Woman trades packet of McDonald's Szechuan sauce for car

Rachel Marie, who apparently swapped a single packet of McDonald's Szechuan dipping sauce for a car. Photo / Facebook

A craze for Szechuan dipping sauce brought back by McDonalds in the US has reached peak fandom, or peak stupid, depending on the way you look at it.

An American man with a taste for it apparently gave up his car in exchange for a single Szechuan sachet.

Last week, McDonald's stores in the US, in a master PR move, brought back a rare dipping sauce which hadn't been in store at the fast food chain since 1988.

Back then, the Szechuan McNugget dipping sauce had been part of a promotion at McDonalds for Disney movie, Mulan. It fizzled not long after the movie opened.

But the sauce then became well-known after featuring in popular cartoon Rick and Morty, with fans mounting a campaign to bring the limited edition sauce back.

Maccas did. But they didn't bring out enough of it, limiting its supply to one-day only, and at limited restaurants.

How the trade went down on Facebook. Photo / Facebook

Fans lined up and went away empty-handed. Cue outrage (at one restaurant police had to be called), an apology from Maccas, and a market for the sauce, with people selling off the precious packets for hundreds of dollars on e-bay.

So what do you do if you have a pack of the world's rarest dipping sauce?

If you're Rachel Marie from Michigan, you get more than a few hundred dollars cash.

She offered to exchange her packet for a collection of pins on a Facebook swap site. Until someone offered her a 2004 Volkswagon GTI, The Drive reports.

"I didn't even think I was going to get pin offers," Rachel said. "Then he offered the car."

The fan apparently has another car, and told Business Insider he "just needed me some friggin sauce".

Turns out he may have been able to keep the car: McDonald's has now announced it's bringing back the Szechuan sauce - and lots of it - for the coming US winter.