Would you prefer a donkey over a BMW luxury car?

Probably not. But a Chinese man, Lin, outraged by his constantly out of action BMW, tied three donkeys to the vehicle and attempted to drag it thousands of kilometres from Beijing to Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The donkey train started its trek trailed by the BMW 760i sedan as well as several people walking and carrying white banners that read: "Who can solve quality flaws with BMWs?"

Traffic police halted the donkey team, which drew a large crowd of onlookers, after only 40 minutes.

Lin said he decided to arrange the donkey drive as it seemed the cheapest way to get the car to Hangzhou, and secondly, he wanted to draw public attention to 'how BMW treats customers'.

Lin said he bought the expensive car last November at the Harbin Auto Show. Problems started appearing soon after. He said the BMW authorised service centre repaired the car several times but it was still so problem-ridden that it could not be driven.

Li said he had tried to get the company to agree to repair the car once and for all and to promise to refund his money if problems continued, but the company did not agree.

Ma Qingsheng, manager of the public relations department of BMW's China representative office, said if Lin gave them a chance to repair the car, he could promise that all the problems would be solved. Lin said he still had doubts. "I've already given them several chances," he said.