Pope mobile to hit the auction block again

London (UK) - GoldenPalace.com is squeezing more marketing value out of the former car of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

Goldenpalace.com won the 1999 VW Golf IV for roughly $245,000 in an Ebay auction in May of 2005, following a media frenzy that drove the auction page to more than 10 million page views.

The company now said that it will re-list this Saturday at 7:00 pm GMT, with a starting bid of 0.99 pounds sterling. The proceeds of the auction will be donated to Habitat for Humanity Great Britain. No further details about the car’s condition were made.

The original seller of the car, 21-year old Benjamin Halbe, purchased the car in January of 2005 for 10,000 Euro and apparently found out by accident that Cardinal Josef Ratzinger had been the previous owner of the Golf. The grey-metallic, 115 hp car had traveled about 75,000 km (about 47,000 miles) when GoldenPalace.com took ownership of the car.