Yue Loong’s Taiwanese disappearing act

At the beginning of 1993, two car brands suddenly disappeared from the Dutch market: Yugo and Yue Loong. As a result of a recession or mismanagement, a car factory often closes. But this time it’s different. Both Zastava (Yugo’s parent company) and Yue Loong continue to build cars. Only now those cars no longer come our way. As a result of the Serbian role in the Balkan War, the European Union has imposed a boycott on Serbian products. The Zastava factory is located in Kragujevac, Serbia, so Yugo Nederland BV has little choice but to turn off the lights. The supply of spare parts is also drying up. Where possible, the Yugos in the Netherlands are still kept running with universal replacement parts, but ultimately they are slowly disappearing from the streets.

How different it is with the Yue Loongs, they disappear as if a large hand has swept them all away in one go. At the same time, from one day to the next there is no longer a dealership to be found anywhere. That’s quite remarkable. It’s that we still have the photos, but otherwise you might wonder if the brand really existed here. How does this work? Geert Vermeer is responsible for the great disappearing act of the Yue Loongs. At least, in 1993 he was director of Eurimpo BV, at the time the Dutch representation of the Taiwanese brand. Together with Vermeer – who resigned as chairman of the DAF Museum more than a year ago – we look back at what happened then.

Great ambitions of importer Abemy Group

The Abemy Group has previously successfully brought Datsun and Seat to the Netherlands and was making significant progress in the early 1990s with Mitsubishi and Hyundai. The trading house seems to consider a third brand from the Far East to be a nice addition to the portfolio. Not just for the Dutch market, at the Abemy Group they are looking broader this time. There is the ambition to introduce Yue Loong in several countries. First the Netherlands, which is after all the group’s home market, but then also further into Europe. This resulted in the establishment of an operating company with the name Eurimpo, which leaves little to the imagination. Yue Loong now has a foothold in Europe and the Abemy Group has a new brand.

Nothing seems to be left to chance in 1991. The Feeling will shine at the AutoRAI as early as February. Then there is talk of a network with about forty dealers (actually 26, ed.), and that should even increase to sixty a year later. The car makes a grand appearance at the Aviodome at Schiphol. The plan is to also launch the Feeling on the Belgian market in 1992 and Germany is planned for 1993. In the meantime, the media are receiving glowing press releases describing the car as ‘a tastefully styled, technically advanced and fully equipped mid-sized car that will provide its buyers with a lot of safe driving pleasure’. At Eurimpo they want to compete with the Feeling against, among others, the Opel Vectra, the Volkswagen Passat, the Mazda 626 and the Nissan Primera. And with an ‘attractive price tag that starts around 30,000 guilders’. The aim is to conquer a market share of half a percent in the Benelux within two years, and to reinforce that ambition to sell 1,000 to 1,200 cars in the Netherlands in the first year.

After we drove the first kilometers with the Yue Loong at the end of 1991, we wrote in AutoWeek that the Feeling made a dated impression and that it would not have an easy time on the Dutch market. We think the expected base price of around 30 grand is too high for what is offered. It is not very surprising that the car already seemed dated to us at the time, it is technically based on the Datsun Stanza from 1981 and the Feeling has been on the market in Taiwan for almost six years.

Early end

Despite all the great ambitions, it has not been possible to realize the high expectations. The competition is fierce and the Feeling certainly does not offer what you would expect at its hefty price. Even a drastic price reduction in May 1992 – from 28,745 to 24,995 guilders – is not enough to turn the tide. In just over a year, Yue Loong only registered 130 new Feelings. At Eurimpo – where Geert Vermeer is now at the helm – they are watching it with dismay. The future prospects are not much better. Vermeer: ​​“We encountered problems with new European emission requirements. The Feeling, with its now outdated technology from the Datsun Stanza, was equipped with a carbureted engine. There was no question of an injection system that would allow you to stay within the standards. In Taiwan they were not at all concerned with what was going on here. It therefore no longer made sense for us to continue investing, while we knew that we would no longer be allowed to supply new cars after the introduction of the new emission standards.”
The stricter emissions rules are not the only reason why Eurimpo is wondering whether they should continue with Yue Loong. “There was also uncertainty about Yue Loong’s survival. Will it remain independent? And indeed, it has changed hands and been given a new name. All in all, those were the main reasons for pulling the plug. Well, and the positioning of the car was of course wrong. If the car had been offered for just under 20,000 guilders, it might have been a completely different story.”

Reverse marketing

As an importer, you can stop doing this and return to business as usual. We know a recent example from Daihatsu. Eurimpo takes a completely different approach. Vermeer: ​​“We were also concerned with the image. That didn’t matter to Yue Loong, but it did matter to the Abemy Group. We asked ourselves: How can you take the brand off the market without causing damage? Put yourself in the customer’s situation, because you may have just bought a car like that. Our solution was to buy back all the cars sold. But yes, we did have customers who first had to explain to their family why they had bought such a Yue Loong. When they had had it for six months, they were able to explain again why they had to hand it in. Then there were the dealers. We lost some of our income from that, while shortly before that, as director, I was able to festively open a number of branches. In the meantime, we had a new brand within the Abemy Group: FSO. It was our honor to handle it in a courteous manner. In fact, it was a form of reverse marketing.”

Eurimpo buys all Yue Loongs. Will people get their money back in full, or will some depreciation be deducted? After all, the owners have been driving it for half a year or perhaps even a whole year. How does such a process work? “We had the advantage of keeping it within the Abemy Group: we could offer a different car. ‘Hand in your Yue Loong and you can get another brand from the group in return.’ In many cases this was a Hyundai, a Pony or a Lantra. Sometimes also a Mitsubishi Colt. But preference was often given – because the brand was in the same segment – to the Hyundais. That has created a lot of goodwill. They got a car in return that was certainly no worse. Especially at that time, in terms of image. Yue Loong was a bit of a difficult brand in that respect. We assumed the full new price. Not: it is already six months old and has driven 20,000 km. There was no discussion about that. No, it just went, ‘You turn it in. What did it cost? 28,000 guilders? Find something else for 28,000 guilders!’ We had to talk to all customers individually, and I even went to people’s homes, but it often went through dealers. Because that dealer wanted to keep the customer. Only how? With which car? With which brand? Hyundai was already making good progress at the time, was already a larger player and had a large stock. We used stock cars as much as possible. But you couldn’t always meet all wishes. It has led to some discussion here and there, but actually… and I am quite proud of that, even though it was quite a long time ago… that we managed to get it done without much misery and damage. Although it was a hell of a job. It has also entered into consultations with Taiwan. They have contributed a lot financially. But that doesn’t change the fact that it cost the Abemy Group a lot of money. But it was worth it, if you didn’t solve it properly it would probably have cost a lot more money. It was a short but expensive adventure: the brand was introduced at the AutoRAI in 1991 and was taken off the market at the next AutoRAI. We also invited many Yue Loong drivers to the RAI in 1993 to talk. They could immediately look at a Hyundai there.”

Export to countries where a catalyst was less necessary

Have all those returned Yue Loongs all gone through the shredder? Or put on a boat to Africa? What happened to those 130 cars? “Well, it wasn’t just those 130 cars, it was worse. We still had a whole stock in Rotterdam,” Vermeer admits. “That was also about 200 cars. All in all, quite a large amount. They all went to other countries. Let’s say, countries where a catalyst was less necessary.” Eurimpo suddenly becomes an exporter from an importer. We immediately think of Africa, but a detective found a white Feeling on a Russian forum with a Russian license plate. After zooming in, the car appears to have a Dutch dealer sticker: the Weesepoel company from Stedum. In the end, one Feeling did not return. It will be in the DAF Museum until October 1, in the exhibition ‘View of the Road in the 1990s’.

It’s a Feeling The Taiwanese car industry mainly consists of manufacturers of (light) commercial vehicles and assembly companies where cars from other Asian brands are assembled. One of the largest assemblers today is the Yulon Motor Company, known until thirty years ago as the Yue Loong Motor Company. In 1960, Yue Loong started assembling the Datsun Bluebird and more than sixty years later they were still assembling Nissans, as well as their own models. Based on Datsun Stanza technology, the Taiwanese developed a five-door hatchback that debuted in 1986 as the Yue Loong Feeling. The middle class is not making any progress in its own country, but after a year with disappointing sales figures, Yue Loong is starting to cautiously look abroad. In 1987, the Feeling was already on display in Japan at the Tokyo Motor Show and Europe was also beckoning. It will take a while, but then interest will also arise in the West, at the Dutch Abemy Group to be precise.

This article was previously published in AutoWeek Classics 6 2023.