same wheel fitment haha

 

I'll give you a clue, this is from their website (Google translated):

"F99 Mustang vehicle from the British Rover technology Operation , the Mustang car Rover vehicle technology production line, the chassis is a pure British original , British reliability and stability is excellent."

 

Not sure about a MGR link, but another question would be did they pay for the old Subaru Forester body moulds or just copied them. Didn't even try to make it look any different!

 

I was gonna say that. Similar move to the one Galloper pulled copying Mitsubishi old model Montero/Pajero and Space Star.


They were also building the old Citroën ZX not long ago.

 

Out on a limb here, and may be wrong considering that you are asking for MG-Rover link, but is it in any way based on the Montego?

 

Sorry - I said Montego, but it could be Maestro looking at the size of it...

 

Looks like Howard's got it: "The F99 is running on the Austin Montego chassis".

 

Congratulations Howard - its actually a Maestro Van under there...! Just goes to show exactly how far a chassis can be made to go...

 

All yours for just 70,000.00 yen or about £6,500.

 

Think I would just go for an old Maestro Van personally.

Hasn't the tooling for the Maestro/Montego been passed between 3 or 4 Chinese car makers or something stupid like that? Makes you wonder what shape the machinery is in...

 

I posted a thread about this months ago......

http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=359934

The chinese company are building various permeatations on the Maestro/Montego chassis.

 

makes me wonder why there aint an old Rover out to compete with that tata Nano thing! Surely an older CAR would be safer than that buggy!

 

What it does say to me is that Austin-Rover should have developed the Maestro and Montego rather than leaving them to solidier on. It was obviously a versatile platform and much more could have been made of it

 

Absolutely! If the Jaguar XF has proven one thing, it's that you can keep an old platform going for years if you do a good enough job of keeping the bodywork looking fresh..!

 

This is the larger montego based SUV they are also building in China

And this is there update on the original Montego estate. Looks dated now of course but if you imagine this car being launched as the Montego Mk2 in about 1989 it could have done well

 

And this is there update on the original Montego estate. Looks dated now of course but if you imagine this car being launched as the Montego Mk2 in about 1989 it could have done well

Daewoo Nubira front lights, montego/maestro chassis and doors and a front grille wanting to look like VW Passat, or as they call it over there: VW Magotan.

 

Looks like Rover 200/25 suspension to me lol

 

Why do they make cars soooo ugly.
Would it have killed them to make it even slightly less garish?

 

The Montego based one looks ugly because it's a clash of styles. Imagine if you took 1980s clothing and tried to make it look like contemporary stuff but all you could do was change the buttons!

For what its worth Yema Automotive, which makes these cars, has a capcity of 10,000 a year at its Sichuan province plant but currently makes just 700 a year. That suggests a dubious future for this backwater manufacturer, and the likely death (at last) of the Maestro and Montego.

Even in China there is no need to use 80s technology any more. The new Bao Jun marque (3 way JV between SAIC, GM and Wuling Automotive) will soon undercut these Maestro and Montego based vehicles with cars based on immediate last generation Opel platforms. The SAIC/GM/Wuling Automotive JV sold 1.4 million cars last year - so manufacturers like Yema with a mere 700 cannot survive.

 

The Montego based one looks ugly because it's a clash of styles. Imagine if you took 1980s clothing and tried to make it look like contemporary stuff but all you could do was change the buttons!

For what its worth Yema Automotive, which makes these cars, has a capcity of 10,000 a year at its Sichuan province plant but currently makes just 700 a year. That suggests a dubious future for this backwater manufacturer, and the likely death (at last) of the Maestro and Montego.

Even in China there is no need to use 80s technology any more. The new Bao Jun marque (3 way JV between SAIC, GM and Wuling Automotive) will soon undercut these Maestro and Montego based vehicles with cars based on immediate last generation Opel platforms. The SAIC/GM/Wuling Automotive JV sold 1.4 million cars last year - so manufacturers like Yema with a mere 700 cannot survive.

There is a bit of difference between the locations of the Yema and Bao Jun factories though, maybe like the difference between building cars in Germany and South Africa? There is also still a market for very cheap cars over in the West. Seems likely that this will be the last stop for the old Maestro production lines though, it will probably be destroyed in a few years time by an earthquake!

 

The Bao Jun will be cost cutting on materials, the Yema will be cost cutting on labour/machinary, I wouldn't be too suprised if the Yema turned out to be the nicer car, if a bit rough around the edges!

It may only be 1250km but Nanjing and Shanghai have been trading with the west for centuries whereas a significant proportion of the Sichuan population will never have seen a western person, I would assume that Yema's saleries are tiny compared to SAICs?