For sale: one old clunker, previous owner A. Merkel

BERLIN - Agence France-Presse

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. AFP photo

A clapped-out old Volkswagen Golf once belonging to German Chancellor Angela Merkel is fetching a souped-up price on an Internet auction site, with bidding of at least 10,000 euros ($13,000).
 
The 22-year-old white Golf with 190,000 kilometres (118,000 miles) on the clock was registered by Merkel, recently named the world's most powerful woman by Forbes Magazine, in September 1990, three weeks before German reunification.
 
The seller, who could not be reached for comment, has posted a copy of the details, registered to one Angela Merkel, living in Schoenhauser Allee in former East Berlin.
 
The vendor has also posted several pictures of the vehicle -- one outside Merkel's chancellery office in Berlin.
 
According to the details, Merkel then passed the car onto Joachim Sauer, her husband, in 1995.
 
The sale seems "plausible," wrote the respected Der Spiegel news weekly.
 
"The registration letter appears authentic, Merkel's old address in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg is correct and there is documented evidence of Merkel driving a white Golf in the first half of the 1990s," Spiegel said.