While jostling with what seemed like all of the billion-plus people of China in the tight halls of the 2014 Beijing auto show, we came across this gloriously preserved early jeep. Except this jeep ain’t from Toledo—and it isn’t an uppercase-J Jeep. Instead, it’s from a Chinese company called Changan that claims this is China’s first jeep.
Production of the Chinese jeep—which was sold under the Yangtze brand—started in May 1958 and it provided the nation’s military with a lightweight, go-anywhere vehicle capable of carrying six men. According to Changan, the jeep featured a “2.19-liter” four-cylinder engine, a top speed of 71 mph, and could tackle 30-degree slopes.
While the Yangtze looks more or less identical to a jeep of the same era, one notable difference between it and the U.S. jeep is the Red Star stamped into the doors. Seeing as how there were more than a few American jeeps involved in ’50s and ’60s conflicts with Communist regimes, we understand that many will find this mongrel difficult to digest. Don’t worry—perhaps because the Changan’s stylish whitewall tires were deemed too decadent by Dear Leader—the Yangtze went out of production after just five years and 1390 units in 1963.
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As Changan puts it, after the jeep was phased out, company resources were invested into “the development of different automotive vehicles in accordance with the needs of the nation.” Apparently none of those efforts were deemed worthy of mention—or happened at all, because if a nearby plaque detailing Changan’s history is accurate, the company’s next car didn’t come along until 1984.
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