"Non-mainstream" means something that is opposed to the mainstream, so it is usually a very niche existence. The 11 extremely niche used cars introduced in this article are typical non-mainstream representatives of the automotive field. Due to their unique product positioning, short sales time and low ownership, they are not only extremely cost-effective, but also an excellent choice for fans to show their personality!
Siyat Ibiza
Around 2011, the Volkswagen Group reached its peak in China, both in terms of word-of-mouth and brand premium. Perhaps it is how to play the cards in the hand and how to win, and how to feel the "invincibility is lonely", so the Volkswagen Group has introduced the slightly sportier Seat brand on the basis of the slightly lower positioning of Skoda in China, and intends to produce it domestically at the FOSHAN plant of FAW-Volkswagen. However, in order to avoid the potential risk of the new brand rushing to domestic production, Volkswagen decided to test the waters through imports first. So in 2012, Volkswagen introduced the LEON compact car under the SEAT brand, and in the following year or so, Ibiza and Ou Yuebo were introduced successively.
2011 Leon
Among them, Seat Leon is very familiar to everyone, it is the sixth generation of golf with a shell, but because this car sold a lot of units at that time, it will naturally not be included in the niche list of this article. Although Seat Ou Yue bo, which is the shell of volkswagen Sharon, is niche enough, it is now extinct in the second-hand car market due to the excessive niche. You know, the purpose of this article is to let people who like niche cars can buy their favorite models, so today I want to introduce you to the shell Volkswagen Polo's ibiza!
2013 Ibiza
Compared with the domestic Polo, this imported Ibiza as a shell-changing Polo first gave full sincerity in terms of power. It should be known that the strongest power version of the domestic Polo in the same period is the Polo GTI model that uses a 131 horsepower 1.4T low-power engine. In addition to the lowest model using a 1.2T engine of 105 hp, the remaining three models use a 150 hp 1.4T dual supercharged engine and match the Volkswagen Kanjia's 7-speed dry dual clutch transmission. Under such power, this car with a length of only 4 meters can finally run a hundred-second performance of 8 seconds, which is 1 second faster than the domestic Polo GTI!
In addition to power, this hulled Polo also has more comfort than the domestic Polo GTI, such as sports leather seats with seat heating, automatic xenon low beams, automatic wipers and automatic anti-glare rearview mirrors. At this time, coupled with its import status, this shell Polo was listed in 2013 with a starting price of 149,800, and the 1.4T twin-turbo version sold for 18.38-188,800! Niche brands + pricing that poor people can't afford, old friends who pay attention to the radish report should be able to guess the end of this car...
Top: 3 Door Edition / Bottom: Travel Edition
But there is a law that everyone knows, the less popular the new car market, the better the value for money when buying a used car. And Siti Ibiza due to a very niche relationship, so the current 1.4T twin-turbo version of the second-hand car price, directly than the same year "zero hundred acceleration" 1 second slower Polo GTI is 10,000 pieces cheaper, only 4, 50,000 yuan can be done! What's even more surprising is that this authentic European car introduced two niche models in addition to the regular 5-door version that year! Coupled with Seat's niche brand + import identity, that forced grid is really full in an instant!
Like the Seat above, toyota Jieluchi is also a model that came to China through imports around 2010. But unlike Siyat Ibiza, the Toyota Gerlub is much more well-known, because this car once appeared in the Need for Speed under the name of The Lion tC. So if you've ever played Need for Speed 13 or 15, you're sure to have an impression of how the car looks. In addition, the popularity of the Toyota Logo of the gerluch head does not know how many orders of magnitude higher than the Spanish brand such as Seat.
Like today's imported Toyota cars, the original imported Jieluchi was not cheap at that time, reaching a high of 250,000. What is even more embarrassing is that the chassis of this car is inextricably linked to the previous generation of Corolla, and it is likely that it will be understood by others that you spent a high price of 250,000 yuan, but only bought a 2-door 5-seat Corolla... However, the reason why the price of the Gerluch is so high is actually forgivable, because this coupe uses a 2.5-liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from the Camry, resulting in it having 178 horsepower, but also paying 4% more than the 2.0L model, about 20,000 pieces of "displacement tax". In addition, the import tariff was still 25% in that year, unlike it is now reduced to 15%.
It is precisely because of the high price that the 2.5L Corolla has not been able to save its poor sales even if it has a 7.6-second hundred-and-hundred-second performance and a sports car-like body shape. Nowadays, the price of this imported Jieluchi used car is only 70,000-80,000, and it should be known that the domestic Camry at the same time and at the same price can now sell for 100,000 pieces! In other words, Gerloch is not a Toyota with a high retention rate. But if you are pursuing niche personalities while also hoping to reap reliability and low post-maintenance costs, then Gerluch is indeed a good choice!
In addition to Toyota Gerroch, Kia also launched Freddy's two-door Coupe version of the same period in 2010, Sumai. The car was born because Hyundai Group has always wanted to differentiate its Hyundai and Kia brands. Among them, Hyundai focuses on home use, and Kia will be more sporty, so it will launch the Coupe version of the model on the basis of the compact car Freddy, and import it into the Chinese market to emphasize Kia's sporty genes.
However, compared to toyota Jieluchi's 2.5-liter engine and 6AT transmission, the power of Sumai is more crotch-pulling, this car only provides a 124-horsepower 1.6L engine and a 156-horsepower 2.0L engine, and the gearbox is only available from the old 4AT, which was priced at about 180,000 at the time. 12 years later, whether it is the 1.6L or 2.0L models of that year, the second-hand price of the 2010 Sumai model has come to the range of 50,000 or 60,000. Since it is not much cheaper than the above Gerluch, the value for money is not very good.
2014 Model Speed
However, in addition to the first generation of Sumai based on Freddy, Kia also launched a second generation of Sumai based on the then Kia K3 in 2014. This car not only looks more like a new era model, but also has a relatively large upgrade in power. The previously weak 1.6L engine was eliminated, while the power of the 2.0L self-priming engine was also increased to 160 horsepower. More critically, Kia also added the same 204 hp 1.6T engine of Hyundai Phase One to this car, and the gearbox of the entire series has been upgraded to a more mainstream, easy-to-use 6AT. With the blessing of 1.6T, the second generation of Sumai has the ability to accelerate by 7.6 seconds to break 100, but the price of second-hand cars has also come to about 80,000 yuan.
Before 2017, the German brand Opel had not been sold to PSA by General Motors. Therefore, around 2010, Opel also took advantage of GM's deep cultivation in China for many years and introduced some models. These include Opel Astra, which shares the platform with Buick Yinglang, Opel Inzoa, which shares the platform with Buick Regal, and Opel Andra, a shell changer car from Chevrolet Copache. Although their sales are already non-mainstream enough, if there is a real niche, it is this compact MPV that was launched in 2013 - Opel Mrenel!
In addition to being niche enough, the reason why Opel Merena can enter our recommended ranks is definitely inseparable from its unique design. From the above figure, we can see that Mureyner, as a compact MPV, does not use the common form of door opening at this level, and does not use side sliding doors like the Mazda 5, which is also a compact MPV, but uses the same rolls-royce double door design, which is very rare in the entire automotive market! This is definitely an outlier in MPV!
In terms of power, Opel Milena is equipped with a 120-horsepower 1.4T engine mated to a 6AT gearbox, so its power will not be particularly outstanding. As for the price, the imported Merina listed in 2013 was priced at 195,000-215,000 yuan, which was about 30,000 yuan more expensive than the imported Mazda 5 in the same period. However, as an MPV with a length of less than 4.3 meters, Opel Mureyner's space is still very good, and passengers of 1.76 meters can have about 2 punches of rear leg allowance, which is still very rare for GM, which has always been good at negative space optimization. At present, the price of second-hand Mureyner is about 60,000 yuan, considering that it has the same rolls-Royce double door design, so it is still relatively cost-effective.
In addition to Opel Mureyner, there is a very niche MPV in the current used car market, which is the Toyota Wish. However, unlike the above models, the Toyota Wish was not officially listed in Chinese mainland, and Toyota only tested the waters at the end of 2010 through small-batch introduction, so it is difficult for you to find traces of this car being sold in China in official channels. It should be noted that the Toyota Wish is not an "imported model" in the traditional sense, because its real production place is not Japan or the United States, but the mainland's Taiwan Province.
Although Wish's import status is not so genuine, it originated from the Corolla chassis, produced by Toyota, and is destined to achieve something in terms of functionality. As a compact MPV with a length of less than 4.6 meters, the third row of the Wish is not spacious, but it is also completely normal for petite women or children. At the same time, the floor design of the main passenger seat also gives Wish a strong Japanese MPV atmosphere. More critically, Wish's second and third rows of seats fit perfectly into the floor to form a flat surface, which is too convenient for pulling large items at home. It is precisely because of the practicality of space that the Wish has also become a representative model of taxis in Taiwan Province.
Taiwan Province Wish Taxi
In terms of power system, The Wish, which is positioned as a home grocery buyer, is equipped with a 158-horsepower 2.0L engine and matches the CVT gearbox, although it is not powerful, but it is not a problem to meet daily use. In 2010, Toyota Wish's new car in the mainland market was priced at 278,000 yuan, and now the second-hand price of this "bull's head" MPV still needs about 110,000 yuan. Considering that this Toyota car is much less worry-free than the previous Opel Mrenel in later use, the price of 110,000 is not unacceptable.
In addition to the above-mentioned Gerluch and Wish, Toyota also introduced a batch of Venzas in 2013, that is, Weisa. However, unlike the new Wesa, which will soon be domestically produced and adopts the RAV4 chassis, this imported version of Wesa, which was born in 2008, is based on the 6th generation Camry chassis. Considering that the 6th-generation Camry and the 2nd-generation Highlander were also models with the same chassis, you can also understand this generation of Wesa as the Highlander's 5-seater sports version! This positioning is somewhat similar to the current Honda Crown Road.
Therefore, in terms of space, the imported Weisa is obviously larger than today's new domestic Weisa. This can also be seen from the wheelbase, of which the wheelbase of this generation of imported Weisa is 2775mm, the wheelbase of the 6th generation Camry in the same period is also 2775mm, and the new Wesa of GAC Toyota, which has just been listed, is 2690mm.
It is precisely because Wesa and camry and Highlander at that time had the same chassis platform, so in terms of power, Wesa is also exactly the same as Highlander, that is, equipped with a 185-horsepower 2.7L four-cylinder engine, matching the 6AT gearbox. However, this also leads to its power performance will not be too far from the 2.7L Highlander, and the time to break the hundred can only be 9.84 seconds.
The reason why Toyota Wesa did not become a hit like highlander was mainly because the price of this car was too expensive at that time. Compared with the price of 27-330,000 yuan in the same period of 2.7L Highlander, the price of imported Weisa directly came to the range of 330,000-410,000. Naturally, there is no reason for consumers to spend more money to buy a leather-swapped Highlander without a third row of seats. However, in today's second-hand car market, perhaps because Weisa is relatively niche, coupled with the limitations of the five-seat layout, the price of Weisa's second-hand car has squeezed out the moisture of the added value of imported cars, and the same domestic Highlander price in the same period is currently around 150,000.
I have to admit that 2010-2013 was really the peak of China's niche imported cars, because even a less "popular" brand like Renault imported a medium-sized and large car that many people had not heard of in 2012 - Talisman. But in fact, this "French car" with the Renault logo has nothing to do with the French style, because its real identity is actually the fifth-generation Nissan Tianlai with an extended wheelbase of 37mm. And as an imported car, Talisman's production place is not France, but South Korea, which is across the sea from us.
In addition to the chassis being the same as the Tianlai, Talisman also used the same engine as The Tianlai, which provided a 190-horsepower 2.5L V6 VQ25 engine and a 258-horsepower 3.5L VQ35 engine, depending on the configuration. Thankfully, the gearbox of this car does not use Nissan's CVT, but carries a 6AT from Getrag, and the owners of the car are envious and crying!
As for why this car is niche, in addition to the French brand with its own niche attributes, it is also inseparable from its high price. As a shell changer, Talisman sold for 320,000-490,000 yuan in 2012! It is 100,000 yuan more expensive than the V6 tianlai of the same period! Of course, the end of this kind of death pricing is naturally that no one cares, so this car has withdrawn from the Chinese market in only two years. However, such a niche brand, coupled with the reputation of the current collapse of the French system, has also allowed Talisman to hand over a very attractive price for used cars, and a 2.5L V6 model that is less than 10 years old only needs 60,000-80,000 yuan to have!
The second generation of Laguna
Compared with Talisman, which only entered the country in 2012, the handsome medium-sized coupe - the second generation of Renault Laguna has been imported and sold in the Chinese market as early as 2004. The price of this car at that time was 260,000-350,000 yuan, which was about 50,000 yuan more expensive than the domestic Volkswagen Passat, and considering its status as an imported coupe, this price was not exaggerated. Coupled with the fact that the Chinese car market was in an era when there were not many models to choose from, the sales of Renault Laguna were not bad, which also gave Renault the courage to import the third generation of models.
The third generation of Laguna
In 2009, Renault imported the third generation of Laguna into the Chinese market, and this generation of models still adopts a short trunk design, but the coupe style has been reduced compared to the previous generation. In addition, the third-generation model also upgraded the chassis and power, and the chassis was replaced by the Renault-Nissan D platform like the Talisman above. In terms of power, from the mainstream 136 horsepower 2.0L self-priming of the previous generation, it was upgraded to a full range of 170 horsepower 2.0T engines, and the gearbox was upgraded from the old 4AT to 6AT, and the price range was also reduced to 260,000-290,000 yuan.
Third generation Laguna Coupe
However, around 2010, the Chinese car market has long been full of flowers, and countless joint venture mid-size cars have been inseparable, so this less famous French mid-size car has been submerged in the red sea of joint venture mid-size cars led by Volkswagen Maiteng and Passat. In order to break the deadlock, Renault also brought the Coupe version of Laguna to China in November 2011, but the price also rose directly to the 370,000 that discouraged people. Not long after that, Laguna completely withdrew from the Chinese market. At present, the number of existing cars is not much, and the price of the third-generation model is generally around 60,000 yuan. The coupe version of the model, because the year is slightly newer, and the original car price is slightly more expensive, so the price is about 80,000 yuan.
Although the above cars are niche, they should still be heard of for hardcore car fans. However, this Kia brand of Jirui is a car, I am afraid that no one knows, so let's first popularize its life. In 2016, in order to keep up with the global trend of energy conservation and emission reduction, Kia released its first high-efficiency hybrid model- Jirui. At the same time, Kia also followed the global SUV boom and designed Jirui into a compact SUV. Unlike most hybrid vehicles derived from pure fuel vehicles, Jirui was developed from the beginning of research and development with the standard of oil-electric hybrid. Therefore, in addition to the introduction of the domestic gasoline-electric hybrid version, Jirui in overseas markets also provides PHEV plug-in hybrid and EV pure electric optional, but there is no pure gasoline version.
Since Jirui was the first time Kia had produced a HEV unplugged hybrid, they did not adopt the complex structure of a dual-motor planetary gear set like the Toyota THS, but instead used a very simple single-motor structure. Among them, the engine is a 1.6L Atkinson cycle self-priming engine, with a maximum power of 105 horsepower, a maximum torque of 147N·m, and a thermal efficiency of 40%; the motor is located between the engine and the gearbox, with a maximum power of 44 horsepower and a maximum torque of 170N·m; behind the motor is a 6-speed dry dual-clutch transmission, and there is also a lithium battery pack with a capacity of 1.56 kWh to store electrical energy. This simple structure not only has low development and tuning costs, but also provides drivers with driving pleasure comparable to pure fuel vehicles due to the existence of a 6-speed dual-clutch transmission. More importantly, this simple hybrid system also performed well in terms of fuel consumption, and the fuel consumption of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was only 4.2L per 100 kilometers, which was exactly the same as the Corolla dual engine in the same period.
In addition, Kia Jirui, as a model imported from South Korea, did not significantly raise prices after coming to China in 2017 because of the problem of excessive tariffs, and the price of low-end models was only 151,800, and even the top model was only 193,800, which was similar to the starting price of about 150,000 yuan in South Korea. Unfortunately, after the domestic listing of Jirui, the Koreans did not make any publicity for this car, and at that time, it also caught up with the political problems of China and South Korea, so this imported hybrid car with excellent cost performance was delisted after 2 years of listing. However, due to its excellent fuel consumption and excellent product quality, even after 5 years, today's second-hand Jirui can still sell about 100,000 pieces!
Looking at the above, it can be found that most of these niche cars are mostly French and Korean cars, but in fact, for Chinese, the Italian car series is the smallest crowd! In addition to Ferrari and Lamborniki, which even the old lady on the side of the road knows, the essence of the Italian car is actually in the field of small cars, and the smaller it is, the more representative it is, such as the world-famous mini car - Fiat 500. However, although the sales of the Fiat 500 are very low, the high popularity is also doomed to be not niche enough, so the model we want to recommend today is another small car from Fiat - Punta.
In 2008, the year after NANC and Fiat separated due to their different business philosophies, Fiat decided to cultivate the then-uncomplicated Chinese car market and import the third generation of Ponta, which had just been released overseas, into the country for sale. Although this small car used only a 1.4L engine like the Polo at that time, and the power was only 95 horsepower, due to the standard 6-speed manual transmission of the whole series, coupled with the Italian car's consistently excellent handling tuning, the driving pleasure of this small car was not bad at all. However, due to its status as an imported car, it also led to its price of 148,880-166,600 yuan, which was 60,000 yuan more expensive than the Polo in the same period! Coupled with the fact that the whole series only provides manual transmissions, it is also doomed to be a toy for a few people. Taking a big city like Beijing as an example, there are only 3 Pengduo vehicles that are known to be legal on the road, and its second-hand car price is as low as 15,000-20,000 yuan!
The first generation of yinsette
For hybrids, the most well-known model should be the Toyota Prius born in 1997. But in fact, Honda also launched its own hybrid model Insight in 1999, and this car also landed in the US market before the Toyota Prius. The original Insight's bizarre body shape was a product of complete aerodynamics, and it also helped Insight achieve the ultra-low air resistance figure of 0.25Cd in the production car of the year. Although the car can achieve a comprehensive fuel consumption of 4.4L/100km under the EPA test in the United States, due to the small internal space, sales were very dismal, and finally discontinued in 2006.
In 2009, Honda launched the second generation of Insight in the United States, and the whole car changed the shortcomings of the small space of the original model, even larger than the third-generation Prius released in the same year, and also changed to a 5-door design.
Top: Prius / Bottom: Insight
But anyone with a discerning eye can find that this car looks too similar to the Toyota Prius... Coupled with the fact that Insight's 1.3L four-cylinder engine + electric motor is less powerful than that of the Prius using a 1.8L engine, and the fuel consumption is not as low as that of the Prius, it is naturally difficult to get the favor of American consumers. So in 2012, Honda introduced it to China through imports, priced at 209,800 yuan, which was 20,000 yuan cheaper than faw Toyota's third-generation Prius in the same period. However, because toyota Prius introduced the second-generation Prius into China as early as 2005, so that Chinese consumers formed the inherent concept of "hybrid car = Prius", Honda Insight was naturally snubbed. What's more, the Toyota Prius is not bought by many people at all... Nowadays, Insight's second-hand price in China is generally around 80,000 yuan, considering its price of more than 200,000 yuan that year, it can be said that Insight is one of the least value-preserving players under the Honda brand.
Through the above, we can find that the above 11 niche cars came to China in the same year, basically around 2010. So when I finished writing this niche car recommendation, I realized how full of flowers the Chinese car market used to be, and it was not as homogeneous as it is now! So, if you also like niche cars or miss that era, you might as well grab a souvenir!