Chinese Bosses Fascinated by Bulletproof Automobiles

6/28/2006 Houston News-- "I spent 700 thousand yuan to refit my Toyota Land Cruiser into a bulletproof vehicle. It's excellent!" A boss from Shanghai said. He was a real estate manager who had assets of RMB hundreds of millions. He had just signed a contract with Chongqing Jinguan Vehicle Manufacture Co. to refit his brand-new Toyota hatchback into a commercial bulletproof automobile.

A bulletproof SUV from Toyota (Photo courtesy of Chinesenews)

It is reported that such bulletproof automobile is quite powerful against deliberate attacks. Its windows cannot be broken to pieces by half-an-hour hits of iron hammers. It can still run 50 kilometers an hour when its tires are broken by bullets. More dramatically, it can be normal when a small-scale explosion occurs under its chassis. Pistols, rifles and man-made explosives can do no harm to it. Why are bosses fascinated by it? Because they fear sudden attacks like kidnapping.

Pu Shiquan, a manager of Chongqing Jinguan Vehicle Manufacture Co., said the whole process of refitting was unique. The vehicle had to keep its original state after its conversion into a bulletproof one. He indicated that most bosses hoped their reequipped bulletproof automobile could not be recognized by others as a special one.

Now to refit a common vehicle into a bulletproof one is very expensive. To refit a cross-country vehicle will cost 600-700 thousand yuan (US$75,000-87,500). One has to spend more if his vehicle is a luxury limousine like Benz, BMW or Audi A8.

More bosses from Chongqing intend to refit their limousines into bulletproof ones. However, main consumers of reequipped bulletproof automobiles in China are real estate managers or coal mine bosses. Usually they can offer a much higher price to reequip their own automobiles.