Photo taken on Jan. 25, 2015 shows an auction for the official vehicles in Beijing, capital of China. The central government has impounded 3,184 official vehicles and plans to auction the first 300 before the Spring Festival. Photo:Xinhua

More than 100 cars owned by central government agencies were auctioned for the first time, fetching 6.61 million ($1.06 million), almost twice as the opening bid in a public auction in Beijing on Sunday.

The lowest opening bid of the 106 cars was 8,000 yuan, and the cars included 10 Red Flag limousines retrieved from six central government agencies.

They were auctioned off by the Zonto Auction Company in a second-hand car market in Changping district in Beijing.

"I came to get a car with an expected price of 70,000 yuan, but it was sold at almost twice the opening bidding price at 90,000," said a buyer surnamed Wang who lost his chance to get a Roewe car.

One Audi car with an opening bid of 150,000 yuan was finally bought by someone who also bid for eight other cars.

Almost all the buyers were attracted by the prices listed on the website that were 20 percent cheaper than cars of the same condition in the second-hand market, a buyer surnamed Huang told the Global Times.

Huang said that selling these used cars to citizens was better than letting them rust in the garage but the high sale price might prevent more people from participating.

Central government agencies impounded 3,184 vehicles on January 16 and plan to auction the first 300 before Spring Festival in late February, according to an announcement of the Government Offices Administration (GOA) of the State Council.

The license plates of these cars were retrieved by transport authorities before the auction, which means buyers need to have a quota for automobile licenses if they want to drive these cars in Beijing.

There will be another two public biddings on Monday and February 1 to be conducted by two other designated assessment agencies.

The government cars reform was accomplished with nearly 5,000 cars owned by central government agencies retrieved and will be put up for auction in batches with an estimated value of 130 million yuan, Xu Yongsheng, a deputy director of the GOA, was quoted by the Beijing Times.

Xu said that the revenue generated from the auctions will be turned over to the State treasury.