Japanese import tax / duty on new cars:
 

Heard on the news that the government applied a new import duty or tax onto Japanese cars imported into the US for sale. The change was made to try to strengthen the US sales of American made products. The news said this would apply to all Japanese models. The example I heard on the GT-R for example the base model for 2012 was $89,950. With the new tax or duty the 2013 base model will cost $105-110k. Anyone else heard about this? Would really raise used car values on Japanese products too...

I hadn't heard anything about this. Anyone got any info?

the 2013 GTR is going to be like 95K for the premium and 105K for the black edition..but thats just due mostly to model year changes
i havent heard anything about a specific import tax on japanese cars...

got a link or anything?

I don't think it's true. But if you think about it, most Japanese cars are made in north America such as altima, accord, camry. It would do no good to tax the gtr because so few are sold.

The news story stated all Japanese made cars, not GT-R specific. 15 HP doesn't = $10000...

Do you have a link for your source?

I haven't heard anything about this and even spent a bit of time searching for recent stories just now. I know part of the GT-R pricing strategy has always been to bump up the price (and performance) on a year-to-year basis pretty much. Outside of currency fluctuation and bean-counter numbers I don't think any of the increase is related to some new import tariff.

:ughdance:Sorry, no link. It was reported on the world news on tv that Obama was imposing the tax to drive us sales due to making them dramatically more affordable than the us models.

Now I do know that the Chinese are planning on adding duties onto US made cars imported to China...

Here's the only recent tax news relating to the Japanese makers I can find: Japan Auto Makers Hail Tax Reform - WSJ.com

They (the Japanese government) are cutting two auto-specific taxes to help with domestic (JDM) demand.

I'm looking all over the place and can't find a thing about a new tax on imported cars. I usually stay on top of this stuff because of my work and this thread is the first I've heard of it.

If you can find something referencing it that'd be great.

Been off work (vacation) for 2 weeks. I'll see if my dealership owner is aware if anything. Thanks for replies. I actually return to work tomorrow.

Any updates to this?

Given that the US is looking enter into a free trade agreement with Korea (including cars) it would seem odd to then up the tariff on Japan. Talk about beating someone while they are down.

I've been looking from time to time still and have not been able to find any news related to a tariff on Japanese imports, so I think it was just a misunderstanding somewhere.

I agree with many of the points above, that's why I found it odd. Unfortunately my dealership owner was off last week. I'll should see him this Saturday and will try to ask him about it.