Originally Posted by jhu321

the price is the same.. usually the manufacturers actually make MORE off an american sale than whereever you are because we believe we don' tax the crap out of the car. It has more to do with who pays for the taxes to run the government. Most places will tax the crap out of cars and fuel because thats seen as a luxury therefore if you can afford it, then you can pay more taxes to help run the government. Some places tax import cars because its a protectionist tax because they're trying to build their own local brand (malaysia, proton is the perfect example). But usually when your taxes on cars are high, something else is taxed lower corresponding to it all being worked out. For instance. my property tax is 11k a year, compared to malaysia's property tax of about 100 dollars a year for a similar value property.

when looking at this one aspect yes, it does look like its unfair that american get their cars so cheap; but when you look at it in total taxes paid usually its about equal... (yes we technically also enjoy the lowest net taxes as well, but thats not counting our share of the national debt, if you were to raise taxes to the point of paying back the national debt, we would be one of the highest taxed countries)

-john