the Tianjin Xiali, which was a license-built variant of the Daihatsu Charade.
The Geely Merrie
The Geely Merrie hatchback debuted in 2002. In 2003, Geely also launched a sedan variant, called the Merrie Uliou. The Merrie looked fantastic, especially for such a young automaker, with a comprehensive design and sporty vibes. Other Chinese cars of that period were often a design mess.
Racy six-twin spoke wheels.
The super cool rear spoiler was standard. There is a tissue box on the parcel shelf, with a richly decorated pink cover.
The interior of the Geely Merrie hatchback
The cabin looked pretty good too, with a modern center stack and dual-color door panels. The owner added a lot of stuff: two sets of seat covers, a thick steering wheel cover, and a lucky charm hanging from the mirror.
But the best accessory is this brilliant device to lock the gear lever. That’ll scare the thieves! The gear lever knob is still the original factory-fitted piece, and the van even retains its original cassette radio. That’s remarkably rare—99.999% of Merries from this era would have had their original radio replaced with a more modern unit long ago.
Hello Kitty seat covers were super popular in the early 2000s in China. Everything Hello Kitty was wanted, really. You could buy Hello Kitty neck pillows, steering wheel covers, floor mats, all sorts of trays and phone holders, and whatnot more.
Specifications
There was a small cutout in the rear bumper for the exhaust pipe. Note the lights in the bumper. The left one is a brake light, the right one is a fog light. Power came from a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine, developed and built by Geely, with an output of 86 hp and 110 Nm. The engine code was MR479Q. The motor was mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox, sending horsepower to the front wheels. The top speed was 155 kilometers per hour.
This is the official model designation: MR7130X1. “MR” is short for Merrie. The numbers refer to the vehicle’s size and engine. Displaying the designation was a legal requirement and could take the form of a badge, decal, or sticker, but it had to be clearly visible. Today, such external designation requirements generally apply only to commercial vehicles.
The Geely logo
The bars formed the silhouette of a mountain peak, representing the mountains surrounding Taizhou, where founder Li Shufu established the company. The six bars were deliberate: the number 6 (六, liù) symbolizes luck, smooth progress and good fortune in Chinese culture.
Well, the owner of this Geely Merrie hatchback is super lucky indeed to have this piece of Chinese automotive history in his stewardship. The owner is clearly proud of it; otherwise, it wouldn’t be so original and well-maintained. Hopefully, it is still around somewhere in China, on the road or in a museum.