Wuling Dragon
The Wuling Dragon was a series of cabover microvans and kei trucks made by SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile, the Chinese joint venture with General Motors of the United States of America. The Dragon is the successor of the earlier Liuzhou Wuling LZ110, which was based on the 1977-1984 Mitsubishi Minicab.
History
Production began around 1990 after an agreement was signed with Mitsubishi to produce the 1984-1991 Mitsubishi Minicab under license, as the Liuzhou Wuling LZW 6320/6430 and LZW 1010. In 1998 the car received a facelift and became the LZW6330/6332. A seven passenger minivan called the LZW6360 was added in 2003.The engines used were originally a Daihatsu 843 cc three-cylinder and Mitsubishi's 1,061 cc 4G82 four-cylinder. Since at least 1998 the engines used are 0.8-, 1.0-, and 1.1-litre versions of the old Suzuki F8A/F10A inline fours with 35, 43, and 48 PS respectively. More recently the 1.1 has been dropped and the power of the smaller engines are increased to. Other engines have also been fitted, such as Daihatsu's 993 cc three-cylinder.
The Dragon is popular as it is of the right size for China's densely populated areas and it is cheaper than most import vehicles into China. The long wheelbase double cab pickup developed by Wuling sits on a longer wheelbase and is of overall length, considerably longer than the of the microvan version.