Be Sure to Kick the Tires

Got a spare $1 million you want to spend for a used car?

Today’s your big chance to pick up a Mercedes-Benz 600 Presidential Landaulet--one of only 59 made by Mercedes-Benz--at an auction in Reseda. The car, which has 43,000 miles on it, is being sold by Car 88 Inc., an exporter and importer of specialty cars.

Although the dealership paid about $800,000 for the car, the starting bid will be $1 million. And Car 88 executives expect to fetch up to $1.5 million for the champagne car, which was previously owned by a French race car driver. Identical versions of the car are owned by rock star David Bowie, the Prime Minister of Romania, Queen Elizabeth and even the Pope.

What makes the car worth so much money? “For one thing,� said Juergen Viek, vice president of Car 88, “it’s the best limousine ever built.�

Alterations at Bullock’s

Change is a constant at Bullock’s these days.

R. H. Macy & Co. is continuing “the gradual process of streamlining� operations at the Southern California department store chain that it bought last year, according to Kathleen A. Waugh, a spokeswoman for Macy’s South/Bullock’s in Atlanta. A handful of jobs were recently eliminated in personnel, security and operations because they duplicated functions performed in Atlanta. In addition, about 15 employees in such positions were assigned to other areas.

And another executive will soon head to the headquarters office in Atlanta, which has responsibility for Macy’s stores in the Southeast and Texas as well. Duane V. Johnson, 39, who has been senior vice president of personnel for Bullock’s, has been promoted to that post for all of Macy’s South/Bullock’s.

Better Homes and P.R.

Genshiro Kawamoto is the Japanese billionaire and real estate speculator who did not make many fans in Hawaii in 1987 and 1988 when he went on a home-buying binge all over Honolulu. In all, he bought 179 homes for use as rental units.

Now, Kawamoto says, he wants to make amends.

He plans to build 2,000 rental and for-sale homes on the island of Oahu--even though he expects to lose money on the project--in an effort to alleviate the backlash against Japanese investors in Hawaii.

Kawamoto said he is willing to lose money because it will be “very satisfying� to ease the island’s housing shortage, adding that the project would also help reverse “the stereotyped image� that the Japanese have in the islands.

More in Store at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, which has grown huge by retailing to small-town America, has announced further sites for California stores. The big discounter, based in Bentonville, Ark., plans a summer, 1990, opening in Lancaster, to be followed in the fall by a debut in El Centro, near the Mexican border. Each store will create about 245 jobs.

Earlier, the 1,316-store chain said it would open stores next year in Stockton, Madera and Elk Grove. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman declined to estimate how many locations the company eventually hopes to have in California. “We’ll announce them as they come along,� she said. But it’s a good bet there will be plenty more of Wal-Mart’s “Coming Soon� signs popping up.