MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - The car that Uruguayan president Jose Mujica has driven for 27 years is no luxury vehicle but is apparently worth a lot of money.
The 79-year-old, whose presidential term will expire early in 2015, has been offered $1-million for the blue Volkswagen Beetle by an Arab sheikh whom he met in June 2014 at a G77 - a large group of developing countries in the United Nations - summit in Bolivia, South America.
Busqueda, a national tabloid newspaper in Uruguay, said Mujica was taking the offer seriously. He said he would donate the million dollars to a government housing programme.
BIGGEST BID YET
The left-leaning head of state said he had received many offers for the car but none that compared to the sheikh's bid.
The president was seen driving his car for the first time in October 2014 when the country held a presidential election. A constitutional limit prohibits Mujica from seeking re-election and his successor will be decided on November 30 in a run-off between Tabare Vazquez of the centre-left Frente Amplio alliance and Luis Lacalle Pou of the National Party.