Buying a QingQi in Shanghai

[macieq]

I want to post a short off topic story about plating vehicles in Europe. The German government launched a programme to boost up the automotive industry 2 years ago. it was the so called "envoirmental voucher". One got 2500 Euro voucher for scrapping a 10 years or more old car. Mine was such. BTW the new car did not need to be bought in Germany, just in the EU. On the other hand Poland was an EU member but they still had their own currency Zloty. That time the zloty was very weak against Euro. So, I ordered online a car in poland saving 30%. The Polish dealer fedexed the Declaration of Conformity to me. It took 1 day. There is an European Directive harmonizing the registration process in all member states. The funny thing was the car was made in Germany and the Declaration of Conformity was issued in Germany, too. Having it I went to the Zulassungsstelle (vehicle registration office) next day. The registration process - without having the car physically there - took less than one hour (without any bullshit like engraving the number to the hardware or taking pics). And it was charged at 70 Euro. For bikes it is 40 Euro, disregarded the province or displacement or any other sick idea. Having the plates in my beg I took a plane to Gdansk for 50 euro (cheap airline Wizzair), fixed the plates and went back to Germany the next day, 800 km trip. This was lean! God save China!

[euphonius]

Reminds me of driving by car from Warsaw to Berlin back in 1989, before the changes, of course. There was a known speed trap just inside the Polish border, where all cars with German plates were waved over for speeding, regardless of how fast they were driving. The Polish policeman was very polite, and informed me I was speeding and the fine was 10,000 zlotys. I suppressed a grin. He sensed I was not German and asked me if that was a big fine in my country. I said, yes, it was very big -- "einen grossen Strafe, einen ganz grossen Strafe!" He smiled, took my cash, and waved me on. In fact, as I recall, it was about US$4 at the prevailing exchange rate.

tschüß!