Yangtze BriefingShanghai drivers fume over car plate auctions
Price limits were aimed at making permits more obtainable, but with the quota fixed and more bidders than ever, the system is crashing
Shanghai's system for car plate auctions is broken and the government appears at a loss for a solution.
More people are taking part in the monthly auctions, but the number of permits available remains fixed, so more drivers are walking away empty-handed.
The tight market has also attracted black market players and proxy bidders, who charge roughly 8,000 yuan (HK$10,000) to hand over newly acquired plates to a car owner. And because the auction is held online, a fast internet connection is often a deciding factor in the final furious minutes of bidding.
For a middle-class family, hoping to buy and register a new car to drive to a holiday location for an upcoming National Day golden week holiday, the system has become little more than an invitation to disappointment and frustration.
Last Saturday, 121,550 people logged on to the website of the Shanghai transportation commission when 8,300 permits went under the hammer. That means just 7 per cent of applicants were successful - lower than the 9 per cent average for the past six months, but better than June's dismal 5.5 per cent result.
Prices this year have hovered around the 74,000 yuan mark, roughly 70 per cent of the price in this city of a new domestically made car.