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Forget Ferrari, The $803,300 Red Flag L5 Is The New Must-Have Car In China
For the wealthy Chinese with 5 million Yuan (around $800,000) burning a hole in their pocket, there is a new must-have 'toy'. Instead of the latest Ferrari or Lambo, it is none other than the provocatively named "Red Flag L5" that is popping eyeballs and leaving the wealthy Chinese breathless...
Forget Ferraris. Someone paid at least 5 million yuan ($803,300) to buy a Chinese car.
China FAW Group Corp. began taking orders for the tailor-made Red Flag L5, the nation’s most expensive vehicle, with the first one sold to a customer in Nanjing, the automaker said in a statement today at the Beijing auto show. Delivery will take three months, said the buyer, Wang Zhonghua, who runs a company that operates a chain of furniture malls in China.
FAW produces the Red Flag luxury vehicles used by government officials and also makes Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Audi cars in China as its local manufacturing partner. Formerly called First Automotive Works, which was started by the Communist Party as a linchpin of China’s industrial policy, the company is seeking to capitalize on a government campaign to buy local brands.
For the price of a Red Flag L5, one can buy a Ferrari FF in China, according to Cheshi.com, an auto pricing website.
Are the Chinese shifting from decadent flashiness to understated luxury... in an effort to hide the graft? Or does this odd looking vehicle lay golden eggs, come with a happy ending, and exhaust unicorn tears?
Goregous? Inside...
and out?
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Chysler 300 body. It's a bit ghetto.
I may be the only one on here that feels this way. But that car is Fresh. Id love to drive something like that with a set of 22s. That ride has pure attitude.
Yep.. You is the ONLY one here feels that way alright hombre!
Lay off the shit for some...
That is one ugly car.
But I would like one...to be the only guy in town to have one...it must be about this
Yeah... You be it...
Ugly...no need to worry about the Chinese taking over the Japanese auto markets!
BUT China is getting more belligerent by the day...
China seizes Japanese cargo ship over pre-war debt"Kyodo said this appeared to be the first time that a Japanese company asset had been confiscated as war-linked compensation."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27068466
WAR...coming to you soon in East Asia...
Front end kinda has the Hearse thing going for it.
I want one now
More communist output. You can't make this shit up.
Can only imagine a room full of Chinese commies jumping up and down with glee - "we outsmawt Amair-eeka again".
SPX 2000 here we come. LMFAO!!!!!!!!!
This is classier than the the one they used the last time we went to the circus.
I wonder how many clowns can it hold?
Peak Bad Taste...? Is that even possible?
Look middle class america, there drives by your: Job, pension, 401(k), healthcare, social security, american dream, (insert your favorite first world benefit here).
the L5 is just the vehicle to deliver the midde class their third world destiny.
This is not your father’s Oldsmobile…. it’s your grandfathers Oldsmobile.
Actually, my dad had a 1951 Pontiac convertible with the old amber Indianhead ornament on the hood.
I wonder why that red flag made me think of that?
Yeah yeah....boxy Commie Car....
BUT DOES IT HAVE MOTHERFUCKING CUPHOLDERS!!!!????
Part Lada, part Volvo, part Trabant, and part Oldsmobile?
It's an ugly mofo!
so this is what reverse engineering gets you.....does it have automatic windows..and FM radio...
Well, recapping the 1st law of bullshit, we have:
X + bullshit = $ ^ bullshit.
Morals + bullshit = religion
Government + bullshit = politics
Stuff + bullshit = bling
Chinese commie capitalist bling is still stuff + bullshit.
Behold, the power of China -
The $800,000 Gremlin has been realized.
My Gremlin cost $300 and made it to and from spring break - twice
Twice? Forget your water wings?
Its cultural issue. This car looks exactly like cars communist secretarys used to drive in the 60s and 70s when nobody had any vehicle, exept bycikles. I bet any chinees that see this one must think that somebody really important drives around.
The interior looks as plain as just about all bottom of the line cars here in the US.
Who knew Crack was such a problem in China?
I'd rather drive my son's 1985 Ford Bronco II with Eddie Bauer trim and relatively good interior.
Do you have any clue what that Bronco is worth!!??
Nothing
Hopefully the UAW has unionized their factory so they can enjoy maximum efficiency and competitiveness while earning honest wages and future pensions.
It's got a kind of 1960 Vaux Hall Victor face
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=1960+Vauxhall+Victor&FORM=RESTAB
Piece of overpriced shit. A decked out Chrysler300C looks far better and is probably just as fast or close to it. Send me the news story when one of these hit the donkey cart at 200mph.
Of course maybe I should be more worried about shit here in the US like the potential next president (queen) spending millions on her cunt disorderments daughters wedding.
I just love all the capitalists around here. Have no idea they are being squeezed out more every waking day.
You can't cheat an honest man.
Zil & Chrysler. A match made in Germany.
Exactly, it's a Chinese state “cut and shut” job.
Putin's dream car
ZIL President
The first thing that comes to mind is you could get a lot more armor in the body that you could with a sporty European model. Whether that's a factory option or an aftermarket job is usually not mentioned in public.
Prepraration for the collapse? Or is furniture sales as mobbed up as the rest of Chinese society? Dunno...
Looks like a Trabant on steroids.
Where's Raymond Loewy (designer of the Avanti) when you need him?
Does it come with Bruce Lee as a driver/sidekick?
Looks like it was built by a committee.
actually, the hongqi red flag is well known and has been featured on car sites for years:
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/red-flag-Den-.jpg
No shit!
The first honest answer to this whole mess yet!
Here's how status-car buying works in China. There are the funmobiles, but they are not for business or official use obviously.
Audi is big in China for one reason and one reason only. A high official will be in an A8L fully loaded. Below that you see the A8 and A6L. Below that, you see a mishmash of A6Ls and at the low end A4L and random VWs. Standard fare for anything respectable is all black. Bosses like them because government buys them. People like them because bosses like them. The notion being that if you are driving a car which *might* be in some way or another connected to someone important. And therefore, you are more likely to be given leeway on the road and left alone.
There's already the H7, which is fairly decent, but hard to get ahold of. Obviously, the plan is to expand the line into segments spread out across the spectrum and push for the top to transition over, thus increasing the "face" value of the car again.
Tens of thousands of fully loaded black Audis for the Chicoms. Hitler must be rolling in his grave.
Must be for blind billionaires.
All that money and not even chrome wheels and wide white wall tires? Some of our leadership would look right at home in one of these.
But it does come with a box of kleenex on the dash for when you realize what you'e done. I guess if they were free and loaded they've bought the McLaren instead.
It looks like a Trabant on steroids
(and crack)
http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2010/01/07/1225816/918095-trabant.jpg
Definitely takes some strong design cues from the classic Trabant.
I'd take a Buick and use the $780,000 for concubines and hash.
Duuuude!!!
I wonder who's drive train they pirated?
the real question that should be asked
here at zero hedge is ....
if you load it full of gold
and drive it in the lake
will it float ....
No no no... Wil it BLEND!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRAz6fkr5RQ
Its a goddam Studebaker!
"Red Flag" is the perfect name. It was either that, or "Blowoff Cap," or Short Sqeeze."
obviously $750,000 of the price goes to Communist payoffs....no way its in the cost of the car...
Maybe there're tired of buying McMansions in the WCFSZ [West Coast Fuki-Saturated Zone]?
Do the ChiCom oligarchs have to wind up the analog clock on the dashboard by themselves, or do they have a clock coolie to do that for them?
ch-ugly
Never seen a Chink that can drive yet.
Hope it comes with extra-large bumpers - for everyone's sake.
Looks like it was modeled after a 1970s era Checker.
Eggsackery! I was wondering why it seemed so familiar!
Eat your gruel! Think of all those poor starving Chinese children... in America. They don't get to have gruel!
And I had been worried that the Yugo design team was unemployed....
"Communist Party as a linchpin of China’s industrial policy, the company is seeking to capitalize on a government campaign to buy local brands."
Commies may be many things but they are not completely stupid like the US with regard to policy.
Those early 50s headlights: they should call it "the Roundeye."
Only chinese officials are gonna buy this car.
People with brain will buy a german car.
The showoffs will buy an italian.
The stupid people that could fall for the pricetag trick dont have that money.
Politicians can be both stupid, they for sure have the money and in addition they might think they earn som kind of patriotism points by buyings a 50.000 yuan car for 5.000.000.
This design reminds me of the old Russian ZIL Limousine, except the body panels fit better.
Secret compartment to hide zee gold?
If the Chinese like this then maybe Barret-Jackson should have a classic car auction in Shanghai.
to complete the grotesk disguise of this car I would like to fuck Yanet Yellen on the back seats
ARF! great minds and all that stuff... LOL
Make a nice hot rod
It Looks like a freakin' ZIL updaed with stolen technology...
Why? When I can eat this things lunch effortlessly in understated comfort and style for between $100 to $130k with this
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hennessey-cadillac-cts-v-v700-review
You've obviously done your share of river poisoning if you're dropping 800 grand on a car with an interior ripped from a '95 Hyundai.
It's not very difficult to be better than an American car <);o)
Is it just me or does that car look like a retro 60s Chrysler?
ZH gone yahoo?
90's Cadillac Ass, 1962 Rambler American Grill, Checker body, gay headlights. Someday they'll be planted nose down in a row in the desert until the earth reclaims them.
A Buick Regal ass grafted onto a Morris Minor front.
That car does not have sex appeal, unless Chinese girls get wet looking at a microwaave oven. So it is overpriced.
Must be a hoax. ZH foolin ya, guys an gals :-)
if it has the same armament as the Black Beauty then it's worth it. I'm sure that's bulletproof all around.
they went all out, skipped the melamine and went all dumpster-baby skin interior.
This is another example that shows being wealthy doesn't improve one's tastes.
GM's working on a copy.
Called the Floating Pig.
Funny you should mention it, but about an hour ago I saw a bright lavender/purple 1959 Cadillac (with peak tail fins) driving up the road ...
Now some folks say it's too big
And uses too much gas
Some folks say it's too old
And that it goes too fast
But my love is bigger than a Honda
It's bigger than a Subaru
Hey man there's only one thing
And one car that will do
Anyway we don't have to drive it
Honey we can park it out in back
And have a party in your pink purple Cadillac
Easily worth $1.5m at Chinese prices.
what an utter POS that is.... ugly as hell and probably super heavy.....
only fucking poli-ticks and their oligarch arse kissers could possible consider buying such franken-car
Car needs curb feelers and fur on the dash.
If you take your index fingers and pull the outside corners of your eyes way back, then the shape of the car looks cool.
Otherwise that is one ugly pos.
However, it does say "I'm Chinese, and filthy fuckin' rich. And I got this way by having filthy rabble like you killed. So, stay away."
I think GM could compete with that.
Here's where it belongs. On the TX cadillac ranch.
https://www.google.com/search?q=tx+cadillac+ranch&rlz=1C1CHAB_enUS554US5...
If I had one I'd crash it immediately for the insurance money! Who said Asians have no taste, small dicks or can't drive? Stereotypes-they're more than just statistical averages.
Interesting story. After one failed sportscare after another the Japanese in the 70s hired Pinafarina (the greatest automobile designer (designed all the famous Ferrari's and Lambogis) in history) to design the 240Z. The most beautiful vehicle to come out of Japan. The Italians rule automotive design.
Pininfarina.
Wow. . . prrreettttttyyyy!!!!! Definately a rambler front end, hood ornament from a 58 chevy, Headlights, well . ..movie prop somewhere in Bollywood, older model bentley body and tail lights off relative new caddy, but they kept the analog clock off the old rambler.. Yep! I say it works really really well. Bwwwaaaaaa what a puke mobile!
Looks like old commie car from the 1960's. Is this an article from the Onion?
The pollution must be getting their sense of judgement.
Everything old is new again eh comrade?
What a fugly POS.
China's dumped about 40 billion into their commercial airplane development programs, and this is all they came up with. Golf clap!
One can't blink the fact that we have an explicit case of industrial spying on hand. The striking resemblance to the former East-German top-model "Trabbi" is obvious - look:
http://www.renegrosser.de/?p=3
checker cab
Butt.fucking.ugly
Looks very very heavy
Aesthetic input from zerohedge.com......hmm.....
Damn..... Am I the only one who likes it?
Sadly..Yes.
I saw one of those when I was walking past a showroom in Hangzhou. I had no idea what it was and no real desire to find out. They also had an aston martin delaership near there and no prizes as to which would brand be the chick puller.
Wow. A box. With windows. Ummm no.