Safety fears as wrecked cars rebuilt

　　Cars which have been written off after accidents are being rebuilt and sold at auctions in Beijing, an investigation has found.

A Beijing customer, Xue Dong, bought what he thought was a secondhand Audi A5 from Fengshun Lubao Automobile Auction for 180,000 yuan ($28,458) on May 8. Normally, these cars sell new for 450,000 yuan.

According to the report, information from the auctioneers stated that the car was made in 2011, but had been involved in an accident, in which the right front wing was crushed.

Xue consulted with a friend, and felt that the 80,000 yuan it would cost to repair the vehicle was worth it. However, when his friend examined the car, he found obvious weld marks, and discovered that it was in fact rebuilt using parts from other Audi makes.　

Car repairers, like leading chain 4S, usually advise owners to scrap severely damaged cars. But some repair shops buy these cars at low prices, and rebuild using spare parts.

Beijing Traffic Management Bureau told the Beijing News that written off cars are not allowed to be insured or registered, let alone sold or driven. But the investigation found that a network of people made a living from rebuilding write-offs, and that safety inspections of secondhand cars by government transportation departments was not strict enough.　

Su Hui, who works with China Automobile Dealers Association, said secondhand cars are inspected by organizations which are attached to different departments, like the traffic management bureau or the automobile maintenance industry.

"This business should be forbidden, because it could bring possible accidents," said Su, adding that greed is the strong motivator for the trade, but that slack inspection on secondhand cars only serves to help those involved.