Cool Cop Cars Drive Chinese Citizens Crazy
When American cops drive around with expensive iron, they claim they impounded it from a drug dealer fair and square, and all is good. For some odd reasons, China hasn’t come to the level of vehicular expropriation yet. Their police gets its car the old fashioned way: They buy it. Imagine the consternation of the people in the port city of Tianjin, when they spotted a new Mini Cooper in police livery. That car is imported, and a basic version starts at around $45,000.
Carnewschina reports that angry citizens asked the police why a Mini Cooper when the standard issue Santana would have done nicely. The received the runaround first, then were told that the car was a “gift from the factory.” There is no Mini Cooper factory in China. In the meantime, the small car went viral in China.
Police in Fengchenggang tried to avoid similar run-ins with the citizenry, and stuck a Honda CR-V emblem on their Mercedes-Benz ML350. The Chinese know their cars, and that picture went viral also.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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- Tassos The exterior is a turnoff unless you are a mem ber of the cult that deludes itself that these pieces of junk were 'luxury' cars like the Legendary Euro ones. The damned fins persist, and the roofline screams "chick car".How many dozens of episodes will we do on the damned fins?A car only a sociopath like "batman' would love.
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- Ras815 The most interesting small detail I picked up from the brochures: in 1960, there was a Cadillac dealer on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. How times would change in that area just a few years later...
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Ronnie, last year the state of Fla bought 10 Hemi Challengers for pursuit on the Fla turnpike, but they are all R/T's.
Pigs will be pigs eating all they want from the public troughs no matter what country they are in.