This is a Dongfeng Fengshen S30, seen in Beijing in April 2018. The China Red sedan was parked in front of an abandoned charging station, a leftover from one of Beijing’s many failed electric taxi projects at the time. How times have changed! Today, nearly 99% of all taxis in the Chinese capital are electric. Anyway, back to the Fengshen S30. In 2018, it was still a relatively new car, in good condition and largely original. It was covered in dust, but so was everything else. That was perfectly normal for Beijing in late winter.
About Dongfeng Fengshen
Fengshen is a brand under Dongfeng Motor. Its English name is Aeolus, although Dongfeng rarely used that name when it sold the S30. The S30 sedan shares its platform with the Citroën ZX Fukang, which the Dongfeng-PSA joint venture manufactured in China at the time. There was also a hatchback, called the Dongfeng Fengshen H30.
The Dongfeng Fengshen S30
Production of the S30 started in 2009 and lasted until 2017, with a facelift in 2013. Our blue car is a pre-facelift example. The H30 and S30 were designed by the Italian studio Italdesign. This famous outfit did a lot of work in China in the 2000s and 2010s, but not every one of their designs was pretty. The Fengshen S30 looks okay, with a large, imposing grille with a lot of shine, fashionable extra-large headlights, and an interesting central hood crease. The car in the photos is the top-spec Dongfeng Fengshen S30 Automatic Navigation model.
The interior of the Dongfeng Fengshen S30
Dongfeng gave the Fengshen S30 a rather nice interior and dashboard, with three sporty-looking round dials. As the name suggests, the top-spec model came with a navigation system, with a screen in the center stack. Cheaper models didn’t have this screen. Below it, Dongfeng fitted a tray for CDs and DVDs. Officially, the system could only play DVDs when the car was stationary, but owners could easily bypass that restriction. The audio system had 7 speakers.
It has warm aftermarket seat covers. These were very popular back then, as extra protection against the ice-cold winter. Nowadays, thanks to climate change, the Beijing winter’s aren’t as cold anymore as they used to be. An unusally ong lucky charm hangs from the rearview mirror.
Lots of legroom in the back. Seat covers again, but in between we can just see the original beige leather. It was real leather! Not the plastic stuff. That was very special for the segment.
Specifications
Note the high old-school antenna on the roof. The five-spoke alloys were standard on the S30 Automatic Navigation model. The tire size is 195/60 R15. Now that we are at it, the dimensions of the car are: 4502/1740/1465, with a 2610 mm wheelbase and a 1240 kg curb weight. The trunk’s capacity was 487 liters, and that was more than most rivals had. The S30 was a front-wheel-drive car, powered by a PSA 1.6-liter gasoline engine.
The engine produced 106 hp and 142 Nm, enough for a top speed of 180 km/h. Fuel consumption was a reasonable 7.9 liters per 100 kilometers. As the name suggests, the top-spec model came with a four-speed automatic transmission. Dongfeng carried over the suspension setup from the Citroën ZX Fukang, with independent MacPherson struts at the front and a dual-torsion-bar trailing-arm suspension at the rear.
Price and legacy
The Dongfeng Fengshen S30 Automatic Navigation sold for 93,800 yuan in 2012, or approximately $14,900 at the 2012 exchange rate. That was good value for money, but competition was fierce even then. Key rivals included the BYD F3, Great Wall Voleex C30, Chery A3, and Brilliance Junjie FSV.
As for its legacy? Not much, I guess. The Italian design makes it somewhat special, but otherwise, the S30 never made much of an impression. Still, a surprising number remain on Chinese roads, helped by the wide availability of mechanical parts through the extensive Citroën service network. So, even today, you might spot one of these Chinese-French sedans driving around.
