Toyota Camry XV10 Is All About Beige In China

A Toyota Camry is the definition of beige; unobtrusive, boring, and ordinary. Still, this Camry XV10 made my kind of greedy. I met it in Beijing in 2015, and the whole car appeared to be in a super shape. I’ve always loved the aerodynamically shaped mirrors, useless but somehow very cool.

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Hongqi HQ300 Is A Chinese-Japanese Sedan At Home In Changchun

A Hongqi HQ300 sedan, seen in the great city of Changchun in 2016. The good Hongqi was painted in black, like 99.9% of these cars always were. It was in a fine shape with the original alloy wheels and the ultra cool Hongqi ornament on the hood.

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Toyota Carina E Is A Rare Japanese Sedan In China

Here we have a Toyota Carina E sedan, seen on a car market in Beijing in 2014. The good Toyota was in a fine shape, albeit a bit dusty. It was painted in dark green with tinted windows, and on old black license plates. The Carina E was a compact sedan, positioned above the Toyota Corolla.

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A Toyota Crown Super Saloon Of The Vietnamese Embassy In China

A Toyota Crown Super Saloon 3.0 Twin Cam 24 sedan, seen in central Beijing in 2017. The Crown is painted in white, a relatively rare color for this great Japanese sedan.

The eight generation S130 Toyota Crown was manufactured from 1987 until 1995, in Nagoya, Japan. The Super Saloon was the second-most luxurious trim level after the Royal Saloon. It was powered by a 24 valve 3.0 liter six-in-line engine with 204 hp and 265 Nm, sending horses to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic.

This particular car belonged, or perhaps still belongs, to the Vietnamese embassy. Like in most countries, cars used by foreign embassies have special license plates in China. In the capital Beijing, diplomatic license plates start with the character 使 (shi), is short for 大使馆 dashiguan, meaning embassy.

Each embassy has its own 3-digit number. In this case the number is 228, which stands for Vietnam. The next 3 digits are the car number. The ambassador’s official car is always 001 but there are no specific rules for the other numbers, and plates may be carried over from car to car. Our Toyota Crown has car number 039, which means that the license plate, when it was issued, was for the 39th car used by the Vietnamese embassy.

Toyota Cressida Is A Pretty Japanese Sedan In China

A Toyota Cressida sedan, seen on a car market in the far north of Beijing in 2019. The Toyota stood alone parked partially in some bushes and it didn’t have license plates on. Happily, it was generally in a good shape but clearly in need of a bit of work and love.

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Left-Hand-Drive Toyota Mark II in China

A left-hand-drive Toyota Mark II was Seen in Hohhot, China in 2018. It’s not an American-imported Toyota Cressida but a original Japanese Mark II(X80). The car is now missing and the original plate is seen on a Mercedes-Benz GLS. I processed the plate.

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Toyota Zelas Is A Small Japanese Sports Coupe In China

A second generation Toyota Zelas, seen in north Beijing in December 2019. The good Toyota was a bit dirty, but basically every car is dirty in the Beijing winter, when roads are covered with a dusty kind of snowy mud.

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