Quote:
Originally Posted by ZenithDK
Well, technically, the cars cost the same to buy. What costs the insane extra prices is the "registration fee" - a fee you must pay if you want license plates for the cars (license plates are of course required to drive the car on public roads). If you want a car only for use in a showroom or on a racetrack, you can buy it for the "base" price.
The samme applies if I buy a car in another country - I can easily go to Germany and buy a new or used BMW, and then bring it back to my country. But to drive it here, I need the license plates, and again the registration fee applies. The tax authorities will work out hom much fee is to be paid for a used car.
The reason is that the government doesn't want all that money leaving the country. I bought my 118d for just over $60.000 now. Of that money, the government gets around $35.000 (fee and VAT) and the rest of the money leaves the country for BMW in Germany. Had there not been the registration fee, I would have bought a 335i, and ALL the money would have ended up in Germany.
It's not that different from what you describe above with trying to restrict imports in Asia - except in the EU, you may not discriminate against products based on where they come from - so the tax has to apply to all cars.
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+1 very good explanation! The only place worse than Denmark is probably Singapore.
And also in Denmark, if you are caught overtaking on the right, or turning right on a red light the fee is USD 350. Enough to pay for 2 years of Z4 car insurance in China...