There are several ways of getting a car in Beijing. You can go down to the dealership and kick the tires your self. Or you can delegate the process to a car broker or, even bettser, to your company. You could also import a new or used car from overseas, but know that most older models will fail China’s emissions test and that the process is expensive and involves a fair bit of red tape. Finally, you could buy a car from a friend of a friend. Many foreigners, especially diplomats, buy used cars from fellow Laowai because they distrust used car dealers, and because it’s easier to transfer ownership between expatriates (the black plats, or red-and-black plates in the case of diplomats, need not be changed).

━━━━━━━━━━ Markets ━━━━━━━━━━

The only car market in Beijing supervised by the Beijing Municipal Government.

One of the biggest car markets in China.

Encompassing about 80,000 square meters, making this the biggest auto market in China.

Beijing’s largest used car market has over 200 used car dealers.

Lot is filled with locally-made and imported new and used vehicles.

Lot is filled with locally-made and imported new and used vehicles.

━━━━━━━━━━ Brokers ━━━━━━━━━━

Run by expat Bob Foday, BCS will bring new or used vehicles to your home or office for a test drive. Bob and his minions will have the car inspected, handle the registration and help you buy insurance. While you may get a better price by visiting dealers on your own, using BCS saves time and aggravation.

━━━━━━━━━━ Renting / Leasing ━━━━━━━━━━

Rents VW Jettas for RMB 340 per day. Discounts often available, especially on long-term rentals. A car with a driver for eight hours costs upwards of RMB 540 per day, depending on distance covered and time. All major credit cards accepted.

Beiqi offers short and long-term leases on locally-made cars. A VW Jetta costs RMB 400 per day with a driver, RMB 5,500 per month (without driver), while an Audi A6 is RMB 12,800 monthly. Surcharges for more than 3,600 km driven per month. Discounts on year-long leases. Must pay deposit in cash and may need a guarantor.

Choose from popular brands like VW Polo, Citroen Fukang and VW Jetta. You can rent a Fukang for RMB 250 per day or RMB 4,500 per month with a RMB 5,000 deposit. Luxury cars also available: RMB 1,300 per day of RMB 10,000 per month plus a deposit (RMB 20,000 for a Mercedes E300).