2008 Beijing Auto Show: B60 Civilian Jeep

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Auto Car | 2008 Beijing Auto Show: B60 Civilian Jeep | 2008 Beijing International Car Show Live Reports: The Beijing Auto Works B60 Jeep.
Originally designed jointly with Chrysler for military purposes, the Beijing Auto Works B60 looks more like a Hummer than a Jeep-derivative. Though some may scoff at the H1-cum-Wranger looks, we think they miss the cues they also "borrow" from the original Land Cruisers and Land Rovers. But hey, if it's good enough for the Chinese army it's good enough for us.

Beijing Auto Works (BAW) showed the long expected civilian version of the military BJ2036 and it is called the B60. The 2036 is the sucessor of the iconic Beijing Jeep 2023 series that was first made in joint venture with AMC/Chrysler and later by BAW alone.

The 2023 series is still in wide use in the Chinese army and has been exported to many countries around the world including to Netherlands where I am from. It may be ugly, and yes it works well, and don’t kid yourself and be ‘thankful it isn’t here’ because China is fast becoming the worlds’ third largest producer of Vehicles. We should all see this and worry or cheer – depending on your viewpoint, consumer or worker – because it means that Chinese manufacturers aren’t far off a version that is ‘better, faster, cheaper’. No question about it, China is the ‘Worlds Manufacturer‘

BAW started building the 2036 a few years ago, it's military sensitive so it's not exactly sure when, and the civilian market almost begged for them.

So here it is.

The civilian version has a 4 cilinder 2.7 liter petrol engine with 110kw and 235nm, top speed is 150km/h and 0-100km takes 23 seconds.. Not too fast but who cares, it's all about the looks and it will problably be very cheap, I think (hope) around 12.000 dollar.

I want one too, it will look nice next to my '98 Beijing Jeep Cherokee...