What Car Do You Own?

[IanY]

jesus from what i see here ye yanks should not be complaining about cat convertors in the Eu everycar has to have one.also In Ireland we think a 2.0 litre would be a very nice car while from looking around here you all drive 4-5 litres as the normal ,well i suppose our cars do cost +20,000$ then yours since we have to give 21% to the government.

one other thing that pisses me off you all complain about gas (petrol) prices in the US here in Ireland and most Eu countires we pay $6.41 per gallon.(converted)

so please stop your complaining

The complaints were not about gas prices. I myself drive a 5.5 litre V8 car everyday.

I understand that Dutch prices are as high as US$9.50 a US gallon.

The complaints were about catalytic convertors and their effect on performance.

Talking about expensive cars, I was raised in a country where car ownership is among the most exhorbitant in the world. Take a standard family Honda Accord. The government imposes 350% tarriff on cars. Therefore, a $30,000 Honda Accord in the US would cost about US$140,000 new. But hold on a second. First, you need to buy the rights to buy a car. Of course, you pay that fee to the government. Its really an auction system, like Ebay. The rights to buy a car increases like crazy during the Christmas season because you quickly get out-bid by some other desperate dude. Based on a standard 2.0 litre engine, that costs about $50,000 to the government.

Now, you get to keep the car for only 10 years, after which it goes into the scrap yard. Don't think that you can trade it in either, because its worthless. Say, you have a true classic that is priceless and you refuse to take it to the junk yard... let's say a McLaren F1 or Ferrari F40.. those are more than 10 years old lol. The government will murder you on the extra taxes on classic cars. People pay enough to buy a house every year to keep the treasured cars they love.

Gasoline is relatively cheap (relatively) in that country, and costs about US$5.00 a gallon. Taxes. The taxes on a car with a 2.0 litre engine are about $10,000 a year (or about $100,000 a year on a Rolls Royce). Insurance. Forget about it. Basically, don't drive before you are 25 years old even if your dad buys you the new BMW M6.

Now we get to the fun part. The privilege to drive into the city during rush hour. Its about $8 per entry. Good luck if you need to leave the city and come back in during rush hour. Parking. Forget about it.

Don't try to speed either. The cops drive modified M3s.. yes BMW M3s and the latest models too. Either that or BMW RS bikes. All that in a country where it takes exactly 55 minutes to drive from one end of the country to the other end at the legal speed limit of 80 km/h on the highway. Yet, there are still ridiculously ostentatious cars there. The speeding ticket? Forget about it. Over-do the speeding and you become somebody's b1tch for the weekend lol