I have the same problem, my father bought one last year, I have been hooked ever since....
I have never, ever driven such a wolf in sheeps clothing, some people in the T5 club have uprated the turbo and fitted modified fuel systems and downpipes to increase power to around 400bhp - It's hard to tell exactly though as most rolling roads wont measure that much power!
I drove my fathers last winter and left a scooby doo for dust in sunny Blackpool, he looked kindo embarased and started looking to see if it was an unmarked car.
White one's are great, everybody thinks your a coppa - I have driven one and people where moving over to let me past, lol.
Taxes. Their (UK) major tax is the VAT, a sales tax. We were just touring Scotland and England in May and the prices were about the same as in the US except they were in £ not $, so, in effect, just about everything cost twice what it does in the USA. However, that is misleading because we have income tax, social security tax, and property taxes taken out of our spending money in the USA, may still pay sales tax in addition. Their (UK) VAT is included in the price.
We also pay income tax and national insurance (social security tax). Plug some numbers (in pounds, not dollars, obviously) into this to get an idea of how much....
And VAT is 17.5% which is 2-3 times higher than your Sales Tax I believe. Plus, a recently introduced "reciprocal agreement" means that if we (in any EU country) buy off the 'net from US companies they have to charge us VAT at the rate applicable in our country. We have a name for this situation, Rip-off Britain :-(
BTW, can you explain something about US Sales Tax? I see on websites things like "California residents add x% Sales Tax" which, presumably, means that if you live in another state then you don't pay the Sales Tax. Does this mean that if you live near the border between two states that you can drive into the next state and do all your shopping tax-free?
I've never seen this (although it may well exist). When I first moved here in the mid-80s, my recollection is that some drive-through "restaurants" wouldn't charge sales tax, presumably for a similar reason.
I meant I hadn't seen stores near interstate borders that didn't charge sales tax. I have seen the internet practice of not charging sales tax for out of state sales.
This has come up a few times on various motoring forums, and I think pretty much every police driver has said they wouldn't touch ex police cars with a bargepole. Yes they are well mainatined, but they are constantly thrashed. IIRC one forces' 3.2 Vectras averaged 10 -14 mpg; that shows what sort of treatment they're getting. Regularly kerbed, drunks forever chucking up in the back yada, yada...
Parish ( snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
AIUI (and I am not a 'merkin) any sales "within-state" are taxable. Any sales between states are not.
Since any over-the-counter sale is within the state by definition (unless the state boundary happens to pass between salesman and customer...) they're all taxable, even if the customer lives out-of-state.
Er - who's 'they' in this case? We have to pay the vat (and duty if applicable) on imports, but it doesn't get charged by the US company like VAT normally is - it gets handled upon import. This isn't a recent thing at all, neither is it unique to imports from the US.
Are you talking about some special new rules - if so, can you tell me more? FWIW my last import from the US was about last month, and I know that nothing of what you said applied to it.
Yes. At least people drive from Vancouver, WA to Portland, OR for that reason and people drive from southeaster PA to DE for that reason. However, things that are registered like cars and boats must have the state (and local) sales tax paid before they are registered. One caveat that is interesting is that if you live in Oregon, you can buy your car in Washington tax-free because Oregon doesn't tax cars. You hear "cross over the bridge" ads all the time on Portland radio stations.
Liquor has an even higher tax, so there are frequent trips across state lines for liquor. Now keep in mind that we (USA) have a lot of people driving gas hogs like SUV's doing this, so the savings are very marginal sometimes.
People in the USA think our petrol prices are high. We are paying about $2.25 per gallon (that is £0.30 per liter) for regular now. While in the UK I was paying about $7 per gallon (that is £0.95 per liter). ... and we think our gas prices are high.
Heh, we used to do "burn out" contests in 1.0 Micras when we were bored. Either that or have Seicento Vs Ka handbrake tournaments. Amazing how many times you can get a Ka to spin if you yank the handbrake on at 50mph in a carpark.
Sorry, I wasn't explicit enough; if you buy non-tangible goods - e.g. s/w downloads - you are charged VAT at the rate applicable to the "delivery" country. Try buying a software download from Symantec's US website.
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Although I can't work out how the EU can force US, for example, companies to collect VAT for EU countries. I guess it's incorporated into US tax laws?
BTW, if you buy from Symantec's (and other software comapnies) "UK" website you will find that they are based in Eire and charge the Eire VAT rate which is higher (19%?) than the UK.
Not as daft as it sounds. There is a pub in North Wales where the boundary between two counties passes through the pub and many years ago one of the counties was "dry" so only half the pub could open on Sundays :-)
If you buy something over the web, and the firm you buy from does not have a business presence in your state (assuming your state charges sales tax, I know Delaware and New Hampshire do not) you pay no sales tax. The reason you see 'state x residents add y% tax' is thats where the web sit's firm is located.
If you live close to Delaware, like we do, you can go there to buy high cost items like TV's or stereos (or food every week), or you can buy stuff like washers and friges from a low(er) tax place, and have them delivered, saving a very few bucks, but in my younger days it seemed well worth it...
If you are caught there are heavy fines for, say, bringing booze, beer, or the like into Pennsylvania, my state, from New Jersey or S(lol)elaware, low(er) tax states.
If you buy a car in a low tax place you must pay your states sales tax in order to register the vehicle and get license plates, and usually you have to pay the tax right at the dealers. I guess if you were big into saving money you could buy a series of vehicles in Delaware and register them to some sham corporation you set up...there IS a reason that almost ALL big American firms are incorporated in the state of Delaware.
You can get around some taxes, however many states have 'rationalized' tax collection practices so it's simpler, and there seems to be a slow, unstoppable momentum building to have the US Congress pass some law so that the loop hole with internet purchases is closed, I am betting this will happen before the turn of the decade.
For some reason Americans seem to hate taxes, and its a sure fire way for politicos to win office--the system where there are national taxes would seem to result in less inefficency on the macro level as activity to avoid taxes is reduced--but I know you guys hate taxes too!
When I was young I went to Israel and rented a Fiat 126. 1980 I think.
I had it up to 180 KMPH a lot, the army guys in Sinai were amazed how fast I got from check point to check point. In time a cop pulled me over and asked for my papers etc (driving a ford fairmont straight from the USA BTW).
He said the speed limit was 100, so I told him I was just doing 90 MPH (the car had mph/kmph on the Speedo), he looked like he wanted to kill me, said Kilometers, not miles, and told me to drive 80 KMPH all the way to Tel Aviv. I did!
When I returned that car it was understandably worn out!
That was years ago. When I rent a car now I just want to get where I am going. I want no dealing with cops from different states
(although I do admit that in France in 2000, I was driving quite fast, and after I got my wife to close the windows I got a Fiat brake (estate/S/W) with a turbo diesel to go 200KMPPH (140mph) down the side of a mountain hwy. Still he Fiat ran fine when I returned it)
The percentage of people from the USA who figure hey what can they do to me might be a factor in Europe, but in the USA there are low low low speed limits everywhere, and once people get older then 22 or so parking brake moves and Rene Julian (sp?, famous French stunt driver) moves are passé.
In the same vein cops in the USA, not cities, but suburbs just cruise day in day out.
Sure urban cop cars take a beating, and state police/highway patrol cars which seem to be doing >110MPH on a daily basis are a different matter.
In the USA many taxis are retired police cars.....
Most rental cars are driven by folks who do not want trouble and just want to get where they are going. I think they would be an ok buy if I was poor again, however a hot rod police car...I would buy it if I had no other option and had the Need For Speed, but hey its your money your decision.
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