Comments on: Chinese Govt Car Purchases – Facts and Figures

By: LoveChinaLongTime

LoveChinaLongTime — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:08:21 +0000

Oh BTW, Ash: They’re STILL a huge moneymaking organization and Jiang didn’t get them to stop. You do not scrimp when feeding the boys that protect you…

By: LoveChinaLongTime

LoveChinaLongTime — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:06:28 +0000

Bottom line should be if you have a local car industry then you HAVE to procure from it. It just makes sense, as tax money is going towards it.

China is a place where the “company car” actually becomes the family car for all intents and purposes. That’s just fucked up but China today is no different than it was 1,000 years ago. A dynasty under a different guise so therefore the perks they had then, they’ll have today.

I liked the comment that they all should drive 1.0L or less! Hilarious! But we all know the biggest Mafia in the country is the PLA and made men don’t drive in econoboxes…

By: Gerald

Gerald — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:25:49 +0000

Haha good one! Why didn’t I think of that?

By: james

james — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:35:13 +0000

why 京LW of course!

By: Gerald

Gerald — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:19:47 +0000

Thanks for clearing that up. Now that you mention it, I do recall seeing a lot of old Jettas with military plates, so these must be personal cars. But do the same rules apply to cars with WJ plates?

By the way, as for the cancellation of the black plates for foreigners, even though everyone is using blue plates now they’ve reserved special numbers for foreigners. In Beijing, these happen to be plates beginning with 京LB and 京LC (I’m not sure what comes next after 京LC – 京LD?).

By: Ash

Ash — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:48:58 +0000

Gerald,

From what I understood after talking with police/army friends, the army plates work much like the black plates for non Chinese drivers did. (these being cancelled now )

I believe As long as you’re a member of the military, you can stick them on your personal vehicle. Which is probably why I see so many Mazda3′s Focus’s etc as well as luxury vehicles around with military plates.

The PLA was also a massive money making enterprise with its fingers in many, many pies until recently. I think it was Chairman Jiang, or perhaps Hu, who put a stop to their economic activities! I would be suprised if they are still flush with cash, or high ranking members managed to make a small fortune from those days.

During the Olympics, I often saw a 5-series with WJ plates escorting VIP’s in buses, as well as Roewe 750′s etc.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:08:18 +0000

I’m glad that the BMW procurement is bringing public attention to this issue. It’s also good to see confirmation of the 20% Audi figure – this is the first time I’ve seen this published, but I had suspected that it might be this high or even higher. Hopefully the public scrutiny will pressure the gov’t to be more frugal in their car purchases.

Although due to the Chinese thing with “keeping face”, I can’t picture these guys cruising in anything “lower-class” than an Audi. But again the public attention can’t be a bad thing.

I’ve got to wonder, however – if provincial heads and mayors are capped at 3.0L and 450k RMB, how come I see so many Benz S500′s and Audi A8′s here with military and police plates?

By: J.

J. — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:45:43 +0000

I think several countries have laws about a ratio of foreign/local government cars. For example, French officials have no other choices to use Peugeot 607 cars. The last selected one was the Renault VelSatis and the Renault Safrane before.

In China, I think it also depends a lot of the province/municipality: Shenyang municipality police is equiped with a lot of ZhongHua cars, which are very nice in Police livery.

Regarding this news, if Chinese officials buy China made foreign brands, well… it is still China industry in a way. The troubling fact is that all those Audi A8, are all imported…

By: mememe

mememe — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:31:11 +0000

This Chinese government BMW procurement is causing a huge fierce debate in China at the moment. The sentiment at the moment seems to be very negative, a lot of people are really upset about this.

By: cryptonx

cryptonx — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:59:57 +0000

Brilliance BS6 – BS4
Chery A6 – V5 – TIGGO
BYD F6

Whats wrong with these ? much cheaper .. support your local industry !