4 ms·

How Ford gets around the 25% import tariff on commercial vans

37 points by callmeed 17y ago

mikeryan 17y ago
I can't help but wonder if some savvy designer/entrepreneur couldn't find a better ending for those seats.
- krschultz 17y ago
  You have to figure out the cost of shipping them all back vs just recycling here. Seats are bulky and heavy. If the cars came in containers that were going back empty it would make sense, but they are coming on bulk car carriers so no free empties on the way back.
  - nkurz 17y ago
    I think mikeryan's point was that there might be some way to use them here _instead_ of shipping them back. Convert them to trendy office furniture and sell them for 10 times the price of the recycled metal, that sort of thing.
dtf 17y ago
Fascinating. And the first I've heard of Turkey being taxed as chicken.
jws 17y ago
This might explain why the electric conversions coming in 2010 are all passenger models. (I was hoping for a cargo one.)
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
laut 17y ago
Government does a good job wasting resources. But fun to watch peoples ingenuity getting around restrictions. In Denmark until recently car importers used to transform Land Rover Discoveries (LR3 in the US) and other cars to auto campers (an RV in USA-language). You had to do some modifications for it to qualify as a "camper". Like the roof that needed to be able to be raised and it had a little kitchen. So they installed a token kitchen etc. The tax would be something like 60% instead of 180% (plus 25% VAT). And in Denmark you can still take the back seat out of most SUVs and station wagons for it to qualify as a van and get a discount on the tax. So a bunch of people drive around with cars without backseats. A waste of cars and resources. I wonder what the true story of that chicken trade barrier is. Europe doesn't issue taxes or tariffs, because it's a continent, not a political entity. Turkey is transcontinental with most of it being in Asia.
- callmeed 17y ago
  It was France & Germany in the 60s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
- mynameishere 17y ago
  I'm not going to look it up, but in some states, people would buy a goat in order to be "farmers" and so get certain tax breaks.

37 points by callmeed 17y ago

mikeryan 17y ago

I can't help but wonder if some savvy designer/entrepreneur couldn't find a better ending for those seats.

krschultz 17y ago
You have to figure out the cost of shipping them all back vs just recycling here. Seats are bulky and heavy. If the cars came in containers that were going back empty it would make sense, but they are coming on bulk car carriers so no free empties on the way back.
- nkurz 17y ago
  I think mikeryan's point was that there might be some way to use them here _instead_ of shipping them back. Convert them to trendy office furniture and sell them for 10 times the price of the recycled metal, that sort of thing.

dtf 17y ago

Fascinating. And the first I've heard of Turkey being taxed as chicken.

jws 17y ago

This might explain why the electric conversions coming in 2010 are all passenger models. (I was hoping for a cargo one.)

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

laut 17y ago

Government does a good job wasting resources. But fun to watch peoples ingenuity getting around restrictions. In Denmark until recently car importers used to transform Land Rover Discoveries (LR3 in the US) and other cars to auto campers (an RV in USA-language). You had to do some modifications for it to qualify as a "camper". Like the roof that needed to be able to be raised and it had a little kitchen. So they installed a token kitchen etc. The tax would be something like 60% instead of 180% (plus 25% VAT). And in Denmark you can still take the back seat out of most SUVs and station wagons for it to qualify as a van and get a discount on the tax. So a bunch of people drive around with cars without backseats. A waste of cars and resources. I wonder what the true story of that chicken trade barrier is. Europe doesn't issue taxes or tariffs, because it's a continent, not a political entity. Turkey is transcontinental with most of it being in Asia.

callmeed 17y ago
It was France & Germany in the 60s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
mynameishere 17y ago
I'm not going to look it up, but in some states, people would buy a goat in order to be "farmers" and so get certain tax breaks.