2010 - 0% import tax on CBU cars?

[funfer_fahrer]

I beg to differ bro. I don't think it's the cost. But I do believe that the dealership wants to maintain a high profit margin. Did you notice that 'total government approved net selling price' column? Those days you can see the breakdown for items like excise duty and import duty. Today, there's none. So we'll never know what is the actual price of the car in order for us to determine their cost. From insider's information, I was also told that most dealership didn't pay import duty until the car is sold. Once sold, they will gather the invoices to pay to the customs. By doing so, they'll negotiate for discounts. Instead of paying 200% import duty, they might be required to pay only 100% for example. As long as they pay, the customs won't come down hard on them.

 

[Schwepps]

Yes funfer, operating under Customs Licenced Warehouse rules is possible for new and used car imports via AP. Doesn't apply to CKDs.

The tax breakdown is actually in the sales quotation if you ask for one. The excise duty and sales tax have to be shown there for Malaysia My 2nd Home purposes. Most people don't ask for a quotation, as they're more interested in the deposit, finance and monthly instalment figures

I dug up the quote I got for my 325i Sports:
RM203,017 Govt approved nett selling price
85,644 Excise duty
19,911 Sales tax
1,228 Registration, road tax
RM309,800 OTR selling price excluding insurance

We can work out from the 90% excise duty that the CIF cost of the CKD parts is 95,160. With 10% import duty, the landed cost of the parts is 104,676. The import duty may be less if it's true that our CKD E90s actually come in as SKDs from Thailand, as someone once said in this forum. The Thai value-added component would then be at 0% under AFTA CEPT.

So what needs to be filled in is the gap between landed cost and govt approved selling price, or 98k. Let me try to take a stab at it:

25k Assembly plant charges, including painting
2k Service tax on the above
10k Locally added hardware (RFT tyres, batteries, first-fill fluids, etc)
5k Locally added software licences (firmware, sat nav DVD, etc)
30k BMWM margin, including BSRI, warranty, and financing subsidy costs if given
24k Dealer margin, including pre-reg discounts if given
2k SA commission

The above is purely my broad-brush extimate of course, and I may have left out some cost components. Dealer margin is actually quite low and dealerships have always made more money on spare parts and servicing than on selling cars.

So my estimate of the tax component of the RM309,800 CKD 325i Sports: Excise duty - 86k, Import duty - 9k, Sales tax - 20k, Service tax - 2k. Total 117k or 38%.

 

[E46Fanatic]

Without any taxes ~USD60k for a E90 325i Sports still sound high. Its almost M3 price range in the US. I wonder why the govt approved net selling price is so high here?

 

[Schwepps]

That's about the price in Europe too, and it's definitely lower in the US. Remember KL2DC telling us how much his fully-loaded 325i cost and made us cry? There are grumblings in various forums that European and RoW buyers are subsidising US prices because they all want a big chunk of the US market to build volume and economies of scale. Even the Japs are paying more for their own cars than the US consumer. The US is really auto heaven with low car and petrol prices.

 

[astroboy]

But US petrol not very high grade right? I had a 1.5L Colt there and can only fetch a max speed of 140kh.. pedal to metal..

 

[Schwepps]

You must have been the only one with a 1.5l there. The yanks would call that a lawn mower...