Back at the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show, the big story was how the joint ventures were creating China-only brands. Many, such as Nissan’s Venucia showed bold concepts, but General Motor’s Baojun went a step further and displayed an actual production car. The Baojun 630 saloon turned out to be the only new brand with a purpose built car – the others just rebadged old models. Such cars were meant to steal sales away from Chinese brands in lower tier cities by way of recycling proven older tech.

Three years on, Baojun is the most successful of the China-only brands. GM, whose technology underpins the cars, has expanded the range to include the recently launched 610 and 730.

We drove the top of the range 610 Luxury that is essentially a hatchback version of the original 630. Externally, it is a smart looking, well put together car.

Mark Andrews has written about everything from Japanese houses to heli hikes on New Zealand glaciers, test drives of Chinese cars to bar and restaurant reviews. He currently specialises in travel articles and reviews of Chinese cars plus articles about the Chinese auto industry.