Pat Dolan said:
Ever notice that, except for VW, there has NEVER been a car-based pickup or mini-truck pickup from any European manufacturer in this market? Yes, the odd very commercial truck made it in (I think you can get a Sprinter dropside, but don't know if it comes from the factory that way or is upfitter-built from a C&C).
Once upon a time, long, long ago, der Krauts got all pithy about chickens being dumped on their market from the US, and they in turn imposed a punitive duty ("the Chicken Tax" in VW vernacular), and our good free-trading 'Murican neighbours countered with a duty/tax on pickups - thus the rarity and expense of Euro pickups (or Deutsche ones, not sure which).
I don't know if the taxes are still there, but they have never felt particularly welcome in our market. Pity.
__. Pat, actually the "chicken war" duty applied (at a rate of 25% -- which is a killer import duty) to all "light duty vehicles manufactured for the carriage of goods". But a "chassis cab" is considered in Customs law as an incomplete vehicle and thus by definition don't fit into the duty rate category. So, the Japanese manufacturers didn't build the beds onto Toyota, Nissan, "Chevy LUV" (really Isuzu), onto their pickups, imported them as "chassis cabs" and then imported the pickup beds separately and installed them at the port. Thus the chassis cab was imported but the "light duty vehicle for the transport of goods" was considered US-assembled (the duty only applies at import).
__. The US Customs policy was "if it's got a pickup bed, it's a 'vehicle for the transport of goods'". Subaru specifically made the "BRAT" (Bi-Drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter - if that doesn't turn your stomach too much) with two rear facing seats in the pickup bed installed in a way that pretty much all of the bed was taken up with those seats. They even had "anti-tamper" bolts so the seats couldn't be considered convertible. Then Subaru went to US Customs and asked for a special ruling -- Customs ruled that they had demonstrated that that vehicle had been made "for the transport of persons" (three in the cab and two in the bed) and thus wasn't in the duty.
__. Since the "Chicken War" duty had been written to specifically target VW's pickups - like the one pictured above - Customs made it clear that they'd allow the Japanese "chassis-cab" dodge and the Subaru special ruling but that VW had better not ask for anything because they
WOULD NOT get it.
__. The "chicken duty" was actually Common Market tarriff so a product was picked from each country then a member of the Common Market (this was the Kennedy Administration). VW's pickups were chosen as a target for Germany (there were also French wines, etc.) When I worked at Land Rover, we had to sell only hardtops for a long time. Then US Customs got tired of people trying to fudge the regs by doing things like the Subaru and asking for special treatment. So about 1995, they made a ruling that if it has seats in the back and the manufacturer designates it as a "vehicle for the carriage of persons", then it's a passenger vehicle and the duty doesn't apply. Any manufacturer was allowed to make these determinations except for VW.
__. Ain't effin' politics wonderful?????
