Bidding has gone crazy on German eBay for a nondescript grey metallic Volkswagen Golf said once to have been owned by the new Pope.

A section of the car registration documents reproduced on the advertisement show that the car has had one previous owner - Josef Kardinal Ratzinger.

The seller claims that this is the same person as the Cardinal Ratzinger who was installed as Pope Benedict XVI last week.

The Pope is not known to drive, but it is implied that he was driven around in the car by a chauffeur. The two litre petrol vehicle has 47,000 miles on the clock.

A frenzy of unrealistic offers on German eBay has reached more than one million euros, although the site administrators say that the highest genuine bid so far is 41,564 euros (£28,100). They are now carefully monitoring all the bids.

One posting on the site by a supposed buyer inquires: "Does black smoke or white smoke come out of the exhaust pipe?", a reference to the Vatican signal to show that a new pope has been chosen.

With six days to go until the auction closes on May 5, the car has already achieved more than four times its starting price of 9,999 euros (£6,800).

A virtually identical vehicle with metallic paint, air-conditioning, electric windows, central locking and power steering, is up for sale on the internet in Britain for £5,400.

The 'Popemobile' is currently the property of Benjamin Halbe, 21, from the town of Olpe in Germany’s Sauerland region, who said he bought it from a local dealer on January 25, and was puzzled to be told that it came with an ecclesiastical blessing.

"I had no idea," he told Deutsche Welle radio.

Now however Herr Halbe is enthusiastic about exploiting the papal connections of his old banger, claiming on his eBay ad that: "It drives like heaven." The Vatican has declined to comment on the internet auction.

Pope Benedict has no need of his old Golf, as he has inherited a large fleet of papal vehicles in the Vatican City State garage.

Among the cars lined up ready for action are two twin 1986 Mercedes black limousines with the papal crest, and a white Chevrolet pick-up used once a year for the feast of Corpus Christi, all under the care of Bruno Rotoni, the Vatican garage chief.

There is even a Ferrari F1 racing car, presented in January, but sadly it is a scale model. And in case Pope Benedict is getting nostalgic for his old wheels, there is a 1978 Volkswagen Beetle tucked away in a corner.

Pius XI was the first Pope to be driven around, in 1922. The first Popemobile was a Bianchi Tipo 15, according to Signor Rotoni.

After the late Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in St Peter's Square in May 1981 he commissioned the first closed-in, bulletproof car with the distinctive Popemobile shape. It was a white Mercedes 230 G-class, in white with gold trim, built in 1982.

Before the assassination attempt the Pope had usually travelled in open vehicles, such as the Fiat Campagnola jeep he was in at the time he was shot.

Explore World News

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• British ‘tortured and jailed Obama’s grandfather’
• BA in merger talks with Qantas
• Mumbai police had First World War weapons