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Fran Lu

The owner of a luxury Maybach car has sparked an unlikely new “fashion” trend after he covered his water-leakage-hit vehicle in cheap, three-coloured tarpaulin.
The 31-year-old from eastern China’s Jiangsu province, surnamed Zhou, bought a new Mercedes-Maybach GLS 480 for 2.15 million yuan (US$304,000) at the brand’s dealership store in Suzhou city on July 1.
Two days later Zhou discovered abnormal sound coming from the car’s dashboard and water leakage when it rained.
Zhou took the car back for examination, but technicians there could not find the source of the problem.
Staff at the dealership suggested taking the car apart to pin down the problem, but Zhou refused believing the company should not experiment with his new car.

Nevertheless, after Zhou had left the vehicle with the shop, staff went ahead and disassembled the car without his permission.
Zhou called the police, and turned down the shop’s offer to fix things.
He asked about a trade-in option, and received a quote of around 1.5 million yuan, meaning that he would lose 650,000 yuan.
Zhou said the store’s attitude irritated him, as he could get a higher quote in the second-hand market.
He told Daxiang News on October 10 that he had called the official complaints hotline for the past three months but received neither a proper solution nor an apology.
While there is a famous Chinese cyber idiom which says “One cannot own a Maybach and low esteem at the same time”, implying money makes a person confident, Zhou said he became “the first man to own them both”.
He said he expected a full refund and an apology from the brand, and an 80-yuan “compensation of moral damages”.
He had been covering the car with the classic Chinese red, blue and white striped tarpaulin, which costs less than 1 yuan (14 US cents) per square metre on Chinese e-commerce platforms, held down with black and yellow tape.
He hit the road in the car and even shot commercial-level videos for his trips in it to boost his traffic and attract the brand’s attention.
Zhou’s Douyin account had 300,000 followers at the time of writing.
Vehicle owners across China, including those of Maybach and other types of cars, decked out their cars with the three-colour tarpaulin in a show of support.

Zhou said he was moved by the gesture, and promised to donate the money to “talented but poor students to support their research”, if he could get a full refund.
An unnamed staff member with the dealership said they would fulfil their responsibility to solve the problem, and asked for authorisation from Zhou to have a thorough check of the car.
Some online observers said Zhou’s design reminded them of Balenciaga’s blue, red and white shopper bag, which costs more than US$2,000.
Some people even flocked to Mercedes-Benz’s mainland social media accounts to ask about the “limited-edition Maybach” to tease the brand.


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People & Culture

Owner of newly-bought, high-end Maybach uses cheap tarpaulin to ‘bandage’ leaky car, gets 300,000 followers online as result


Owner of newly-bought, high-end Maybach uses cheap tarpaulin to ‘bandage’ leaky car, gets 300,000 followers online as result.
