Shanghai's Finest Receive Brand New Bimmers
Shanghai is gearing up for the Expo 2010, which is supposed to drive millions of visitors to the sprawling Chinese metropolis from May through October. The whole city is being refurbished. Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport received a spanking new terminal. Shanghai’s Finest don’t want to be left behind.
The Shanghai traffic police received 20 brand new BMW 530’s, made by Brilliance in – doh! – Beijing, reports TheTycho. As if Shanghai doesn’t have enough cars to offer to replace the usual standard issue Santana: Shanghai is home to SAIC, which has joint ventures with GM and VW. It also has many other car manufacturers.
And Shanghai’s Police are riding around in Bimmers from BJ (as Beijing is affectionally abbreviated in China)? Come on SH, you can do better. And with just one month to go, you bet they will.
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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It's the symbolism of increasing prosperity - that's what is special.
Could it back fire as in, "who wants one of those? It's a friggin cop car.
***Just another validation that municipal stupidity and waste knows no bounds. *** fleet 5-series / E-class are common outside the US. If the party bosses in Beijing had some political savvy they should have bought fleets of Police Interceptors.
I've read a few years ago a magazine from UK. Apparently it is cheaper in the long run to have a fleet of BMW then Opels or Renaults. Personally I don't see anything wrong with choice of Chinese, as they support local economy, since Brilliance builds those BMWs.