President Roh Moo-hyun and first lady Kwon Yang-sook have been using mostly
Mercedes Benz S600s.
Cheong Wa Dae plans to buy the top-of-the-range BMW 760Li from the company’s
luxury 7 series sedans, equipped with special security equipment like 5mm
bullet-proof glass and an extra-strength frame. The ordinary version of the car
sells for W240 million (US$239,000), but the modified vehicles are tipped to
cost several times that.
The cars are to be used by President Roh and visiting heads of state. For
security reasons, all cars national leaders use are bulletproof. How many such
vehicles are in Korea is apparently also a security matter. “Cheong Wa Dae
doesn’t have only five,” an official said, while a car import industry source
said, “Including the existing Benz S600s, there are more than 10 in Korea.”
Bulletproof vehicles look no different from ordinary ones from the outside, but
they have special tires that can take a bullet and still travel at least 40 kmph
and weigh two or three times more than normal cars.
The price is also a secret, reportedly since experts could guess what features a
car has if they know how much it costs. There are rumors that a bulletproof BMW
760Li would cost about W630 million. Within the industry, however, the prices
are said to differ greatly depending on the level of bulletproofing, with some
estimates putting the cost at 10 times that of the normal version.
Korean automakers can make bulletproof vehicles, but as their safety is untested
and there are few places that would sell them, they do not produce them.
How often Cheong Wa Dae replaces the vehicles is also a secret. The bulletproof
Cadillac the Foreign Ministry provides to foreign leaders when they come to
Korea is a 1996 model. “I understand that in other countries, they change them
every five or six years,” a Foreign Ministry official said.
Mercedes Benz, BMW’s main competitor, insisted Cheong Wa Dae was not switching
presidential vehicles from Mercedes to BMW but merely adding an additional make.