When China ripped off the VN Commodore

Iain Kelly
Contributing Journalist
22 Dec 2017
1 min read

What many credit as the pinnacle of Aussie bogan car lore, the VN Commodore is almost a national treasure.

But did you know that China had their own version, built in left-hand drive by the Beijing Second Auto Work (Beilv) and called the BJ6490.

The Chinese Commodore needed lifted suspension for rural roads (image credit: chinacarhistory.com)
The Chinese Commodore needed lifted suspension for rural roads (image credit: chinacarhistory.com)

It was released in 1988, with lifted suspension to handle the super-rough rural Chinese roads and a Chinese-designed 2.2-litre four-cylinder.

Nice badge. (image credit: chinacarhistory.com)
Nice badge. (image credit: chinacarhistory.com)

Very little is known about how the VN ended up in China, or how many were sold, or when it ended production. Interestingly, it was confirmed there were electric and hybrid variants shown even back in the day!

Unmistakably still a Commodore though... (image credit: chinacarhistory.com)
Unmistakably still a Commodore though... (image credit: chinacarhistory.com)

Iain Kelly is the VN SS-loving fiend behind www.TheCreatorsOnline.com.

Would you rock a Chinese 2.2-litre VN with a lift-kit? Tell us in the comments.

Iain Kelly
Contributing Journalist
A love of classic American and European cars drove Iain Kelly to motoring journalism straight out of high school, via the ownership of a tired 1975 HJ Holden Monaro.  For nearly 20 years he has worked on magazines and websites catering to modified late model high-performance Japanese and European tuner cars, as well as traditional hot rods, muscle cars and street machines. Some of these titles include Auto Salon, LSX Tuner, MOTOR, Forged, Freestyle Rides, Roadkill, SPEED, and Street Machine. He counts his trip to the USA to help build Mighty Car Mods’ “Subarute” along with co-authoring their recent book, The Cars of Mighty Car Mods, among his career highlights.  Iain lends his expertise to CarsGuide for a variety of advice projects, along with legitimising his automotive obsession with regular OverSteer contributions. Although his practical skills working on cars is nearly all self-taught, he still loves nothing more than spending quality time in the shed working on his project car, a 1964 Pontiac. He also admits to also having an addiction to E30 BMWs and Subaru Liberty RS Turbos, both of which he has had multiple examples of. With car choices like that, at least his mum thinks he is cool.
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