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  • March 19, 2011, 11:02 AM HKT

Chinese Millionaire Smashes His Lamborghini

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From The Wealth Report:

By Robert Frank

High-price sports cars can be infuriating.

Yes, they are dreams to drive, but they also can catch fire, veer into ponds or impale pedestrians on their hood ornaments.

Sometimes it is almost enough to make you want to toss them in the junkyard–if only they weren’t so expensive. Yet one angry Chinese Lamborghini buyer has done just that.

According to news reports and auto blogs, a millionaire in Qingdao, on China’s northern coast, bought a Gallardo (price up to $700,000 in China) last November. Six months later, the engine wouldn’t start. The car was transported to the dealer, who allegedly didn’t fix the problem but dinged the bumper and chassis during the trip.

The irate owner tried unsuccessfully to get the problem fixed, to no avail. He escalates his case all the way up to Lamborghini CEO Stephen Winkelmann, but apparently the dispute wasn’t resolved.

So on March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, the Lambo owner hired a team of guys with sledgehammers to destroy the car in public. You can see the video here.

A spokesman for Lamborghini said the company solved the owner’s problem and that the owner smashed the car “for reasons that are unknown to us and that are independent from his relationship with Lamborghini.”

What is the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought and smashed?

See also: The Other Side to the Lamborghini Story

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Comments (5 of 16)

View all Comments »
      • 3:39 am March 20, 2011
      • Mega wrote:

      Please remove the two spam posts from “Katie Baker” above. Thanks.

      • 3:20 am March 20, 2011
      • GOODJOB wrote:

      Some of the famous brands are treating Chinese customers different from the customers in the west, because most of the Chinese customers are thought to be tolerent. And the article did not explain that March 15th is the “customers’ rights day” in China. Many products of low quality are exposed to the public at that day.

      A lawsuit can obviously help the owner to fix the car and get some money back, but, obviously that is not what he want.

      • 2:40 am March 20, 2011
      • Taura Mutoti in Zimbabwe, Africa wrote:

      If this millionaire had donated this gift to the Bill Gates mission to have world’s most rich people donated some of their world i bet it could have gone a long way in helping the poor who can not even afford to smash even an empty platic plate with nothing to eat. the overzelousness of quick rich people trying to send an empty message to the west that we are now rich is a no show for sure. collect your manners in the bin near you and learn to give to the poor what you may think is nolonger enjoyable to you.

      • 2:01 am March 20, 2011
      • hidden message? wrote:

      Darn it, a rich idiot get to hire bunch of other idiots to smash his car in a very public gathering, yet if some decent individuals dare to publicly talk about social issue? no, no, you didn’t…
      I would have laughed at WSJ putting this tabloid news here, but maybe there is a hidden message, or not, whatever.

      • 1:34 am March 20, 2011
      • SamIAm wrote:

      Good Start!! Chinese millionaire should drive Geely, eat Chinese made Food, and weary Chinese Cloth to get jail free next unrest cycle in China.

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