Chapter 441 – Test drive
“Reveal the minimum bid? Impossible. However, due to your contributions to CCTV for the past two years, the most I can do is to let you win two bids secretly. I cannot reveal the rest of the minimum bids to you.” Deputy Station Chief shook his head.
Feng Yu was slightly disappointed. This Chief Jia does not know how to be flexible? This will help CCTV save money. If CCTV got more profits from the advertising slots, he still has to hand over the money to his higher-ups.
After Feng Yu left, Chief Jia went to look for his higher-ups with the car brochures. In his heart, he was more inclined to Songjiang Motor’s cars. But Bing City Machinery Company was not a state-owned enterprise like First Auto Works. FAW was a government supported vital enterprise. If Feng Yu’s Machinery Company were state-owned, he would not have any hesitations.
“Old Jia, why are you thinking of buying this brand of cars? I have heard of this brand. This brand had advertised on CCTV previously, and Baldy Chen and Xhu Simao had starred in the commercials. But isn’t this a Motorcycle brand? You dare to drive a car manufactured by a motorcycle manufacturer?” The Station Chief shook his head. He knew that Chief Jia and Feng Yu were close, but Chief Jia should not give Feng Yu special treatments on everything.
“There is a national level’s inspection report at the back. In the report, the stats are comparable with the cars we are familiar with. Also, the higher-ups wanted us to lower our spending. It was not easy to get the approval from the Publicity Department, and the funds we have is insufficient to purchase the number of vehicles we needed. If there are cheap but high-quality cars, we can purchase more vehicles.”
Station Chief frowned. This was indeed a problem. The money allocated to them was fixed. If there were able to purchase cheaper cars, then they will be able to get more vehicles. If they picked the more expensive brands, then they will have to make do with lesser cars.
The Station Chief looked at the pictures in the brochures. The design of the cars was beautiful and looks grand. The interior looks spacious, and it should be comfortable sitting in it. The brochure also claimed to have good suspensions and soundproofing. The only problem was the price of the cars was not stated in the brochure.
“We had discussed before, and we will be picking either Audi 200, Audi 100 or Santana. How good is this Songjiang Motor? Is it as good as what it claims in the brochure?” The Station Chief was worried. If he purchases a batch of lousy cars for the sake of saving money, he would be in trouble.
Feng Yu had already foreseen this problem. He had sent a batch of cars from Bing City to Beijing. These cars were parked outside the awards ceremony’s studio.
Even if CCTV does not want to buy his cars, Feng Yu will also want those bosses and government officials attending the ceremony to see Songjiang Motors cars. He will also want his vehicles to be in the photos taken by the reporters.
“The cost of these cars is not more than 100,000 RMB. you can let the driver test drive it. The performance is definitely better than Santana.”
An engineer from the Machinery Company introduced his cars proudly. This Olympic model is the most basic model. The cost was not more than 90,000 RMB, but Feng Yu had instructed him to say the cost was not more than 100,000 RMB.
The drivers looked at their leaders and went to test drive the cars. When they returned, they nodded to the leaders excitedly. It felt excellent to drive this car. The suspensions and soundproofing were much better than Santana, and the exterior looks grand.
“The cost for this model is about 200,0000 RMB. This model is designed for executives and businessmen. The features of this model are the spacious interiors, high body, and the larger passengers’ seats. It is incredibly comfortable.”
This time, Chief Jia boarded the car and sat in the passenger’s seat. He wanted to experience this “Red Star” model himself.
Feng Yu also followed along to show Chief Jia how to adjust the seats and showed him how to lower a tray in front of him. This was designed like the food trays in the airplanes.
Before Chief Jia could explore all the features in the car, his driver turned and told him that they had already driven one round around the premises.
So fast? Chief Jia could not feel any bumps or hear any noise. The interior was very quiet. The side windows were tinted, and from outside, one could not see the interior unless the person stick his face really close to the windows. Chief Jia was extremely pleased with this.
“This is Songjiang Off-road. This car is an SUV and is suitable of all sort of terrains in the rural regions. It uses a diesel engine, and it has a lot of horsepowers. It is suitable for all sorts of road conditions. Your staff can drive this car to villages when they need to interview those villagers. This car is very useful.”
There were 3 categories for the Songjiang Motor’s Olympic model, 1 for Red Star and 2 types of Songjiang Off-Road model (Diesel and Petrol models). Feng Yu explained all the 6 different types of cars from the 3 models to Chief Jia. The team leader of the drivers and the rest of the drivers looked at Chief Jia and nodded.
These drivers were the drivers for the leaders and staffs. All of them felt that this Songjiang brand of cars was really as what it was stated in the brochure.
The prices were also lower than Audi and Santana. The price of Luxurious Category of an Olympic model for CCTV was 350,000 RMB, and the performance was better than Audi 200. It was more than 100,000 RMB cheaper than an imported Audi 200. An Audi 200 cost about 500,000 RMB.
The mid-range Olympic model cost 200,000 RMB, and the performance was much better than Audi 100. Audi 100 cost about 350,000 RMB, and it was still a locally produced joint-ventured car!
Songjiang’s lowest range of Olympic model cost 100,000 RMB. It was cheaper than Santana which cost 120,000 RMB. The exterior and interior designs, performance and the price were better. The only thing Santana was better than Songjiang was the brand.
There was nothing Feng Yu could do with this. Songjiang Motor’s brand was indeed the worst automobile brand in China. It could not be compared to those joint-ventured automobile brands, Shanghai Motors, and Red Flag Motors.
But now, Shanghai Motors and Red Flag Motors had stopped production. Shanghai was now producing Santana under the Volvo brand. The Red Flag Motors was now only manufacturing Audi 100. They were able to sell off all their cars as most of the government agencies were using this model.
Earlier this year, after Audi 200 was imported into China, Audi 100 was allowed to be sold to individuals. In the past, no one except for government agencies could purchase a brand new Audi 100. They could only buy second-hand Audi 100.
Feng Yu looked at Chief Jia and shouted: “Our Songjiang Motors is indeed a new brand, but we are China’s only National automobile brand. Are our cars’ quality, prices, and designs not better than those joint-ventured cars? Just because our brand is not as famous as Audi and Santana, you want to purchase their vehicles? Do you know that those foreigners are taking our money away?”
Chief Jia waved his hands: “Manager Feng, you are too agitated. We have not made any decisions yet. I need to have a meeting with the rest first. We can talk about the details after we have come to a decision.”
Anyway, CCTV needs to purchase a batch of vehicles, but CCTV needs to wait until they got the funds from the advertisement fees. The Publicity Department will not provide the funds for CCTV to purchase cars. The department does not even have enough vehicles for themselves.
After Chief Jia left, Feng Yu’s agitated facial expression disappeared. He could still keep his emotions under control. He was not acting when he said all those things. He was really sad about China’s current automobile industry. Those joint-ventured cars were doing harm to the industry!
“Engineer Wang, take a taxi back to the hotel. You have done well today. Remember to keep the pager assigned to you on at all times.” Feng Yu gave Engineer Wang 20 RMB.
“Yes. I will leave now.” Engineer Wang will not take a taxi. It was much cheaper to take public transports, and he would be able to keep the 20 RMB.
Chief Jia was persuaded. Now, Feng Yu need to wait for Master Lu to publish the article. With that article, there will be at least 80% chance that CCTV will procure Songjiang Motors cars. This will be the first step for Songjiang Motors to enter the Government Agencies!