Aussie car prices.
 

Down here in Aus we often see reference to car prices on this and other forums. Our successive Aussie governments have seen fit to tax any vehicle they describe as luxury or performance over a certain price. Unfortunately all Porsches and other desirable cars come under this banner. It is not limited to imported cars either. Even our own home grown performance Ford and Holden (GM) attract the tax.
Below is a link to recent article in an Aussie paper.
Read and shed a few tears for us down here.

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-feature/a-quick-buck-20110415-1dgy7.html

I find it amazing that a second hand 2005 boxster here is the same price as a new boxster in the states..... So annoying!

The prices of cars in Singapore is even more ridiculous....

The highlights of the taxes (for ALL passenger cars, even the econo cars) are:

1. "Additional Registration Fee" - 100% of import price
2. "Duty Fee" - 20% of import price
3. "Certificate of entitlement" - ie the right to buy a car... it's a open bid system with limited numbers every month determined by the govt, based on the growth rate of cars last year - it's now S$56,000 for a car that is over 1600cc in engine capacity.

And get this... the Certificate of entitlement is only for 10 years, if I want to keep the car after 10 years I need to pay an amount equivalent to the average of the last 3 months' "certificate of entitlement" cost... just to use the car for another 10 years...

And all that tax is in addition to the govt's implementation of the "Electronic Road Pricing" = that makes road users pay for actual usage on congested roads via automated tolls....

All that means a new boxster 2.9 manual cost about S$260k (over US$200k) not considering options ! For the initial 10 yr period...

And let's not forget the road tax... I use to pay over S$4000 for my 944 as it's over 15 years old (>10 year old means 10% surcharge per yr till max of 50%). Thankfully the road tax has gone down somewhat but still very high..

Used cars ? A 10 yr old boxster 2.7 with some years left of the Certificate of Entitlement will easily cost close to S$100k (US$80k) and yearly road tax of S$2000 going up to a max of S$3000.

Sigh..... yes.... I drool everytime I look at the prices of cars in the US and the petrol prices