One of our members found a rare and calming everyday video CD via the VW Santana in a Chinese flea market

When was the last time you were at a flea market? I mean a real, real flea market from flea market? I have the feeling that it was too long for me. Some of the why I think I can still see parts of the floor in my basement office/workshop that are currently not covered by auto parts or a 40-year computer or video game console. This is a problem that can address flea markets quite well. There is also the fact that one of our autopian members who has the name Dogapult (who once also sent me a fantastic T-shirt from Madagascar's best carmaker) found a remarkable video CD in a Chinese flea market and shared them on my discord. This video CD (the format itself is interesting, we will come to this) is a kind of Shanghai Volkswagen-Promo/Intro video for the Santana 2000 GSI, which is even a second generation of the second generation about VW Brazil.

The whole strange life after the death of these outdated passengers in China is quite fascinating; In many ways, China's production of VW Santanas became a template and helped build the basics for the entire entire auto industry in China. They started building Santanas from CKD kits in 1983 and built 10,000 of them until 1986, with the percentage part of the local parts of 6%of them. Until 1995, the percentage was 89%, which was due to the rapid growth of Chinese car partner companies, which was stimulated by the desire to do as much as possible in China.

The Santana has been updated several times and still on the same basic B2 Passat platform, which began in 1981. The Brazilian variant with which the Chinese Santana was produced was then modified by Shangai-VW in 1991. He received a longer wheelbase and a wider back doors, changes, which they also made a popular selection for taxis. This new Santana was called Santana 2000 and it is a version of this complete car with a 1.8-liter engine motor, which does 99 hp, on which everything deals in this video.

So this video: Dogapult mentions that he found it on a VCD. This is a video compact discount – does someone remember this format? It started in 1993 and was a way to save about 74 minutes of video on a regular CD. It used the new MPEG 1 coding format at the time and was more popular in Asia and some development nations. Finally it was switched off because descriptive CD burners made piracy too easy and the DVD and Blu-ray formats finally replaced them with better video quality and the opportunity to save longer films. So that's just a kind of strange artifact of time for itself!

[Ed note: I still have a sleeve of VCDs of the show ‘Sports Night’ somewhere. – MH]

Here is what Dogapult had to say about his score:

I have a pleasure for you. I bought a VCD in China at a flea market. It was an introduction to the VW Santana 2000 GSI. I admit that I used some AI here, but transcribed it into mandarin and then translated into English.

It is possible that there is another copy of this video online, but I would be surprised if there was another one translated one. And that's a big deal, because you want every shade of this 20-minute video of a very patient man in a suit who researches every centimeter and feature of this Santana 2000 GSI.

Here you go on and take a look at yourself. It is a kind of strange calming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unx_xvrznee

It's not one exciting Video, but it has the same attraction as much of Motorweek Episodes have with a silent person who presses every button, pulls every lever and turns every button in a car.

There are also exciting sections such as the wheel and the tire that luxuries in a grass scene:

… and press the exciting subplot with the window lock button:

… and then there is only a good driving material that shows what in my opinion a cityscape with poorer pollution is than China has today:

It is a fascinating find, a real artifact of a certain era, and it is particularly interesting to know where China's auto industry is. Because it would not be where it is without this fairly simple sedan that is shown in this video.

Thank you for shared this, Dogapult!