EU/ Japan trade deal = cheaper cars?

denismc

Just wondering, will the new EU/Japan trade deal have any benefit to buyers of Japanese cars or will the car manufacturers just pocket the profits from having reduced tarrifs on their cars?

troyzer

Neither, tariffs don't apply to cars made in the EU and most of the Japanese car brands have factories in Europe. There will be some exceptions of course and prices should come down on those which are assembled in Japan.

Charles Babbage

Presumably, tariffs currently apply to used cars from Japan?

troyzer

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Presumably, tariffs currently apply to used cars from Japan?

I think so.

zilog_jones

Yes, the 10% tariff also applies to used cars AFAIK, so there are potential savings to be had there.

Most the big sellers from Japanese brands are made in Europe. The highest-selling Japanese-built car here right now is the Toyota RAV4 (31st best selling car in 2017). Japanese car parts currently have a 3% tariff, so the removal of that could help too.

Other examples of new Japan-built cars:

• All Mazdas
• All Subarus
• All Lexus models
• Toyota Prius, Land Cruiser, GT86, potentially Camry
• Nissan X-Trail

I think pretty much everything else is made in Europe, including every(?) Honda and Suzuki available in Ireland.

Odelay

zilog_jones wrote: »

Yes, the 10% tariff also applies to used cars AFAIK, so there are potential savings to be had there.

Most the big sellers from Japanese brands are made in Europe. The highest-selling Japanese-built car here right now is the Toyota RAV4 (31st best selling car in 2017). Japanese car parts currently have a 3% tariff, so the removal of that could help too.

Other examples of new Japan-built cars:

• All Mazdas
• All Subarus
• All Lexus models
• Toyota Prius, Land Cruiser, GT86, potentially Camry
• Nissan X-Trail

I think pretty much everything else is made in Europe, including every(?) Honda and Suzuki available in Ireland.

I wonder will the cars made in England be hit with tariffs when they Brexit??

troyzer

Odelay wrote: »

I wonder will the cars made in England be hit with tariffs when they Brexit??

It's looking that way. Around 80% of its production is exported, 55% of that goes to the EU.

rivegauche

abolished 10% duty won't attract 23% VAT.

Nissan have plenty of JDM Qashqais, Jukes, Notes for export.
A JDM MX5 would be nice.

zilog_jones

rivegauche wrote: »

Nissan have plenty of JDM Qashqais, Jukes, Notes for export.

If you're talking about used Japanese imports, somewhere around 95% of car sales in Japan are now automatics now - it's a stigma people here are going to have to overcome if they want to avail of more used imports from over there.

To be honest, I see no point in a manual for a normal family car, or something for commuting. The days when auto boxes were slow and inefficient are long gone.

Of course, something like an MX-5 would have to be a manual

mikeecho

this all reminds me of when we were told that the common market, would slash the price of cars, and that we would be able to buy cars for pennies.

rivegauche

mikeecho wrote: »

this all reminds me of when we were told that the common market, would slash the price of cars, and that we would be able to buy cars for pennies.

The benefit is very clear. 10%duty is abolished. 23% VAT on that 10% is not payable. Irish Government/Revenue Commissioners may still mess around with VRT rates or ask NCTS to force you to jump through more hoops for a Japanese car but the cost of import should still be cheaper.

BorneTobyWilde

rivegauche wrote: »

The benefit is very clear. 10%duty is abolished. 23% VAT on that 10% is not payable. Irish Government/Revenue Commissioners may still mess around with VRT rates or ask NCTS to force you to jump through more hoops for a Japanese car but the cost of import should still be cheaper.

So Ireland can ignore EU law and just make up their own crap to counter the trade deal benefits.

rivegauche

Are you being sarcastic? Haven't you seen VRT in operation since the early 90s when Bertie introduced it to get around having to abolish Duty.
Haven't you seen the wildly variable VRT valuations on cars set to discourage importation?