Stories

Young Driver Clips Rolls-Royce, Faces Financial Ruin

by on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 100 comments comments

Nanjing Driver Hits Rolls-Royce Phantom, Faces Financial Ruin

A portent of the problems brought about by the ever-increasing income gap in China, a young Jiangsu man is facing probable financial ruin after clipping the bumper off a brand-new Rolls-Royce Phantom in Nanjing. The cost of repairing the Phantom is expected to be upwards of 1 million RMB.

The accident occurred near Lukou International Airport in Nanjing on February 14th. The Rolls-Royce, used as an airport shuttle for corporate VIPs, was parked on a bend in the road when it was struck from the opposite direction by a car driven by 21-year-old Liu from Jiangsu Province.

Liu, who works as a chef, was driving a Chinese made LingYue sedan, valued at around 60-70,000RMB, compared to a price tag of 12 million RMB for the Phantom.  Though the accident only sheared off the bumper of the Phantom, everything on the luxury vehicle is of extremely high quality and custom made, with even the hood ornament costing over 10,000 RMB.

After the accident, Liu was dumbfounded and immediately phoned his family only to woefully discover that even after selling everything they own, including their house, they would still come up short of the 1 million RMB required to compensate for the repairs to the Rolls. Liu’s monthly income as a chef is a paltry 2,000 RMB, and at that wage, it would require over 41 years of work to save up the amount of money needed to fix the Phantom’s bumper.

As Liu bears full responsibility for the accident, he will receive no reprieve from his insurance company and in the end will still have to pay hundreds of thousands of RMB out of pocket.  However, Liu is currently pleading for clemency from the CEOs of the corporation who owns the Rolls-Royce in hopes they will sympathize with his plight.  Considering the amount of eyes that are on this story (#4 trending on Baidu), he may just get lucky in the end.

UPDATE [2/17]: Sina is reporting that the young chef Liu has had his prayers answered — the owner of the Rolls-Royce will pay the repair cost out of pocket. Liu’s insurance coverage only amounted to 300,000 RMB, leaving up to 800,000 RMB remaining for the Rolls-Royce owner to cover.

After the accident, we learned that Liu’s economic situation was not ideal.  As he is still quite young, such a heavy economic burden would be detrimental to his future development — I have the ability, so I will pay the bill myself.

The happy ending had some speculating whether or not this was a publicity stunt for the Phantom. Rolls-Royce curtly responded with: First, the cost is too high. Second, we already have a large reputation.

Indeed.

A damaged Rolls Royce in China.

Nanjing Driver Hits Rolls-Royce Phantom, Faces Financial Ruin.

Nanjing Driver Hits Rolls-Royce Phantom, Faces Financial Ruin

Source: Xinmin, Guangming

  • Dennis

    Sofa yea baby!

    • blackflagnation

      sorry, but that custom-made sofa you’re sitting on belongs to the CEO of the wrecked Rolls Royce. your soiled jeans has ruined it…it’s going to cost you 10,000 RMB to get it cleaned.

    • My Name is Lee

      Sofa nerd

  • http://www.wtchina.freeforums.org Elijah

    2 points to make:

    1) Notice how the Rolls only took minor damage to the body panels, but the chinese car looks like it ran into a wall? That there is some priceless advertising for vehicular safety and the durability of a Rolls Royce.

    2) How does he hit the front left of the Rolls with the front left of his car unless he was going head on? In which case, how did he not notice the big shiny bright super-luxury car?

    Either way, he’s fucked, wonder if the company will help him out or not. They have absolutely no obligation to even if this guy is dirt poor and I feel bad for him.

    PS. Wonder how many Rolls Royces there are in Hong Kong… Will they be kept safe?

    • Ray

      Yea the post said that he hit the car coming from the opposite side (so directly facing each other). If you calculate the damage taken by both cars based on monetary value then the Chinese car was much better off there for of much more efficient design (not factoring in personal injuries, that is another trade-off).

    • Snarl

      There are plenty of RRs in Hong Kong. There is a dealership in Central. They don’t cost HK$12 million though–those prices are either inflated by China’s massive luxury goods import tax or the precise customisation made to the car. When something like this happens, the owner of the car typically makes a settlement for however much the offender is able to pay. Hong Kong law protects individuals from abusive debt indentures.

      • Young Man

        The prices are inflated in mainland China because mainlanders are… well… vulgar and thick, to be frank.

    • Nilerafter24

      The price of the phantom is heavily inflated.
      A 2011 RR phantom is priced between 380- 450 thousand dollars.. thats about 3-4 mllion RMB..
      Damage to the RR wont need a full body replacement. Only the side chasis and the front chasis need to be replaced. I call bullshit on this repair price.

    • Tom

      You are missing the point of the damage to the Chinese car. Yes, it looks like that corner of the car was destroyed. But look at the passenger compartment. It is completely intact. The crumple zone did its work. The results are ugly, but the passenger is safe. Do not underestimate the value of Chinese engineering.

      • http://www.wtchina.freeforums.org Elijah

        Sorry, but I absolutely do underestimate the value of chinese engineering because it’s been shown time and time and time and time and time again to be either barely competent or totally ineffective.

        Sad fact is that chinese designed and built cars have worse safety ratings than ex-Soviet cars….

        Consider this another way, the Rolls was parked, therefore the only speed to account for is the chinese driver in the chinese car. Seeing as how this was at a bend in the road, that means that he had to have decreased speed. Furthermore, it was near an airport on a busy city street.

        So altogether, the speed of the crash wouldn’t have been very high at all. Saying that the passenger compartment didn’t crumple up is an achievement is like saying that being able to walk 15 minutes without getting winded means your healthy…

        PS. The comment about Rolls Royce in Hong Kong was a joke about the terrible proposition to allow mainlanders to drive in Hong Kong.

        • Chad

          “Seeing as how this was at a bend in the road, that means that he had to have decreased speed. ”

          That’s a huge assumption there. If he had decreased speed, he shouldn’t have hit the car in the first place and the damage on the RR wouldn’t have been so great. And I can’t believe you’re blaming the damage on the cheap ass car on the fact that it’s Chinese designed rather than the fact that it’s a cheap ass car colliding with an extremely expensive one.

          • ceh

            and not to mention a really heavy one. A small brick wall may in fact not weigh as much as the RR. Simple physics says the heavier object is going to win. I have to agree that spouting off “China made shit sucks” on this thread is inane.

          • http://youhaeseriousissues.com Capt. WED

            ” Simple physics says the heavier object is going to win”

            By this logic if I jump in the air my legs ought to be broken? Basically I won’t go into the details the velocity will dominate. See this: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/impulse.html

            Imagine a duck travelling at 2 miles an hour and hit a stationary 747. He will be fine. (A duck hitting a 747 at 600mph is another story). If you look at the impulse forces involving a large change in the mass of the stationary object doesn’t really make the velocity of first object explode.

            Just a quicky while I wait on my next client.

          • http://youhaeseriousissues.com Capt. WED

            How see this Americunt show.

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8E5dUnLmh4

          • http://youhaeseriousissues.com Capt. WED

            Actually I’m retarded. I would definitely rather sit in the heavier object. It’s definitely going to “win”. What I really meant was if I were hitting a royce or anything heavy that is sitting there and I’m going 30 mph I would be okay. Hitting a wall at 100mph is not okay. The impulse force is the same but the change in velocity is not the same because of mass. Or something like that. It’s been years since I’ve done this.

          • http://youhaeseriousissues.com Capt. WED

            You motherfuckers are confusing. FUCK I’m dumb.

          • mr. wiener

            Did I just see you have an argument with yourself and lose?

          • http://youhaeseriousissues.com Capt. WED

            well I meant the biggest factor in this crash (because the other car is stationary) is the velocity. But I kept thinking about a lighter object versus an extremely heavier object (tripped me up) but that had nothing to do with this situation (was thinking to myself). So assuming the car meet a minimum set of standards with stiffness, crush power, etc, the only thing that matter is how fast it was going as it hit the other parked car. You can try to skiming through the doc below. I’m not really an engineer, so….

            http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0601/0601168.pdf

          • Mao Ze Shenme Dong Dong

            Bwahahahaha!

            Mr. Weiner… yes you did.

            That guy needs to internalise his thoughts and THEN write.

  • 童子蛋

    that’s why you are supposed to have insurance if you drive

    • 山炮 ShanPao

      Yeah, good luck. In China, the insurance company would scoff at any claim such as this. They would find a way through bribery or intimidation to make out that the driver was drunk or other such circumstances which would prevent them from paying.

      China is not an honest society, nothing simple ever works, paying money to an insurance company is the same as pissing up against a wall, deal with it.

      • jin

        I take it that you didn’t read everything correct?

        “As Liu bears full responsibility for the accident, he will receive no reprieve from his insurance company and in the end will still have to pay hundreds of thousands of RMB out of pocket.”

        he will be partially compensated. the damage cost is 1mil.

        • 山炮 ShanPao

          Yeah I read that part… which part of my comment do you have a problem with?

          • jin

            ” which would prevent them from paying. ”
            1mil to hundreds of thousands.
            so the insurance company does pay a small amount, and also this is his own fault for reckless driving.

          • 山炮 ShanPao

            Thanks… but… I am a native english speaker, I dont need your help. I was speaking generally about ‘the China thing’ in response to the above post. If you take objection to the manner in which I phrased something I suggest you take up time consuming hobby or get a friend and go outside.

    • 汉明

      The article says he has insurance but isn’t covered because the fault is his. I’m not entirely familiar with insurance in China, but it seems that he is not covered. Perhaps it’s time for mandatory third-party insurance in China which will cover exactly this sort of situation?

      • Joel

        He is partially covered, but because the fault is entirely his (the Phantom was parked), his insurance will pay the minimum amount possible leaving Liu with a substantial bill in the end.

        • mulla

          That is crazy! Please look at other countries examples. Insurances are made to prevent you from total bankruptcy in exactly such a case. Insurance in Europe must cover all damages of the opponents car (and they will send investigators to check if it is fraud). Exceptions are: Driver did it on purpose or driver was drunk.

          • staylost

            I agree, but I can’t really argue against ShanPo here. I’ll have to ask some of my friends here what the insurance deal is.

            My guess is this, the insurance IS paying for part of the cost. They may have a maximum payout of 100,000 RMB or something of the sort. It simply wouldn’t be in favor of the maniac driver to explain this, so it isn’t in the article. This is just a guess, though.

          • My Name is Lee

            In China insurance companies would go bankrupt if they work the same way as in Europe… I guess…

    • john digmeme

      I was surprised by the line that said that he DID have insurance, they just refused to pay. What’s up with that? You make your monthly payments, the insurance company is supposed to pay if you are at fault.

      What is the point of having insurance if they don’t pay up?

      • 山炮 ShanPao

        I take it you didn’t read my post then. TIC – This is China

        • jw

          TIA Danny boy, it’s not going to catch on

          • http://www.wtchina.freeforums.org Elijah

            I’ve heard people say “welcome to china” more.

            Which is why I named my site http://www.wtchina.freeforums.org

            Digital Pimp Hard At Work.

      • Gary

        He probably has the most basic coverage for his own car. If his car was damaged by another driver’s fault, he’d be covered. Since this was his fault, he’s not covered.

        • whichone

          Isn’t the most basic coverage for other people’s car? I understand that is how liability works.

          • Ryo

            What kind of insurance do you all have? Magical insurance?

            If I recall, ALL insurance have a limit. The more you pay, the higher the limits. Do you think your insurance will cover 100won in damage? What if you totaled that Phantom? Do you think your insurance will pay for it? Look up your insurance contract. You’ll find that most of your premiums won’t cover as much as you thought.

      • Interested

        It is liability only insurance which is the cheapest. You have that in USA too.

    • Chris N.

      If I was the insurance company I would be hard-pressed to fully insure any young driver with a 2000rmb salary

  • Crazy_Gweilo

    Even if it was his fault third party insurance would surely cover it? Unless he was drunk or on drugs?

  • typingfromwork

    What the hell happened to the comments?

    41 years…. shit. Should have gotten better insurance.

  • Andao

    Bitch Phantom had it comin

  • themig

    mainland doesn’t comment on rolls royces, better ask honkies who are experts at limie cars

  • Jesus

    Why can’t those mainland Chinese revolt and change the govt? Get the Europeans to manage China.

    • Patrick

      Or they could pray, maybe you should get off your ass and help Jesus – if that’s who you REALLY are.

    • donscarletti

      Two trial programs along those lines were conducted, concluding in 1997 and 1999. Results were promising, especially in the movie, finance and yum cha sectors, but it was decided not to implement on a larger scale.

    • Peter Pan

      Seen the fucking state of Europe these days? Euro Crisis…..Greece….begging the Chinks for help!

      • Stacy

        Hey back off buddy. Don’t confuse the lazy bones in Greece with the rest of Europe.

      • donscarletti

        Greece? Trouble? Never! They have 5000 years of history don’t you know?!

  • blues

    Well….

    Alls Hong Kong people need to do now is start flooding the streets with Rolls Royces to deter mainland chinese people from driving on their roads ^^

  • theet

    SOFA

  • jw

    12 million RMB = 1.9 million U.S
    how come this Phantom cost so much, it seems to be 5 time the normal price?
    is it import/luxury tax?

    • Joel

      Import/luxury tax and the Phantom is limited edition.

  • Gary

    Remind me again why it is Hong Kong doesn’t want mainland drivers cruising their city?

  • lonetrey

    Part of me wants to shout “That’s what they get for driving like an asshole! This should at least scare a few people into driving better!”

    The other half is kind of mortified for the chef. I mean, what if this was really an accident? Like, he really didn’t see it, and it wasn’t because he was driving like a douchebag on the streets? Should a simple mistake cost someone half of his entire life? (assuming he even makes it to 80.) He’ll have the last 10-20 years of his life left to regret that single day back when he was 27 years old….

    For me, I feel like it’s hard to know what to think of this.

  • Meh

    Seriously? For a bumper? Let the poor guy slide. Good grief.

  • staylost

    I rammed your parked car on the far side of the road by driving the wrong way on the wrong side of the road.

    But I’m poor so I shouldn’t have to pay!

    Maybe Hong Kong can just require a 10 million RMB security deposit for mainland drivers.

  • Kevin

    I hope he can get some sort of reprieve here.

  • Four Eyes

    Accidents happen, and Mr Liu has my every sympathy. He has also done me a favour. I thought that a Roller was a solid well-built machine. If I win the lottery next week I won’t be buying a flimsy plastic car like that.

    • http://candosino.wordpress.com terroir

      Hey. The newspapers used in the paper mache body of the Rolls Royce are all high quality foreign newspapers! All European languages, with English included!

    • Kevin

      Yes! I was rather non-plused about that picture also. A quarter million dollars for plastic! I hope at least someone can tell me that is carbon fibre maybe.

  • http://www.matthewsawtell.com Matthew A. Sawtell

    To live in a state with “no fault”…

  • cc

    1 Mil to repair, bullshit, thats the best part of 160,000$. I work in the auto trade and can only see about 30,000$ worth of damage at most. This poor guy is getting seriously ripped off, even the main dealer wouldn’t charge that amount.
    Anyway isn’t it illegal to park on a corner?
    But what can you say, Chinese driver!!!!!

  • The Dude

    This is all wonderful news!

    Maybe now every single Chinese will stop buying cars and considering it a status symbol. If even half of 1.3 billion people have cars, then the whole country is messed up.

    ‘Can’t afford a crash? Then don’t by a car!’.

    This would never have happened with a bicycle.

    Anyway, on a serious note, I hope he doesn’t have to pay all of that… But really, don’t buy a car.

    • Ryo

      “This would never have happened with a bicycle.”

      Most retarded and ignorant comment yet!

      If you scratched a car riding your bike, you are still liable for the damage! You think if you were on a bike and you clipped the mirror of that Phantom, and the owner saw it, they’d let you slide? You’re a fool…

      • http://www.wtchina.freeforums.org Elijah

        No, I think he was implying that the amount of damage caused would be significantly smaller.

        As you said, someone riding on a bike would be more liable to scratch the paint or possibly clip a mirror. They would be physically unable to cause anything more then dents or scratches even at high speeds.

        Which brings me to the second part of the joke. By allowing people to only ride bikes instead of driving cars, this would lower everyone’s speed on the road, thus causing fewer crashes and the crashes that did occur would be much less severe.

        It’s pretty hard to not avoid something and then do damage at 10km/hr with less than 90kg of mass.

        You’re a fool for not understanding a joke that was fairly obvious and then calling someone else a fool.

      • snicker

        You know what, screw card drivers. They don’t pay for parking in my bike lane (or pedestrian sidewalk), they don’t pay for the health costs of PM2.5 building in my lungs and bloodstream. They don’t pay for all the environmental damage needed to build and maintain parking lots. They don’t pay society for the billions of person-hours wasted sitting in traffic. You’re not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic! Get a bike, rich bit¢h!

        RR drivers beware:

        It is really, really easy to run away if your bike is in tact and you’re in a normal urban setting.

        Step 1. Turn around and head the wrong way down the road (easy for a bike, hard for a car).

        Step 2. If they follow, just turn around again and go the other way.

        3. ** Know your neighbourhood – Turn into a side road and ride up off the street. Ride into an apartment complex, take your bike into the elevator and go up. Or ride into a street with lots of people walking on it. Bike will have a huge advantage.

        4. When riding, it’s always a good idea to wear a hat with a long peak. That way, when you’re messing up cars, Spynet has a hard time to ID you, so even if the RRa$hole is a cop, it’s hard for them to establish a positive link to you.

        Go and watch Fight Club – that movie rocks!

  • TheHansTheDampf

    Its a difficult situation to be in, on the one hand, dont drive like a jerk, on the other, its that gap, and his whole life is fucked, while the CEO could easily take it. Difficult situation.

  • rollin wit 9′s

    C.Smackers.
    Paying a premium guarantees (under certain conditions) your coverage by the insurance company even with the most basic of policies.

    Look at it from the POV of the owners of the Phantom. They SHOULD and most likely have full coverage auto-insurance on that vehicle. That means if that vehicle is damaged in any way other than natural disaster (china probably doesnt deal with that either) the vehicle is insured.

    Insurance doesnt work this way–> you dont cough up money when both parties are insured, unless you are paying to repair YOUR OWN vehicle or your premium has increased as a result of an accident or speeding tickets etc. And you definitely dont pay to repair the other parties vehicle. I take it most of you didnt drive back in your native countries. That or you never read the fine print on your contract. i expect better from you C.smackers. Seriously.
    This IS china though so who knows how fcked up & twisted the contracts get here. That is all.
    Carry on…

  • 平凡人

    Accidents do happen, however, they need to learn to be more careful. Hitting a PARKED car, my guess, he is speeding, on the cell phone or sending text messages.

  • fabi

    well it seems that in china the insurance limits its maximum payment in case of damage…

    same goes e.g. for health insurance afaik

  • http://www.qq.com/1325279774 Kedafu

    Song of the Article

    Club Foot
    -Kasabian

    http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/4939728-1300257351.html

    keep it real
    五毛党

  • Rick in China

    The information in the article is incorrect.

    The damage was estimated at 800,000rmb.

    The insurance provider for Liu covers 500,000 maximum – he had full comprehensive coverage, so even though it’s his fault, insurance covers his mistake. The problem is the damage is 800k and his insurance maxes at 500k, he still owes 300k.

    The hood ornament isn’t toasted – the TIRE is. And the TIRE costs over 10k RMB.

    • Rick in China

      Also, the rolls was parked in the central reservation area on the airport expressway, and the dude went over the yellow separating line to smash it.

      • staylost

        This makes total sense.

        The article above looked like it was written by a whiner who drove like a jerk and thinks he can break the law at his leisure who is now trying to get away with it.

        • Rick in China

          Well, in my mind, both were at fault.

          1) You can’t park any car in a reservation area on the road, and it’s extremely irresponsible to park it on a reservation area near/on an *expressway*! What a fucking idiot. It’s also really arrogant and stupid of them to drop their PHANTOM there, as if they also do not give a shit about the law and can do whatever they want with their 12 million dollar piece of metal.
          2) How can the driver be on the expressway and end up so careless as to drive over a yellow line. The lanes on any expressway I’ve been on in China are not so small, and how the fuck can you not notice a big white rolls infront of you. He’s an idiot too.

          • staylost

            Fair enough. More facts I don’t know about.

            If the Phantom actually broke the law, then logic dictates their insurance would also be liable for some amount of the repair cost.

            But think about this, people might have died if they were driving the car on the road like a normal human being in the opposite direction of Mr. “Outside the Lines” Liu. It is only by luck that they were off the road, managing to only get clipped rather than hit head on.

          • Rick in China

            Additional information:

            The Phantom was not properly insuranced/licensed. Look at the photo, it has no license plates. It should not have been there, and in fact the insurance company is questioning whether they had valid “temp” plates and if they do not prove they did, refusing to pay any money *for the Phantom* since it was illegally parked and not insured/plated according to the law. AFAIK that detail isn’t clearly known yet.

            The phantom owners are being questioned as to whether they are “forgiving Liu” so quickly because they are on the hook for the illegal parking and unlicensed vehicle, or because they are truly being ‘nice guys’. Makes sense.

            I would wager Liu’s insurance, since it’s comprehensive, will cover his own repair bill. Since the other car is absolutely outside of the law, I’d wager they are going to have to foot the bill themselves and suck it up.

          • typingfromwork

            Yes but did he have his hazard lights (AKA make-any-patch-of-ground-a-parking-space lights) on?

  • Toemass

    I really would be interested in knowing the outcome if this story. If the guy can afford a Rolls Royce I hope he has a heart and lets the young driver off. He could easily rape this young boy of his pennies. Maybe the boy could find another way to make up for it, but then again this is China.

    I feel for this kid and obviously insurance in China is not 100%. Christ when I was 18 I crashed my first car by hitting a telegraph pole and flipping the car. I took my eyes off the road for 1 sec and boom next thing your upside down. I admitted it was my fault to the authorities ending up with the bill for damages and a fine. Oh and i got points too on my license, with obviously no insurance help overall. I was an idiot and learned my lesson. My insurance at that time was around 4 times as much as the value of the car because of my age, it was a real shitbox! Such a waste. That’s a young man’s tradition though.

    Many of my other friends at that age totaled their cars too. My friend crashed his first car by clipping a parked BMW and flipping his car while doing 60mph. It was his fault he told us as he was speeding but told the authorities that a dog ran out in front of him swerving to miss it. My friend’s insurance helped him cover the cost of damages and got off scott free. He was smart!

    Good luck to this chap!

  • Castro

    Wow, Ii used to love RR’s… I grew up in the UK where they were amongst the slickest of rides…
    I am sad to look at this one, it looks flimsy. It looks like cheap plastic or maybe fiber-glass. I’m not sure, but looks cheap. Like they put all the effort into making the interior posh looking, but outside it’s built the new weight saving way.. Oh well, I am not an expert, but it further confirms my own personal choice of older rides. ’69 – 74 Corvette. Most ’60′s & early 70′s muscle cars. 50′s – 70′s Willys Jeeps. And older model RR’s still are sly rides….

    :-p

  • Foreign Devil

    Where are the chinese comments? I think they are getting lazy at Chinasmack.. Chinese netizen comments is the whole point of CHinasmack! Otherwise I’ll visit the competing website.

    If his car insuarnce can’t cover this. . then insurance is useless.

    • Ryo

      Look up your insurance. Does it cover 154k USD in property damage? Why if you totaled that Phantom? Does your insurance cover 1.2 million in damage?

      Unless you specifically tell them you want enough to cover 1.2 mill, which wi make your premium very high, you’ve probably for enough to cover maybe 30-50k in property damage.

  • Lee

    Car Accident do happen who matter how well you drive ASshole.. this phamton shouldn’t be on the road because it is expensive and when one hit it, you dont expect them to pay 1 million RMD. It just stupid….

    • 平凡人

      This is the funniest comment I have ever heard, “not allowing expensive cars on the road”.
      Hong Kong has many fancy cars on the road, I yet heard of such news (maybe not reported). For one, the insurance here sucks, in this case the coverage has a max. Secondly, less reckless and impatient drivers although sometimes I see some crazy guys speeding down a narrow road with their sports car.

  • Chanse

    This is EXACTLY why ordinary HKongers shouldn’t be driving in China and EXACTLY why Mainlanders shouldn’t be driving down to HK

  • Orthodox

    There are two forms of insurance in the U.S. One is personal and one is liability. Personal covers damage to your car and your body. Liability covers the damage to other cars and other people. If you don’t have enough liability, you could be personally responsible for damages that exceed insurance.

    In China it is the exact opposite of the U.S.? The joke here is you never park next to a cheap dinged up car because if that guy hits you, he’s got no money to pay for repairs. If you own an expensive car, you must up your coverage if you want to be paid because obviously, 99% of the other drivers on the road have less ability to pay and lower insurance. In the U.S., the judge would tell the RR owner: you get his insurance payout, and the rest is your problem. (Unless he was grossly negligent, then there may be some other costs, but not involving selling his home!)

    Also, I don’t what the road looks like, but parking on a curve in the road would make the stupid driver partially responsible. Hey, but guess what is the salary of the VIP RR Driver? 2000 rmb per month……

    • Ryo

      Insurance is pretty much the same in China. But who the hell buys enough insurance to cover a $1.2 mill car???

      I would bet my left nut that 90% of the people here don’t have enough insurance to cover a $450k car! So if they hit a Phantom in the US and totaled it, you think their insurance is going to fork up $450k when you’re paying the lowest premium?

      I just see all these ignorant people saying China insurance is useless. Well, your insurance is going to give you the finger too if you hit that expensive car and want them to cover the full bill. They’ll only cover what you paid for!!! Look up your contracts. I’m quite sure it’ll be less then you expect.

  • Bluefool

    So how does a 21 y.o. making 2,000 rmb a month afford a 70,000 rmb car anyway? Most of the young foodservice people I see around town are on bicycles or scooters . . .

  • galapiass

    [As Liu bears full responsibility for the accident, he will receive no reprieve from his insurance company...]
    Then why hold an insurance ???

  • Scott

    That is not a Rolls-Royce Phantom. Look at the line of the bumper compared with the third and fourth pictures here: http://www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/#/phantom_family/ . Apart from that, Rolls are made of metal, not fibre-glass or plastic. Someone seems to be attempting fraud.

    • Ryo

      I bet if you look closely, it is actually spelled “Phantorn”

      I Chinese replica…. lol

  • jeffli

    This shows how Chinas “insurance ” really works. what is an insurance policy for?
    Yep this poor basterd is fked.

    But why park such a precious car willy nilly on a bend in the road? schtoopid!

    green ham and eggs coming right up!

    • Ryo

      Do you think your current insurance would cover $53k in damage? Look up your contract. Chances are, it won’t!

  • Ryo

    However stupid the Chinese car driver may be, you’re just asking for it if you drive a 12 mill turn car in China. 99.999% of the population is not going to have enough to repair any damage to tht car. They know this when they drive that thing here. Asking them to pay is just pointless and shows ignorance on the Phaantom owner.

    If you can’t afford to fix your 12 million yuen car, then don’t fucking drive it in China because unless another Phantom hits you, chances are that whoever hits you will not have enough money to pay!

  • Ryo

    So I went ahead and did a sample quote from “State Farm” insurance in the US. The quote I got was for a 2010 KIA Optima with a 20+ driving history, no accidents, and I get all the discounts available. Resident is in Los Angeles CA.

    So I have 3 choices for my premium: $111, $135, $147. The Liability – Bodily Injury / Property Damage is $15k/30k/5k, $50k/100k/50k, and $100k/300k/100k respectively. Deductible is $500.

    Now, for me, I’ve never paid for anything but the lowest available because that covers most damages that I may cause. I mean, $30k is a lot considering most cars on the road is less then that and that is only if you total the other car.

    So what if you hit a Phantom in the US? Do you think your insurance will cover the total cost of the repair? The cost of a Phantom is about $400k (depending on options). So do a little math, that repair cost would of came to ~$53k.

    So if your insurance forks out $30k, you are still liable to pay the other $23k. Now if you were driving a Kia Optima in the US, chances are you won’t have $23k in your bank account.

    So my point is even if you have insurance, they will not pay everything, even if you are in US of A. It is no difference here in China.

    Get that point across your head people!

    • JeffG.

      “So my point is even if you have insurance, they will not pay everything, even if you are in US of A. It is no difference here in China.”

      You really think it would take you 41 years to pay $23k? Then again, some of the comments on here could be attributed to people in the U.S. equivalent of this chef’s wage bracket.

      I haven’t had liability only coverage in a long time, but there is $100k limit on our current policies, plus we carry a $1m umbrella policy.

      Sure… the insurance in China is just like in the U.S. Good luck with that.

  • http://moominhouse.blogspot,com moom

    I think it’s real. See this one for a comparison:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sultan_RR.jpg

    Apparently the body is mostly made from aluminum, that’s why it doesn’t look like smashed steel…

  • Jack

    Drive carefully, boys.

  • Derek Xu

    Rolls is a POS car for the vain.

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