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  1. #1 Buying a car in China 
    Senior C-Moto Guru bigdamo's Avatar
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    Sorry I know this is way off track but could not find any equivalent of mychinamoto for automobiles forums.

    I am sort of looking for a 4WD auto I have seen some for sale very cheap on the chinese sites with only 20000 klms on them like $40000 rmb for a Toyota prado couple of years old.

    Do you think these are the real deal or watch out they will rip you off?
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  2. #2  
    Motorcycle Addict chinabiker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigdamo View Post
    Sorry I know this is way off track but could not find any equivalent of mychinamoto for automobiles forums.

    I am sort of looking for a 4WD auto I have seen some for sale very cheap on the chinese sites with only 20000 klms on them like $40000 rmb for a Toyota prado couple of years old.

    Do you think these are the real deal or watch out they will rip you off?
    40k RMB for a Prado sounds a little suspicious, even for some years old.

    I owned a black Santana (CC may forgive me) 1996 model. It went up in flames last year and I still got almost 20k from insurance.

    If you have somebody who can read Chinese, check this out: http://auto.sina.com.cn/
    Loads of info, forums, customer feedback, prices, ...

    Check for domestic cars, e.g. Great Wall Hover or JV cars like Rav4, Santa Fe, Tucson, ...
    Andy
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  3. #3  
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    Careful with some of those used car deals, thousands of vehicles from the flood zones end up being sold as "slightly used". There were about 100 vehicles in the underground parking garage at my old apartment complex, all of them were under water for several days during a huge flood last year. After they were finally rescued, I can only guess they ended up in some remote province or on TaoBao

    Good luck with your search!

    Cheers
    ChinaV
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  4. #4  
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob
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    there are places where you can get decent cars for relatively little money. They are however, always illegal (smuggled) cars.

    since China charges are very steep import tax on cars, some dealer import them via land or water ways from HK or other places. These cars sometimes are taken apart, shipped in containers and then wielded back together and ALMOST ALWAYS can not be registered. The dealers will offer you paperwork that are copies of other people's paper work.

    If the police catches you with a fake plates or fake papers, they will confiscate the car and you might also face problems with visas and other related legal issues.

    I would suggest a older Jeep Cherokee, some of the older ones are almost 85% built in the U.S with US parts, the ones with V6 and 4X4 are very good, and should not run you too much money...

    bigdamo, just saw your location is in Xinjiang...
    Xinjiang is one of the loosest place to have a car/bike registered. Most of the smuggled motorcycles in Beijing here are registered under xingjiang or Hubei plates...So, if you don't mind that your car might come into the country in non-conventional ways, you might able to get a deal.
    Last edited by pennstlong; 05-18-2009 at 06:29 PM. Reason: added
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  5. #5  
    Senior C-Moto Guru ZMC888's Avatar
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    This is common for bikes and cars in China. If you want to be safe, buy best Chinese made or buy new imported.
    Without consciousness, space and time are nothing; in reality you can take any time -- whether past or future -− as your new frame of reference. Death is a reboot that leads to all potentialities.
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  6. #6  
    Senior C-Moto Guru bigdamo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pennstlong View Post
    there are places where you can get decent cars for relatively little money. They are however, always illegal (smuggled) cars.

    since China charges are very steep import tax on cars, some dealer import them via land or water ways from HK or other places. These cars sometimes are taken apart, shipped in containers and then wielded back together and ALMOST ALWAYS can not be registered. The dealers will offer you paperwork that are copies of other people's paper work.

    If the police catches you with a fake plates or fake papers, they will confiscate the car and you might also face problems with visas and other related legal issues.

    I would suggest a older Jeep Cherokee, some of the older ones are almost 85% built in the U.S with US parts, the ones with V6 and 4X4 are very good, and should not run you too much money...

    bigdamo, just saw your location is in Xinjiang...
    Xinjiang is one of the loosest place to have a car/bike registered. Most of the smuggled motorcycles in Beijing here are registered under xingjiang or Hubei plates...So, if you don't mind that your car might come into the country in non-conventional ways, you might able to get a deal.
    Yes I'm starting to learn all the scams that are going down well with cars more so than bikes at the moment.

    We went to the used car market on the weekend man was that big it would take you at least 2 days to go through it properly.You could get any car you wanted Hummers,Porsche,BMW,Mercs all late model stuff.

    Also late model goats and sheep in reasonable good nick low mileage. Has to be if not sold that weekend. Monday there kababs

    They had motorcycles but I didn't have the time this trip to check them out another day there.

    Here is the first tip pay a Chinese friend to find the car for you.don't go near it until the price is totally agreed upon.

    My friend(chinese) who used to be in the used car business came along and helped us.If it was him the car I wanted would be 65k and he could get it down to 50k if was me it would be 75k and I could get them down to 65k.

    I am told to be very wary of dodgy plates and cars at that market especially from certain parts of Xinjiang and I believe it.

    One car we where interested in we spoke to the father who was selling for his son we where told we could have it for 55k rang the son the next day he said 65k and I have someone else I am talking to who is interested in buying it don't really want to sell it to you.Makes me wonder what was going on there.

    Yes the jeep Chrysler old ones where going cheap.But I would not buy a second hand one. My dealings with them in the early 80's and again in the late 90's early 2000 scared me.That said there blocks are one of the best race blocks around for a v8.

    I am after a Landwind 4WD pref ably the turbo diesel.

    Yes there are lots of Jap and Euro big bore bikes up here I am surprised by whats up here.I wonder about the plates.
    Last edited by bigdamo; 05-20-2009 at 04:38 PM.
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  7. #7  
    Senior C-Moto Guru bigdamo's Avatar
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    This market is alot better than the new sanitized Urghur market in Urumqi.




    or maybe a goat takes your fancy they had it all here at this car market???



    They had sheep too. but we ate them.

    They could not cook a goat to save themselves.
    Last edited by bigdamo; 05-21-2009 at 02:16 AM.
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