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Beijing '08 Preview: Roewe 550 sedan spied at commercial shoot
by Alex Nunez on Mar 27th 2008 at 12:32PM 
Click image for a gallery of the Roewe 550 sedan
SAIC's Rowe brand (nee Rover) is set to formally unveil its new 550 sedan in Beijing next month. The sedan's styling is very mainstream save for its unfortunate front fascia. Those undersized, oddly-shaped headlights just seem very out of place. That said, it's not as if we're the target market, and it's likely to be one of the more important Beijing Motor Show debuts. According to China Car Times, the 550 will be powered by the same 1.8L turbo found under the hood of the Roewe 750 (the re-engineered Rover 75). We'll have more photos and additional details via the crew at Autoblog Chinese when the car is unveiled next month.
Gallery: Roewe 550
[Sources: XCAR, China Car Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Biomech 12:41PM (3/27/2008)
What's that rear end reminding me of, someone help me out here. It seems so familiar.
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Seminole 12:42PM (3/27/2008)
Hyundai Elantra
Biomech 12:45PM (3/27/2008)
Ahh Elantra, that's it. Lol, thanks.
tanooki2003 10:06AM (3/28/2008)
My wife owns an 07 Elantra and this looks nothing like an Elantra of any given year.
Matt Nelson 12:45PM (3/27/2008)
I see a Jetta/Corolla thing going on. Call me crazy, but I kind of like the grill. Plus, I am sick of OVERSIZED headlights. The rear view is not bad either.
For the Chinese market this is pretty good. I was in China in the Fall of 2006 and there were a lot worse looking cars.
Matt
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LoneWolf 12:49PM (3/27/2008)
Finally a chinese car that you don't recognize as chinese in the first seconds ;)
The overall design isn't exciting, but the front is refreshing clean.
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stang_fan 1:04PM (3/27/2008)
"....undersized, oddly-shaped headlights", a criticism that could be leveled at several cars on the world's roads. The only truly "odd" thing about the headlights, that I can see, is that they don't quite match up to the grille. It looks like someone styled the headlights, and they had no clue as to what the grille's dimensions were going to be.
If I remember right, the Rover 55 was about the size of a 4th gen Accord (90 to 93 in the U.S.) or else the size of a mid '90s Civic. As a "do-over" not too bad an effort, but not that great either.
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Jonathan 1:49PM (3/27/2008)
The Rover 45 was essentially a Civic since it was a restyled Rover 400 which was a result of Rover's relationship with Honda.
Dan 1:01PM (3/27/2008)
They should have called it the Veedubaltimazda. In China, auto designers only need three things... scissors, glue, and a car magazine.
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Ligor 1:04PM (3/27/2008)
lmao
ain't that true
cirquo 1:07PM (3/27/2008)
Okay, and over here you have my VW Passat, WTF!! what happened to it!!
tomiii 1:19PM (3/27/2008)
To Biomech: I think there's a tad of the nouvelle Citroen C5 in the hindquarters...
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tio 1:35PM (3/27/2008)
I think thats the first Chinese car i've actually liked.
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jon igielnik 1:25PM (3/27/2008)
god... those sebring headlights...
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tomy 2:11PM (3/27/2008)
not awful--they have really kicked it up a notch. the nose is neat in an alfa kinda way.
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RidinLow 2:12PM (3/27/2008)
Never thought I'd say this about a Chinese car, but the front end actually looks kinda neat. It's not a complete ripoff of any one particular car, but it manages to not be horrific at the same time.
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Richard S. 2:43PM (3/27/2008)
Not saying that I like it, but between this the and the Chrysler Sebring, I think I would go for the Chinese car.
What the heck happened to Chrysler, when some Chinese car-company comes out with some concoction named Roewe and it turns out better than Chrysler's own product? Is it time for the Chrysler Sebring design team drink the poisoned kool-aid in a final group suicide?
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Malhaar 3:26PM (3/27/2008)
ok is it me, or does that thing look like a VW Passat from the front, and a Hyundai Elantra in the back!
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pscs 3:28PM (3/27/2008)
"oddly-shaped headlights just seem very out of place"
duh, they're supposed to be put at phone booths. at least this time there's some original designs coming from the chinese car designers.
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pscs 3:32PM (3/27/2008)
oh, btw, I only meant the headlights that were original.
the rear looks like the Nissan Bluebird, front bumper looks like VW Passat. Grille a bit Skoda.