Monthly sales of only 1 unit? Once known as the national god car, why is it "cool" now?

Mars says the car

2024-06-28 10:30Creators in the automotive field

A few days ago, when I was looking at the car sales list, I was surprised to find the name of a former national god car, that is, Santana, Santana still has a model on sale? Looking at the sales volume, the monthly sales volume is only one. I was suddenly embarrassed that Santana, who had dominated the list of Chinese auto sales for 22 consecutive years, and the original national god car, which had sold more than 6 million units, finally came to the end of his life.

This reminds me of when Santana was so popular, and the slogan "If you have Santana, you won't be afraid to go all over the world", it became a very classic car advertising slogan. At that time, having Santana also became the most typical symbol of the reform and opening up.

Looking back at the history of Santana's development in China, we can find that its rise and fall are closely related to China's development. In the early 80s of the last century, when 10,000 households were still rare, SAIC Motor had been in contact with Volkswagen, planning to introduce Volkswagen's second-generation Passat model into China for production, and in 1983, the second-generation Passat produced in the CKD way finally rolled off the assembly line and was named "Santana". The advent of Santana marks that China's automobile industry has entered a new stage of development, and has also become the initial development of the modernization of China's automobile industry.

Santana was originally used as a commercial vehicle in China, so its price was not low, the price in 1986 was more than 60,000 yuan, in 1987 it climbed to 100,000 yuan, in 1988 it reached 140,000 yuan, in 1993 the price broke through that special period, its price also reached 200,000 yuan. The high price has not stopped people from loving it. At that time, buying it also required personal favors and relationships, which was not something that ordinary people could have.

At the beginning, Santana was produced in the way of CKD, and finally ushered in complete localization in 1993 under continuous research, which is also Santana's special historical contribution, which helped China's automobile industry to establish the first weak but usable auto parts supply chain, completed the enlightenment education of China's modern automobile industry, and laid a solid foundation for the blossoming of domestic automobiles.

In 1995, the second generation of Santana was officially put into production, which is the most well-known Santana 2000, this model increased the wheelbase by 108mm, replaced with a more advanced 1.8L engine, matched with a 5-speed manual transmission, and also appeared leather seats, power windows, central locking and other luxury configurations of that era, making Poussin popular in the north and south of the river.

In 2004, the Santana 3000 was officially launched, this generation of Santana was independently developed by Shanghai Volkswagen, and the exterior design was improved on the basis of the Santana 2000, the body length was increased by 100mm, and the engine was still a 1.8L engine.

In 2007, Santana Zhijun was put into production, and the car only changed some exterior and interior designs, and there were no major changes as a whole, and in order to comply with the country's preferential policies for purchase tax, a 1.6L engine model was later introduced.

In 2012, the third-generation Santana was launched, and it can be said that the previous Santana had no blood connection, but inherited its name, because this car abandoned the Passat's platform and changed to the Polo platform, which was downgraded from the B-class car to the A-class car, and the price was also reduced to about 100,000 yuan. It's just that at this time, domestic cars have begun to rise, Japanese cars are in the ascendant, Volkswagen's own Lavida is fighting with it left and right, and Santana, which has average configuration and backward technology, has gradually fallen from a hot star in the past to a passer-by with his hands in his pocket.

Looking back on Santana's 41-year history in China, it is really impressive. The era of Santana's popularity was the reckless era in the early stage of the development of China's automobile industry, and later its loneliness, although there were problems in public decision-making, there was also the inevitability of the development of the times. We don't have to regret it too much today, its position in the history of Chinese automobiles is indelible.

View original image 429K

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•