Hey,

i'm intended to move to shanghai in about a month or so, will live somewhere in changning and work in kunshan.
for that deal to work, i would prefer to buy a car and commute with it.
i have the funds to buy a second hand car (up to about 80K rmb, which from a second hand website i saw is totally doable).
my salary will be given to me in my home country and not in china so i won't actually need to open a chinese bank account, but i'm considering to open a bank account just to buy the car here (so i can withdraw proper amount \ using credit card to buy it from within china).

questions are:
1)do you have any idea what are the money transfer fees between countries?
2)have anyone bought a car locally? if so, can you recommend places to buy?
3)is it too much trouble to open a bank account just for that purpuse?

any recommendation regarding purchasing a car locally would be greatly appreciated!

thanks!

erezschn wrote:Hey,

i'm intended to move to shanghai in about a month or so, will live somewhere in changning and work in kunshan.
for that deal to work, i would prefer to buy a car and commute with it.
i have the funds to buy a second hand car (up to about 80K rmb, which from a second hand website i saw is totally doable).
my salary will be given to me in my home country and not in china so i won't actually need to open a chinese bank account, but i'm considering to open a bank account just to buy the car here (so i can withdraw proper amount \ using credit card to buy it from within china).

questions are:
1)do you have any idea what are the money transfer fees between countries?
2)have anyone bought a car locally? if so, can you recommend places to buy?
3)is it too much trouble to open a bank account just for that purpuse?

any recommendation regarding purchasing a car locally would be greatly appreciated!

thanks!

Used cars in China, especially SH are expensive and the quality is bad since mainland Chinese only sell cars after they break them. Combined with bad maintenance, lack of driving skill and already low or lower car quality buying a used car is a bad deal.

For 80k you can easily buy a nice new Suzuki or Kia.

I highly suggest you buy a new Japanese or Korean car. As for license plates you can research the site but I suggest a none SH plate.

I will let someone else answer the other questions.

thanks KKO!
if i will buy second hand car in kunshan, will the "do not buy used car" suggestion still hold?

anyway, thanks for the input! do you have any idea how can i get prices online?

If the maintenance is already a problem in Shanghai than you can expect that is worse in Kunshan.
If 2. hand is the only option for you...I suggest to get an automatic one with very low mileage (If you can trust the seller) A used manual gear car is the last thing I would buy in China.

I would also suggest to buy a new one from a big dealership and get in writing and stamped that car is brand new with its actual KM on the odometer. You never know in China

you can buy a brand new volkswagen polo with your budget. Many businessmen buy the second hand car at a low price and after renewing them, they sell them at a high price.

the license plate will cost up to 70K in shanghai, so you can think about getting a plate in other cities, not crazy shanghai.

if i can buy a brand new polo, then my troubles are gone ^_^ i was actually looking at second hand polo's for the same price....

is there anywhere online i can find brand new car's prices?

thanks again!

Bought a new cross polo 1.6 auto about 3 weeks ago, cost was 120,000. If that is any help

Bob

erezschn wrote:thanks KKO!
if i will buy second hand car in kunshan, will the "do not buy used car" suggestion still hold?

anyway, thanks for the input! do you have any idea how can i get prices online?

I don't know the car market in Kunshan, but as some others said if SH is bad then 2nd tier cities is even worse.

New car is safer in China besides used car resale value is way too high. My special order KIa Soul was 120,000 very well equipped. You can get a more basic version for 80-100K.

Other big problem with used cars is car repair places in mainland China are notoriously bad. I have two used trucks that we use as camera trucks and it took me three years to find a dealer that could actually "repair" the trucks. There is also a HUGE problem with low grade fake parts. Our main camera truck's brakes failed due to fake brake fluid. No bull s*hit... The dealer flushed the crap out and brakes where fine.

As of now we only buy new vehicles and service at official dealer ONLY.

P.S There are many fake car dealers.. There is a fake Kia dealer near our shop in Pudong and the Great Wall truck dealer I used to go to ended up being fake too... Verify the dealer is legit!

Do you know how hard is it to sell the cars afterwards?
i don't intend to wreck it as chinese ppl might, how difficult should it be to sell a korean \ european \ japanese car after 1-2 years?

BTW, any way to spot a fake dealer? and by fake what do you mean? he sells a fake car?! meaning not really produced by great wall? or just sell used \ refurbished cars?

erezschn wrote:Do you know how hard is it to sell the cars afterwards?
i don't intend to wreck it as chinese ppl might, how difficult should it be to sell a korean \ european \ japanese car after 1-2 years?

BTW, any way to spot a fake dealer? and by fake what do you mean? he sells a fake car?! meaning not really produced by great wall? or just sell used \ refurbished cars?

Fake car dealer may have real cars but the repair/service is abysmal. At least that was my experience. Its usually just a random car dealer that sticks a Kia, Honda, Great Wall sign outside.
Go to the car manufacturer website and find the authorized dealers and service centers. As an example I found out there are ONLY two authorized/real Great wall dealers in all of Shanghai.

You can easily re-sell a new car after 2 years. Better then a already used car. You can even post on here. I know I would consider buying a used car from an expat but never from a local.

^ good advise!

I highly recommend this blog post: http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/shanghaicarbuying.htm

MadViv wrote:I highly recommend this blog post: http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/shanghaicarbuying.htm

That advice is not far off, even though it's written a few years ago. I recently bought a car after moving here from Beijing, it was painful... I think I visited the dealership at least 10 times throughout the whole process. Though when it came to the license plate, the dealership handled all the paperwork and having to go down to the traffic dept. One especially annoying thing, I had put down a rather hefty deposit and when I finally took 'delivery' of my car none of the extra options I had asked for had been installed... reason being, I hadn't paid for the car in full yet. Which is prolly fair, BUT it's not like I buy a car everyday in China, all they had to do was tell me to fork out the money and I would have done it, so another two days in the shop to get the GPS and other bits installed. All-in-all it was a tedious affair, so be prepared for a bit of grief...

Hey twlaun,

how did you buy the car? cash (like the guy in the blog article said) or credit card?

thx!

erezschn wrote:Hey twlaun,

how did you buy the car? cash (like the guy in the blog article said) or credit card?

thx!

Chinese nationals can buy on credit too. We bought a new car on credit. Was rather easy. You can use credit card also. Or multiple credit cards, cash and what ever they take for trade.

erezschn wrote:Hey twlaun,

how did you buy the car? cash (like the guy in the blog article said) or credit card?

thx!

Erezschn, I paid with cash through Union Pay...

Brace yourself for the cost of Shanghai license plate

China Doll wrote:Brace yourself for the cost of Shanghai license plate

OP is an expat, not a local Shanghainese. He is getting a none SH plate.....

I was told when I bought my car that having a Shanghai Residential Permit, means I can only buy a Shanghai plate. Had I been hoodwinked?

drsubaru wrote:I was told when I bought my car that having a Shanghai Residential Permit, means I can only buy a Shanghai plate. Had I been hoodwinked?

Without a Shanghai license plate, you can't take tunnels or highways during rush hours. So, enjoy your Shanghai license plate and don't look back

China Doll wrote:

drsubaru wrote:I was told when I bought my car that having a Shanghai Residential Permit, means I can only buy a Shanghai plate. Had I been hoodwinked?

Without a Shanghai license plate, you can't take tunnels or highways during rush hours. So, enjoy your Shanghai license plate and don't look back

can you be more specific? what are the defined "rush hour" times?

^ Yes I can.
7:30 - 9:30 am
4:30 - 6:30 pm

China Doll wrote:^ Yes I can.
7:30 - 9:30 am
4:30 - 6:30 pm

thanks! is there anywhere i can see the map of the roads that are blocked for "non shanghai plate" owners?

Er... Google map? Look for "Outer Ring". All tunnels and highways inside the outer ring are closed to non Shanghai cars. Outer ring and anything outside of outer right are okay, I think

OP, IF you decide to buy a shanghai plate, think of the license plate as an investment. The demand in Shanghai will just keep license plate prices rising. I paid 64k for a second hand plate 2 months back... its now 71k.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012 ... 766633.htm

Hey,

what i worry about the whole deal is:
1)it looks like it can take 3 months to buy a car, if i will eventually stay in china only ~1 year, not sure it's worth the hassle
2)how difficult will it be to sell my car? if i be in a hurry to sell (sell within 1-2 months), will i get killed with the paying price i'll get?

thanks

erezschn wrote:

China Doll wrote:^ Yes I can.
7:30 - 9:30 am
4:30 - 6:30 pm

thanks! is there anywhere i can see the map of the roads that are blocked for "non shanghai plate" owners?

Once again the BS starts up........

During the above time Monday through Friday excluding holidays none Shanghai plated cars are not "supposed " to get on the elevated highway and SOME tunnels and bridges. ALL surface roads are okay ALL the time and some tunnels like Dapu Lu tunnel is okay for all cars all the time.

Even if you get on the elevated road during the commute hours your chances of getting a ticket are very slim. And even if you get a ticket its only 200 rmb and you can pay when you do your registration. So if you do the math, even if you get a ticket every week for three years none stop it still will be less then a SH plate.

If you have a SH residence you may still be able to get a none SH plate if you buy the car outside SH. You need to ask a registration agent.

Otherwise you can register the car in someone else's name and keep the ownership papers. I did this many times as do half the locals.

Contrary to many locals gibrish, buying a SH plate is not a good investment any more since the price is already too high and the market may fall if they start loosing up the C plate restrictions. Just like buying apartments, buying a SH plate is no longer a sure bet.

Re selling a new decent Japanese, Korean or American car is rather easy.

If you are only going to stay 1 year, I suggest long term lease or rental.

The reason why committed to buying a car is because I think I will be around for the next 5 years....