BEIJING - Aspirants to car ownership are resorting to renting license plates after becoming weary of trying to win a plate through the capital city's lottery system.

At some Beijing car lots, sales agents are selling cars that come already outfitted with license plates. Shoppers can buy them after agreeing to pay fees for the use of the plates.

For plates on cars priced below 250,000 yuan ($39,400), they must pay 4,000 yuan a year. For those on more expensive vehicles, the cost is 8,000 yuan a year.

After a customer makes a purchase, many dealers will give them contracts showing that they own the cars. Even so, the dealers are still the ones who obtained the plates and therefore remain the official owners.

"Buyers are virtually buying the right to use the car," said Shen Xin, a customer manager at a Volkswagen outlet in Beijing. "But the contract says the car belongs to the consumer and that he can always transfer it to his account once he gets a plate license."

By Monday afternoon, a group-buying website, gaopeng.com, stated that more than 106 customers had used its services to rent license plates.

The business of plate rental found fertile soil for its cultivation in January, when Beijing began trying to alleviate traffic congestion by restricting how many vehicles could be bought in the city.

Since the policy's advent, residents have only been able to obtain license plates by taking part in a lottery.

By September, more than 742,000 people had played the lottery. The odds of winning it are now one in 34.

In Beijing, most of the stores that are renting license plates belong to Lentuo Group, a car sales and maintenance company. Employees at the company said one of its branches had obtained a large number of license plates just before the lottery system went into effect in January.

"Our company registered many cars this past December," said Liu Hongjun, another customer manager from the company.

Customers who buy a car with a license plate can sign a contract with a dealer allowing them to keep their plate numbers for between three and five years, some dealers said. If during that time they win a license in the lottery, they can receive a refund.

Even so, after the specified time period has expired, dealers are generally vague about how a car can be made legal to drive again.

Chinese laws and regulations stipulate that car licenses can only be issued by traffic authorities and that transferring licenses among car owners is illegal.

Liu, though, said the "rent-and-run" business is lawful.

"We've already sold several thousand cars."

Wang Yue, a Beijing resident who was looking at cars at a lot in Tongzhou district on Monday, said he is tired of waiting to win a license in the lottery system and is seriously thinking about buying a car that comes with a plate for rent. He said, though, that he is still unsure about the practice.

Lawyers said he has good reason to be.

"If the property does not belong to you, it is even possible for car dealers to sell the car a second time," said Qian Jun, a lawyer at the Beijing Yingke Law Firm.

"I don't think it is appropriate or legal that these stores are making profits from public resources. It is unfair to other brokers and to consumers."

Jin Huiyu contributed to the story.

China Daily

(China Daily 10/11/2011 page4)