Vintage jeep grants expat friends freedom to explore adopted home

When Georg Jansen thinks about the many purchases he has made during his four years in Beijing, one in particular always springs to mind: his old, battered jeep.

"The car's very old, probably already 18 years now," said the German professor, who teaches at Beijing Foreign Studies University. "My friend had nothing but trouble with it after he bought it from a used car market. He bought another car not long after and I got this one."

Although Jensen's Chinese friends kept warning him that the rundown Jeep Cherokee would guzzle gas, the 43-year-old said he's been extremely satisfied so far.

"I bought it very cheap, just 10,000 yuan," he said, adding that his friend had carried out a lot of work on the car, which means, despite having many miles on the clock, "it has rarely broken down since I got it".

Industry insiders say expats are snapping up secondhand cars every year, with the majority taking advantage of the extra mobility to explore the city's outskirts and beyond. Jansen drives his jeep in town but he also makes longer trips. Last October, during the National Day holiday, he drove to Wutaishan Mountain in Shanxi province, more than 500 kilometers from Beijing.

Of course old cars do have their shortcomings. Jensen's jeep, for example, needs to have an inspection every six months. However, Jansen leaves that, together with the formalities, to ST Auto Club, a company that provides document renewals, ownership transfers, as well as maintenance and roadside assistance to expats driving in Beijing.

Sun Xudong, who is a manager with the club, told METRO expats in Beijing tend to buy a used car rather than a new one because most of them only stay here temporarily, and they don't want to spend much money on an expensive car.

"From my experience they usually buy cars between 50, 000 to 60,000 yuan, at most 80,000 yuan," she said.

She told METRO there are few companies that focus on foreigners because the market is quite small.

Bernd Ordnung, a teacher at the German School of Beijing and the former owner of Jansen's jeep, bought the vehicle at a place out of town which a friend introduced him to four and half years ago. He said the engine was good so he took it, but later he found that "everything else broke once a week".

His most unforgettable trip was when he took his family to the Great Wall in a holiday. His son was sitting in the back and he suddenly said, "Daddy, my feet are getting hot". A little later he added: "Daddy, there's smoke in the car". His parents reassured him that everything was fine until the boy cried out: "Daddy, there's fire".

They stopped and put it out in the end, but after that Ordnung sold the jeep and bought a newer one from an expat who was leaving China.

Ordnung left all the repairs and maintenance work to the auto club during the first year but later he decided to go to the repair shops on his own.

"It's much cheaper, and it helps me learn Chinese," he laughed. "My Chinese has certainly improved a lot dealing with mechanics."

Ordnung and Jansen both told METRO they want to sell their jeeps when they leave but this has become much harder since last December, when Beijing began to limit licenses. Sun said that the club did very little used car buying and selling now.