'Popemobile' revs up eBay bidding

[Amelia]

'Popemobile' revs up eBay bidding

A second hand car once said to be registered in the name of Joseph Kardinal Ratzinger - the new Pope Benedict XVI - is up for sale on eBay and the sky seems to be the limit when it comes to bidding.

The vehicle, a metallic grey 1999 Volkswagen Golf, went up for auction on the German site at a minimum price of 9,900 euros ($A16,383) on Wednesday.

Just over 24 hours and more than 300 bids later, the price has hit 1 million euros ($1.65 million).

German web site n-tv.de identifies the seller as Benjamin Halbe, 21, from the town of Olpe in Germany's Sauerland region.

He says he bought the car from a local dealer in January.

"It drives like heaven," the site quotes Mr Halbe as saying.

The web site of the German newspaper Bild quotes an eBay spokeswoman in Germany as saying the online auctioneer had checked with the vehicle licensing office, which has confirmed the name of the original owner was genuine.

The Pope, who is from Bavaria in southern Germany, has been at the Vatican for more than two decades and is not known to drive.

The Vatican was not available for comment on the auction, which closes on May 5.

The auction site describes the vehicle as a two litre petrol-powered manual, with 75,000 kilometres on the clock since it was first registered in March 1999.

"Does black smoke or white smoke come out of the exhaust pipe?" one posting on the site asked - a reference to the signal used at the Vatican to show whether a new pope has been elected by the secret conclave of cardinals.

"Very funny," was the reply.

- Reuters