Just keep delivering
In car land, very different stories take place elsewhere in the world than here. Sometimes those stories are short and uninteresting, but you can write a small chronicle about the Ford Transit adventure in China. We’re not going to do that, but we’ll dive into the second facelifted Transit in a short time. This is the JMC Fushun, a car that, as you might have expected, isn’t all that new.
Recently AutoWeek was able to show you the first photos of a facelifted version of the outgoing generation Ford Transit for the umpteenth time. That refurbished variant will not come to Europe, as Ford will be launching an entirely new generation Transit here in the course of 2023. The outgoing Transit generation is allowed by the Chinese producer Jiangling Motors Corporation for a while, but it is by no means the only Ford Transit that has a long life.
The Ford Transit in these photos is the JMC Fushun. We are dealing with a previous generation Transit as it was introduced in Europe in 2000. Here the Transit was facelifted in 2006 and with a similar front, the Transit rolled off the production line in China until recently. Although JMC of that ‘2006 Transit’ also sells a facelifted version since 2011 as Transit New Era Pro (photos 10 and 11), the Fushun that this article revolves around will replace the ‘2006 version’. A third facelift for an in fact 22 year old model.
The Transit Fushun thus comes next to this New Era Pro, in fact a facelifted version of the second generation Transit for the second time.
The Fushun gets a relatively sober front with a huge grille and modest rectangular headlights on both sides. In addition, JMC gives the Fushun a completely revised dashboard. The JMC Fushun always has a 143 hp 2.0 diesel engine under the hood. Shifting is done with a six-speed manual transmission. The Fushun is available in various lengths. The shortest variant is 4.95 meters long, the largest extends over a distance of – except for a few mm – 6 meters. Among other things, air conditioning and a driver airbag are standard.
More Transit madness? Secure. JMC and Ford also sell a modernized second-generation Ford Transit across their brands in China in the form of the Teshun. Indeed, the model introduced in Europe already in 1986 (photo 6 and 7). In addition, JMC still sells the pre-facelift version of the outgoing Transit generation in China as New Transit (photos 8 and 9). Confusing? Secure. JMC and Ford do match. JMC not only builds old Transits under license, but has also had a joint venture with Ford since 2013: Jiangling Ford Motor Technology Company. Ford has a 49 percent share in this, the remaining 51 percent is owned by JMC. The partnership is building the Equator, Equator Sport, Everest and Territory in China, among others.
.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl