Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

The 35 public-owned vehicles from Shanghai's large state-owned fleet will be available for public auction for the first time on the morning of April 24, today's Shanghai Morning Post reported.
The auctions, part of the local trial reforms concerning public autos, were previously opened only to employees of state-owned enterprises. Now, for the first time, ordinary citizens can participate.
The 35 vehicles, with a combined value of nearly three million yuan (US$36), will have their lowest prices set at 30 percent below the market prices, said a spokesman with the auction.
The auctioned cars will include Santanas, Santana 2000s, Audis, Opels, Cherokees, Buicks and Dodges, with the largest numbers the Santana 2000s, Buicks and Audi 100s, the spokesman pointed out, adding that the Buick Regal purchased in September 2003 has the highest value at nearly 200,000 yuan.
Compared with ordinary used cars, used public autos have luckier license plate numbers, such as numbers ending with 'eight', a lucky number for Chinese, and they are usually better maintained.
Shanghai held its first auction of publicly-owned vehicles in early 2002.