For Shanghai restaurateur Dong Rongting, excitement about receiving his Ferrari long ago turned to rage when he sued the marque's Shanghai distributor, Shanghai Hongqiao Automobile, for late delivery.

For the hardship of being made to wait for his 2.99-million-yuan (US$369,843) sports car, in April this year a court awarded Dong 1.76 million yuan (US$217,641) compensation. It was the largest amount ever handed to a plaintiff in a Chinese car-buying dispute.

Now, six months after winning his first case, the saga continues, and Dong is dragging the distributor to court once again.

Since taking delivery of the vehicle, Dong says, the car has simply refused to work properly.

And, what appears to irk Dong most, bits of the car are, horror of horrors, not original Ferrari parts, he said.

Dong ordered a Ferrari 360 Spyder F1 from the company in April 2003 and signed a contract, which stipulated the car should be delivered no later than June 23 the same year. He did not get the car until July 2004.

The Shanghai distributor argued that delivery was delayed because problems were found with the car, allegedly caused during transport from Italy to Hong Kong and then to Tianjin.

Because of the flaws, Shanghai Hongqiao refused to take delivery of the car from the Tianjin Yuchehang Company.

It was a bad time for the Shanghai distributor they were not only sued by Dong for failing to deliver the car, but were also successfully sued by the Tianjin importer for failing to collect the vehicle.

On delivering the car to Dong, Shanghai Hongqiao might have reasonably expected their troubles to be over, but they had been wrong.

Dong found the car had been driven more than 400 kilometers and its battery was not the Ferrari original. Other problems were found with the rear window, side windows and a valve cover.

Parts of the car were also found to have been repainted.

Shanghai Hongqiao rejected the accusations and accused Dong of filing a malicious lawsuit.

"The car passed the examinations of the State Import and Export Commodities Inspection Bureau when it reached Tianjin and the Shanghai Import and Export Commodities Inspection Bureau when it was delivered here," said Pan Feng, Hongqiao's lawyer.

(China Daily November 10, 2005)