New | Auction of China’s ex-government cars fetches 14.5 million yuan as bidders drawn to their ‘status’
One bidder goes home with more than 20 Audis and Volkswagens worth more than a million yuan in all
Hundreds of Chinese bidders flocked to Beijing in the hopes of winning bids in an auction for seized vehicles that used to belong to the central government.
The first batch of 204 central government officials’ cars that went under the hammer on Sunday and Monday were sold at about 75 per cent higher than their starting prices on average, China News Service reported.
They raked in a total of 14.5 million yuan (HK$18.2 million), with individual prices ranging between 11,000 yuan for a Jinbei van and 342,000 yuan for an Audi A6. An auction staff said the prices were much higher than that of other secondhand vehicles.
“It makes me look good to drive a former official car to business gatherings, because it used to serve officials from the central government,” one bidder told China Business News, adding that such vehicles were usually better maintained than other secondhand cars and were thus worth their hefty price tags.
The most ambitious bidder went home with more than 20 Audis and Volkswagens worth more than a million yuan, including the first car put on sale, a 2004 Volkswagen Passat.