Welcome to Black License Plate Mania In Beijing Part 7 (Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6), where we look at cars with black license plates in the Chinese capital. On the first picture a Hyundai Tiburion with 京A·27197.
A Mercedes-Benz CLK with 京A·28973.
The famous black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the mid 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, or import one. There were no limits on the number of cars, or on price, or engine type. The numbering started at 京A·00001, and then up. So the lower the number the older the car. Any black plate beginning with 京A·0 or 京A·1 is considered ultra rare. I know, I had one too!
In the old days black-plated cars had some privileges comparable to diplomatic cars; no police officer would dare to stop them and they could basically park wherever they wanted without fear of a fine. Nowadays, a black-plated car is counted just like all the others. The government does not issue new black plates anymore but those who have one can keep it until eternity. Other Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, had similar black plate license plate programs.
We got a lot of Mercedes again today. Here an SLK with 京A·51872.
An Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG with 京A·29274, painted in a pretty dark shade of black with a p*rn red interior.
A Shanghai-Volkswagen Passat Lingyu with 京A·35861.
A rare first generation Samsung SM5 with 京A·25793. More about this car in a later post!
A Volvo S80 with 京A·32219.
A FAW-Toyota Corolla with 京A·36233.
The next generation FAW-Toyota Corolla with 京A·52361.
A Beijing-Jeep Cherokee XJ with 京A·09714.
A first generation Lincoln Town Car with 京A·07294, and that makes it the oldest black-plate car in this post!
A Lexus LS400 with 京A·10082.
And the final car in this post: a 4th generation Honda Accord with 京A· 40108.
We got many more black plate cars coming up. That was Part 7, see you soon at Part 8!