The announcement did not identify the buyer or even say whether he was Iranian or a foreigner. It quoted the buyer’s lawyer, Mahmud Esari, as saying the buyer planned to build a museum in Khuzestan to exhibit the car, suggesting the buyer was likely Iranian.
The 1977 white Peugeot 504 sedan was put up for auction in January to raise funds for the president’s favorite charity, which builds homes.
Esari said, “My client bought the car because of a personal interest in President Ahmadi-nejad and his spirit of opposition to arrogance [the West] and Zionism.”
Ahmad Esfandiari, the chairman of the organization that will benefit from the auction, said more than half a million bidders registered on the group’s website in January with most saying they were doing so because Ahmadi-nejad leads a simple life and because of his opposition to the West and Zionism. He said bids came in from Asia and Europe and also the United States.
Ahmadi-nejad made a point of being seen in the car when he was Tehran’s mayor and when he campaigned for president in 2005 to show that he was not a man who lived in the lap of luxury.
He has rarely used the car since becoming president. The car would sell for about $2,000 on the local used car market.
