Hi PUREXTC88,

How did you get a non shanghai license plate? Did it register under your name?

sinned69 wrote:suzuki swift is damn good car in its own right... yes its a compact or subcompact but its very very user friendly... it has heaps of headroom for taller people, compared with some bigger more expensive cars, its loaded with many goodies, it small, nimble and down right quick, its light on the wallet at the petrol pump, easy to maneuver and park, and its environmentally friendly. its also was voted car of the year 2005 and 2006 in a couple of the major motoring magazines

^Glad to hear this.
Will be looking at buying one in the UK, looks great and drives great, will be perfect for nipping in and out of city traffic and the great country B-roads.

http://fifthgear.five.tv/jsp/5gmain.jsp ... ki%20Swift

^ keep in mind that in overseas markets there are more variants of the swift, including the 1.6L sport, with very fast acceleration, complete sport body kit, and much more than what we can get here... enjoy!!!

the 1.3L swift available in China will be joined with the 1.5L version early 2008, not much difference, style and design remain unchanged, just the engine size gets the 200cc extra punch, nothing much in it between the two

Cheers, I am from the UK so I know there are different variants, maybe go with 1.6 Sport, or the 1.5 GLX Petrol.

Also like the new Ford Fiesta, so I may wait.

What about a Beijing JEEP? Is that expensive?? I'm thinking of getting one later

Good to see others considering buying cars too... I fell in love with the Chrysler 300C... The only problem is that I was planning to spend less than 200 k for the car purchase and plates and the model that I was into goes for close to 400 k

Now, has anyone tried second hand markets ? I know that the price quotes are sometimes undrealistic and it may take an extra mile to do it this way but was wondering if there are success stories among expat crowds here ?

I ran into some Audis, Mazdas and Toyotas that may be good substitutes for the aforementioned but was thinking of looking into the second hand car purchase process before going into it. ...

go for a second hand unless you're planning to stay in china for a very very long time; and considering the way how people drive here, it's wiser to get an old car and play the bump bump game on the roads.

it's a sad thing when you buy a brand new and others are kissing your bumper right on the first day your car's on the road.

ghost wrote:Hi PUREXTC88,

How did you get a non shanghai license plate? Did it register under your name?

We did it through an agent, actually a friend of my wife's cousin. He did it for us by having an out of town address. We have a sticker that allows us to drive in Shanghai for a full year without having to leave the city.

what about in beijing, is the license as expensive as in shanghai?

Beijing is free, but they are thinking of implementing an odd / even system (i.e., tags ending in even numbers can only drive in the city Tuesday, Thursday Saturday).

I just heard that the License plate has dropped down quite a bit now for Shanghai.

PureXTC88 wrote:I just heard that the License plate has dropped down quite a bit now for Shanghai.

Yeah, I heard that as well. Just heard that in the weekend one was auctioned for RMB 18000!!! Don't know if it is true, but it would be good news.

yup plates r cheaper now...before that it was only controlled by the car dealers n they kept it at around rmb50,000 whereby they were able to pocket the difference..last week was the first time the auction was made public...its an auction because there is more demand than supply....the plates r released once a month or so depending on the time of the year and car buyers r allowed to bid for it...but there are still alot of terms n conditions to comply to when bidding....but yes last weeks first public auction had plates sold for only rmb18k instead of rmb50k in december...but this is expected to increase since many buyers r willing to fork out rmb40k to rmb50k...

leidelaohu wrote:...hell, spoiled brats have to have their toys ...

Absolutely, and love every second in the traffic !

yup plates r cheaper now...before that it was only controlled by the car dealers n they kept it at around rmb50,000 whereby they were able to pocket the difference..last week was the first time the auction was made public...its an auction because there is more demand than supply....the plates r released once a month or so depending on the time of the year and car buyers r allowed to bid for it...but there are still alot of terms n conditions to comply to when bidding....but yes last weeks first public auction had plates sold for only rmb18k instead of rmb50k in december...but this is expected to increase since many buyers r willing to fork out rmb40k to rmb50k...

well only one person (a female) got the plate for that price and was surprised when she did so as she was willing (sic) to spend up to about rmb40k for it. actually it was reported that main reason for the under subscribing for that particular auction was not so much that it was open to the public but that the IT network used crashed and couldnt be accessed for some considerable time. therefore many people wanting plates could not place a bid at all. the average price for plates had fallen by around rmb3-5k, the first time its ever fallen since plates began being auctioned in 2000.

oh and so far only shanghai applies this method of supposed control on vehicle registration plates in an attempt to limit the numbers of new vehicles entering shanghais gridlock

its worth noting that the next auction is not until march 2008, so its expected there will be a surge of applicants for the new auction of the chinese new year, year of the rat

the average price of the plate on the last auction was said to be 24000 (according to shanghai daily, yesterday) which is less than half of the average last month. They auctioned 16000 of them instead of 8000

The McLaren F1 seems to suit your needs and budget. Looks ok to boot.

With people still willing to fork out rmb40-50k for the registration, I think even with such an auction, the average price will be around rmb40k by years end