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With the Expo clock ticking down, it seems Shanghai wasn't only content to renovate and renew neighborhoods and subway systems. Police cars got an upgrade too - going from old and sturdy VWs to these new and shiny BMWs.
So what's the deal with these new police cars anyway? China Hush, who translated the article from Netease, says they're World Expo escorts. But why in the world would you need a 700,000RMB BMW 5 Series in order to escort people? Do they think they'll be getting into chases on the Yan'an Expressway? Maybe they were afraid that, with all the fancy cars floating around nowadays, nobody would take them seriously in their old Santanas? Granted, German police use BMWs as patrolcars, but that's Germany. They have an autobahn and it's not an import.
The government isn't saying. As Sinobeat points out, "I have searched through the web for a while and find that related reports were alarmingly uninformative, only a couple of pictures and few words. It seems that the government has kept the details to itself to avoid negative comments."
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Technically speaking, they may not be imports. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but my guess is they're actually models produced by the BMW-Brilliance joint venture out of Shenyang. Still, you'd expect that they would have gone for cars produced by an SAIC joint venture: Audis and Buicks would have both worked.
Given that the PSB lacks any serious pursuit capabilities, this isn't a bad move. It also promotes moral within the department. Instead of cruising in a rustbucket Santana that can be outrun by...anything, now Officer Haoyou gets a shiny 5 series. And if they are anything like western cruisers, the engine may be alot more M5 than standard 5 series.
It is also a good show of where some of China's stimulus money has drifted off to.
In all my years in Shanghai I think I have seen but one police car with sirens on in a hurry. Its one of the things Ive never been able to figure out-- so you call 110, you need the cops, they hurry, situation solved., Why do you never see them blazing down the street?
Exactly for the reason that they use such good cars - there is no crime in Shanghai ))
Yahoo Autos puts the retail price for the 550i at $60,600 (414,000 yuan). In Shanghai do they really charge $42,000 over the normal retail price for one of these cars? Maybe their special, marked-up price includes a couple Wenzhou bao jian chicks in the trunk.
Well for imports its 100% luxury tax. Even if its made by Brilliance in Shenyang, BMWs still run far more here than they do abroad.