Chinese Businessman Buys BMW With $11k Down Payment – In Coins

We've all done it at some point. Yes, all of us. Granted, probably not quite to this level, but at some moment in time – whether its diving into the coin jar to tip the pizza delivery guy or digging between seats in search of quarters for the car wash – we've scrounged for small denominations of cash to pay the bills.

This unnamed man in China didn't use spare change to wash a car, but to make a freaking down payment on one. And we aren't talking about a $99-down deal on some rusty Chevette – he bought a BMW priced at 400,000 yuan, which translates to about £45,000 or $60,500. No, he didn't use coins to pay off the entire car, but he did make a very substantial first payment of 70,000 yuan, which equates to £8,000 or nearly $11,000 dollars. The sum was entirely made up of five mao coins, and as you might expect, there were a lot of them.

According to the Daily Mail, the man had saved up the coins over several years. It's not clear exactly what he does for a living aside from being in "wholesale business", but it's safe to say he follows the creed of a penny saved is a penny earned. To the dealership's credit, it would seem the unorthodox method of payment was handled without much complaint, at least on the outside. Sales representatives reportedly spent hours counting the coins by hand, and even went to the buyers house to retrieve over 10 boxes of the currency.

We have no idea if the BMW buyer had some beef with the dealership and wanted to make life miserable for them, or if he just wanted to literally pay with the coins he diligently saved up over the years. At least in the United States, most banks will accept such change and, using high-speed counters, hand over the equivalent amount in something more manageable. Whatever the reasoning for this bonkers payment, we hope the new BMW owner enjoys the fruits of his labor.