A cool R1.3m for 1990 VW Golf?
2012-04-17 09:28
SOMETHING'S DIFFERENT: These days Merkel is driven in an armoured Audi, but took a seat in a Volkswagen Up! at the 2011 Frankfurt auto show.
BERLIN, Germany April 16 - An online auction for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's first West German car was stopped on Monday, April 16, 2012, after online auction company Ebay said bogus bidders drove up its price to 130 000 euros (R1.34-million).
Merkel bought the car, a white 1990 model three-door Volkswagen Golf, in 1990, which was registered in her name until 1995.
The seller, an anonymous Berlin resident, advertised the vehicle on eBay as "our Chancellor Merkel"s historic VW Golf" along with a copy of the car's registration papers and photographs of it parked in front of the chancellor's office in central Berlin.
AUCTION ON HOLD
An Ebay spokeswoman said: "We noticed that all the offers had come from fake bidders.
"The auction will now take place again over the weekend. However, this time, we will follow another procedure that restricts the offers to cut out fake bidders."
Like most East Germans, Merkel had placed an order for a Trabant, the standard car in Communist East Germany. But she never received the car and like many of her compatriots bought West German cars soon after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
In a similar auction in 2005, a US bidder paid nearly $250000 (R1.9m) for a 21-year-old grey 1990 Volkswagen Golf that once belonged to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict.