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Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

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Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#31
post #29

Nation Geographic's Trafficked has a fascinating episode on the stolen car market. The episode follows cars that are shipped out of the port of New Jersey to Ghana and documents just how organized the operations are. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/trafficked-with-...

I read a story on an auto enthusiasts forum. A guy had his Tesla totaled in the US. He claimed insurance etc and disposed it off. And then out of curiosity he opened Tesla’s app and was able to follow the car all the way across the Atlantic to Czechoslovakia before the car was deregisteted.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some places where the wheel and driving side don't match what's usually expected. Like Vladivostok, Russia, where cars drive right but due to its proximity to Japan some cars have the wheel on the right. Or the U.S. Virgin Islands, which drives left, but most cars are U.S. imports and have the wheel on the left.

Or USPS vehicles in mainland USA which have the steering column on the right!

Yeah but they're built like that by design to make it easy for post workers to stuff mailboxes, not a quirk of location and ease of importation like the other examples.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#33
post #29

Nation Geographic's Trafficked has a fascinating episode on the stolen car market. The episode follows cars that are shipped out of the port of New Jersey to Ghana and documents just how organized the operations are. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/trafficked-with-...

I read a story on an auto enthusiasts forum. A guy had his Tesla totaled in the US. He claimed insurance etc and disposed it off. And then out of curiosity he opened Tesla’s app and was able to follow the car all the way across the Atlantic to Czechoslovakia before the car was deregisteted.

FYI Czechoslovakia ceased to exist in 1992.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#34
post #18

I’m more interested in the picture - it appears to be a merchant with toy cars and … stacks of toy? counterfeit? Money?

It's for the alasitas where toys and miniatures of everything you can think of are sold. Even tiny bricks and cement bags! I have fond memories of going to them when I was younger.

I named my open source project ekeko based on the alasitas. I'm bolivian

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#35
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a story on an auto enthusiasts forum. A guy had his Tesla totaled in the US. He claimed insurance etc and disposed it off. And then out of curiosity he opened Tesla’s app and was able to follow the car all the way across the Atlantic to Czechoslovakia before the car was deregisteted.

FYI Czechoslovakia ceased to exist in 1992.

It traveled back in time then, must be a new beta feature :)

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#37

Countries like bolivia, and other countries that slap very large (>50%) import duties on foreign-made cars, have a very funny side-effect. Every 4 years it seems there is a model or brand that is cool, and that every elite seems to be driving. Is that the cool new car? The "in" brand. No. The cause is simple. Its 101 economics: Import duties are usually managed on a country-by-country basis. Politicians will manage c…

That's interesting but Turkey has found a solution to the problem. Having one of the highest tax rates in the World[0], the country had to be creative, thus invented the "Special Consumption tax" or SCT , which is determined by the size of the engine and price bracket of the car.

When you buy a car in Turkey, on top of the import duties(if any) a SCT is added(anywhere from %45 to %150), on top of that a VAT is added(yes, VAT is calculated over the final price with SCT), on top of that other smaller taxes are also added(radio tax, stamp tax etc) and you end up with ridiculously expensive cars and you have no way out because you can't drive an unregistered car and you can't register your car without paying everything you have to pay. Also, the used car imports are tightly controlled to prevent undercutting the local market, to the point that it doesn't make any sense to import. Bringing your car from a neighbouring country is something you can do but for most it doesn't work out because you are limited to 2 years(it was 6 months till a few years ago).

This also inflates the second hand market, often making cars an investment because they barely loose value. Once you buy a car you are in the club now, you drive it for a year or two then sell it at a high price, put a bit more of your savings on top of it and buy yourself even better car.

[0] https://jalopnik.com/why-this-150-000-porsche-costs-600-000-...

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#38

I wish I had a good source, but from what I've seen firsthand (well, by following the Japanese car community and having friends in it) there's a pretty large export market for stolen cars. Either the full car is exported or people literally chop off things like front bumpers for popular cars, remove special limited parts, etc. There's probably some Japanese car website with actual numbers, but it can be unnerving whe…

Doesn't Japan also require you to junk your car after two years or pay an arm and a leg for a yearly pollution inspection? If that's true, that's probably a much bigger stream of profitably exportable cars than theft.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#39
post #21
post #9

This is a good example where import controls are obviously silly. Is Bolivia (pop 11M) going to have a domestic car industry? Does it make any sense to ship the raw materials for building a car 4000 meters up in the Andes instead of just shipping the car?

Bolivia isn't entirely 4000 meters up in the Andes, and two thirds of it aren't in the Andes at all; the eastern lowlands are as low as 70 meters above sea level. They have a navigable river to the Pacific (the río Paraguay); you could ship in barges full of iron ore to Puerto Suárez. It would be a longer trip than crossing the Great Lakes to River Rouge, but it wouldn't involve any costly overland shipping at all. M…

May I ask about your use of a five digit year?

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#40
post #37

Countries like bolivia, and other countries that slap very large (>50%) import duties on foreign-made cars, have a very funny side-effect. Every 4 years it seems there is a model or brand that is cool, and that every elite seems to be driving. Is that the cool new car? The "in" brand. No. The cause is simple. Its 101 economics: Import duties are usually managed on a country-by-country basis. Politicians will manage c…

That's interesting but Turkey has found a solution to the problem. Having one of the highest tax rates in the World[0], the country had to be creative, thus invented the "Special Consumption tax" or SCT , which is determined by the size of the engine and price bracket of the car. When you buy a car in Turkey, on top of the import duties(if any) a SCT is added(anywhere from %45 to %150), on top of that a VAT is added(…

Denmark functions similar to this, i believe (i am danish).
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