Do people in Japan want American muscle cars

[plinker]

I think no one mentioned taxes.
we have to pay lots of different taxes for cars.
some one already mentioned the gas price.
more than half of the gas price is tax here
(I think it's about 55~60%).
and we have to pay "car tax" every year and
the amount you have to pay is decided by
the engine displacement.
if you have a 64ps 660cc turbocharged cappccino,
you pay 6,000yen every year.
I have a 1,600cc 100ps suzuki and I have to pay
39,500yen/year.
and the price is for up to 2,000 so
you have to pay same 39,500yen/ year
if it's a NA silvia with 100+something ps
or 300ps lancer evolution.
and if it's a mustang with a 289ci (or bigger engine)
or a 5.7litter corvette, it's 88,000/year.
that's a lot of money.
turbo/supercharging and actuall horsepower are not related to the tax.
Take this into consideration, do you still want to own a mustang?
or go with a lancer evo?

I heard this system was started when cars were only for
rich people,
and bigger engines were extremely rare.

I think American cars are regarded as fashion statement
rather than driving equipment.
most of the imported US sportscars are automatics and
in used car market,
while there are many cheaper (and newer) mustangs and corvettes with ATs,
those with MTs are rare and very expensive.

[Drift Quest]

That sounds about right.

[Tsunami]

By putting increased tax on cars with higher displacement makes the Japanese cars more attractive to buy vs higher displacement cars. (Basically owning a Corvette in Japan would be like owning a Skyline here---it would take some serous $$ to pull off.) The US auto industry imposed tariffs on cheaper Japanese-built cars about 10 years ago in order to make domestic brands more competitive with the cheaper-built Japanese cars (due to the lower wages in Japan). Now the Japanese build their cars here so they don't have to incur those tariffs........and then the big three go to Mexico to cut costs..........THANK YOU NAFTA!!

Also I doubt very seriously that the politicians over there want to see their brand new overpriced boxter get outran by some guy in a used Evo They try the same stuff here in the US and in Britain. If it wasn't for the SEMA organization, we'd see companies gobbling up all the old muslcecars to crush for pollution credits (aka scrappage programs), or all the older affordable cars be made illegal for emmisisions wise. Also in Britain Tony Blair proposed a system that used gps and the car's computer to detect when the vehicle was above the speed limit, then hydraulic pressure would gradually force the accelerator up until the car was back at the limit--basically forcing people to drive the speed limit.

Moral of the story is that any government's elite will try to make sure that the average joe won't be able to outrun Mr. Millionare in his 1 milion dollar Ferrari with the 700 dollar special badge and 3k dollar matching luggage. If we don't stand up for our rights then they will be taken from us.

[CrazyHawaiian]

Damn that sucks. Didnt know tax was based off engine displacement.