It’s become a well-known fact to automakers that the Chinese will gladly rip off your design and sell it in a cheaper, diluted form of their own creation. The vintage Toyota FJ40 and Land Cruiser Defender 110 are classics in their own right but a Chinese manufacturer called Fuqi apparently decided we needed a marriage of both designs and came up with the FQ2022S seen here on eBay, where the seller has listed it with an opening bid of $1,988.
The side profile reveals where the seller is getting his opinion that this is half FJ, half Defender in origin. The four door design is all Land Rover while the looks front and rear are clearly FJ-derived. Truthfully, all claims involving copyright or patent protection aside, the design looks pretty burly and tough, although the soft top is a bit clumsy-looking. Structural rigidity must be non-existent with what looks like a very small (or non-existent) B-pillar.
The seller bought this concoction many years ago but never got around to restoring it. It’s titled as a 1998 in Georgia, but is clearly much older than that; the seller pegs it around a 1980. Fortunately, it’s in a state currently where the motor vehicle bureau is fairly relaxed about the origins and status of oddballs like this, but the seller notes it did spend some time in Massachusetts where it saw enough road-use that exposure to the elements has resulted in some rust blossoming.
The seller says he doesn’t know of the origins of the 2.2L motor but guesses it may be Mazda-derived. Regardless, it doesn’t run and only one in ten mechanics has been successful in getting it to turn over. So, you’re buying a true oddball that is likely quite cheap to operate once it is operational. The seller notes the truck’s drivetrain is a “2-stick, 4-wheel drive system” that is archaic, but again, pleasingly basic as well. Anyone up for a Chinese repro FJ Defender?
The side profile reminds me of an UAZ 469
Just wondering how you pronounce that name.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
I’d like to be there when the buyer of this thing goes to his local Autozone store to ask for parts.
Say what you will about how the Chinese “will gladly rip off your design” but they also invented paper, gunpowder, coffins, printing, and quite a few other important inventions including the first-ever auto-mobile which they saw as a “toy” but nonetheless travelled under its own power using steam as a motivating force in about 1674.
That was before chairman Mao killed off anyone with an IQ of over 60.
Invented spaghetti too.
Chinese vehicles are built with NO safety standards. I’m sure build quality is non existent too
Odd that you should post that. It used to be true, in the same way as it used to be true of US cars.
Ironically, a Chinese car company, Geely now owns and has for some time owned, the’ inventor’ of the concept of automotive safety, Volvo. Purchased off Ford, who were too inept to run it properly. Geely have also bought Lotus.
Also, SAIC, (GM’s venture partner making all those Buicks in China), own MG. So a small sports car worth buying from a Chinese company that meets all crash standards and is worth buying can’t be far off.
Most states would want it to meet safely standards for the year that it was manufactured, such as safety glass etc, even if they don’t hit you first emissions issues
cool if it was a diesel but the carb on exh/intake side sez “No”.
(I hope the distributor/coil isn’t on that side too?)
This is a Beijing Jeep 2020. Thousands, made for the military, and later on some were built for civilian use. This vehicle replaced the previous Chinese military vehicle, the Chang Jiang 750 sidecar motorcycle (the bike built on 1938 BMW R71 tooling). These old Jeep 2020s have just about been culled off the streets of most Chinese cities because of pollution laws. Pretty basic transportation, and easy to work on, but you need to stay on toip of them weekly to keep them running. First one I’ve seen stateside. It very well could be a 1988 as they were still building them for civilian and military use at that time. Beijing Jeep was a joint venture with Chrysler Jeep and Beijing Jeep. One of the Chrysler executives at that time allowed me to tour the factory. Their big production was the Jeep Cherokee which were being built from knock down kits. These 2020s were being built more or less by hand. These were built off of tooling and blueprints of the Russian Jeep. No Toyota or Land Rover designs at all.
These are definitely more of a rip-off of the UAZ 469. They only thing different is the grille. I think UAZ might have tried to sue over this at one point