No, this 928 wasn’t converted to a pickup so its owner could haul loads of composted steer manure for his garden. It was shot in Copenhagen, Denmark, by LDeren, and its purpose is to avoid the sky-high taxes on sports cars, or more likely cars with large displacement engines. So now the owner can carry the money he saved to the bank with it.
It just needs a little camper shell….
Like the 5 Litre V8 station wagons converted to “vans”. The so called cargo area has to be separated from the passenger compartment with a fence. The taxation in europe is different for the passenger/luxury cars and the so called econo-vehicles. In some countries these cars has to wear the 80 kph maximum speed limit rear bumper sticker too…
Government at work.
No politics, please.
That really is not politics but you can have it your way.
That’s kinda cute, the car looks much shorter without the hatch lid. With the headlamps up it reminds me of the RS200.
Looking at the wheels and the rear lights, this is a late model 928. This is my favourite Porsche, and this conversion does not offend me. It is relatively faithful to the original. I bet the owner grins at the thought of transporting a lawn mower at 160mph
It makes me want to cry. I consider the Porsche 928 one of the most beautiful cars ever made, and a hack job like this (to dodge the tax man) is painful.
Oh well, it could have been worse. He could have broughamed it.
A Porsche Brougham? About the only market slot they haven’t explored! 🙂
Wow! That thing is ugly. The circumventing import duties reminds me of the Subaru Brat, about Subaru adding 2 rear facing seats and carpeting on the bed as not to be called a truck but a car.
… more in this vain: Israel only 5 passenger El Caminos.
This reminds me of the 80s Camaros in Finland with the glass rear hatch replaced by a fiberglass drop in pickup bed.
Denmark also got the Range Rover “van” in the 80s which was a 2 door model with no rear seat and fixed side windows instead of sliding windows.
Holee molee! I had never heard of those. I had to look it up and holy hell! That is the ultimate mullet wearing trailer park My Name is Earl’s dream car! A Camaro and pick up all in one! The cherry on top would be to raise it up and stick fat truck tires on it.
What my Scandinavian doppelganger would drive.
I live in the European Union, but before discovering this site had never heard of these “European” laws and taxes. Presumably they vary from country to country.
Here in the UK, car tax was abolished in about 1990, though back in the 60s people did buy Mini panel vans and put seats in them because it was cheaper than buying the car. Recently road tax was linked to carbon emissions, but it’s so low it’s not going to deter anyone if they can afford an Escalade etc in the first place.
We can also import anything we like – doesn’t matter if it’s left or right hand drive or even if it meets most regulations (as it’s a personal import). If it can pass the MOT test you’re pretty much good to go – hence large numbers of late model Brazilian kombis on the roads, a minority who drive large American cars and even the occasional Hindustan Ambassador.
I’d be interested to know exactly what the tax regime is in Denmark and other countries.
I think the reason for the being able to import the RHD cars into the UK was to comply with rulings out of Brussels from the EU about allowing cars in from other Euro countries. It would be very interesting to see what happens if the UK decides to tell the EU Adios, will the import restrictions be back in place?
Don’t forget that UK is not only European country with left-hand rule of road. Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus are amongst European countries along with British Crown dependencies (Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey) and British Overseas Territory (Gibraltar).
No word yet whether the dependencies would abandon EU if UK does so.
Leon – I don’t recall there ever having been restrictions on LHD cars being imported into the UK? They were certainly common before UK ever joined the EU. (or whatever it was called then)
The people who are against the EU are partly against it as they see the EU as imposing “unnecessary” regulations on the UK, so I doubt it would lead to more restrictions.
OliverTwist – I’m pretty sure the Isle of Man is not a member of the EU anyway – not sure about the others.
Tonito, you are correct.
Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey have free trade agreements with EU by extension of UK Act of Accession even though they are neither members nor associate members of EU.
I ought have clarified in my earlier posting: if UK chooses to abandon EU, will those dependencies also abandon the free trade agreements with EU?
In Poland if company car was registered as “truck” or special vechicle it’s possible to payback VAT (23 %) from fuel, parts and car price. On the start of XXI century “truck” was defined by max cargo weight in dependence of number of passengers, so we had a lot of “truck” hatchback and SW.
There was later changes in law and as “truck” can be registered only pick-ups and vans, so pick-ups became popular.
In Poland also exist a few examples of Bentleys, Maseratis etc. registered as road assistance car 🙂
Sorry for mistakes, I didn’t write in English for some years, hope it was possible to understand 😉
We understand!
Twój angielski nie jest tak źle, jak myślisz!
(hope my Polish is readable!)
Yes, readable and quite good
In the Netherlands you have the van-conversions of MPVs, off-roaders and SUVs. Thus they become commercial vehicles. That means far less tax on top of the (factory) price and far less road tax. So they’re much cheaper to buy and cheaper to run. You must run your own business though, if you are a contractor for example.
The rear seats go out and the vehicle gets a flat cargo floor, blinded rear windows and in some cases a high roof. Everything is possible: from a Land Rover Defender to a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and from a Chrysler Voyager to a Volvo XC90.
Below a photo of the interior of a Volvo XC90 van.
Furthermore anything is possible. Buy and import whatever you want, old or brand new. Lots of grey-import US pickup-trucks around here, all used as commercial vehicles and with an LPG-system for the V8 gasoline engines. LPG is the cheapest fuel per liter and it’s available at most gas stations.
An oldie, a van-ished Chrysler Voyager with a high roof.
This is neat, a Dodge Ram semi. This kind of rigs is common here, but the tractor is mostly either an Iveco or a Mercedes. (Photo: HollandBlower)
This tandem has replaced the large truck in a number of scenarios I can think of. The first one that pops to mind is the farmer and his 2 1/2 to 5 ton trucks. Trailers are cheaper, easy to store, and you can leave your troubles locked up at the shop without a second vehicle.
Also nice, a Chevrolet Silverado converted into a tractor unit. You can clearly see the fifth wheel. Gooseneck trailers, common in the US, are very rare here; I only saw just a few of them so far. Here you see either drawbars or semi-trailers.
This Chevy (like the Dodge Ram above) is equipped with an air compressor plus tank. ABS and air brakes, all around, are legally required for such rigs. You can drive these combinations with a BE driver’s license. (BE = car + trailer)
Photo: Nefra Voertuigtechniek B.V.
Side-view. It’s a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 with a V8 diesel.
These are becoming more common in Australia (still very rare to see them however), including versions using the Japanese pickups, as the ‘grey nomad’ market expands as there is a limit to the size of caravan you can to conventionally. Full-size US pickups are still quite rare due to the cost of conversion & compliancing. They don’t bother with the half-tons or bare bones models, and I don’t think you’d find one under $100k.
There was a flood of them in fleetside (styleside?) sometimes with duallies when the tradies were making some serious coin a few years ago.
We used to have some similar laws in Australia.
My elderly aunt had an ’84 Suzuki Swift that was registered as a van. It was imported with front seats only, and the rear seats were a dealer-installed option – possibly a mandatory option. IIRC tax was a lot cheaper on commercial vehicles, and there were import quotas on cars then. Not on commercial vehicles though!
Wish the American roads were so free. Would love to drive a late model “Kombi”. Am restoring a 1978 version instead.
Denmark has some of the highest car taxes in Europe, including a 180% tax rate on a portion of the purchase price of a new car. One has to be highly motivated to want to own a car there.
Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen with Nyhavn in the upper photo and Rådhuspladsen, Town Hall, in the background in the lower.
Very cool I like it.
New Zealand backintheday had a similar scam operated by car dealers, they would sell you a small British station wagon devoid of seats as a van, it then qualified for lower finance rates and 3year payment terms sedans and wagons were cash or 12 month payment plan. Once the deposit was taken said dealer would reinstall all the missing seats at a price obviously and you had a brand new wagon you could take passengers in. Many a Vauxhall Viva HB/HC was sold this way along with Ford Escorts and Hillman Avengers.
Some worked as vans until death most were optioned back into wagons for resale at least if not immediately.
I remember to have read a similar story about an Audi TT some years ago. It was also in Denmark. Looked terrible, but possibly very practical 😉
There is also a tax break like the above-described ones in Austria – what you end up is something like the below L-R – load area with no windows and no seats. This was popular until the advent of the modern (commercial) minivan which offers car-like performance and comfort.
I know those, also available as a SWB Defender 90 van.
The disadvantage of the more comfortable (mini)vans is that you can’t tow heavy trailers (circa 7,700 lbs and up). That’s why off-roaders/SUVs converted into vans are still very popular.
I agree, J.D. A Rover like this is nearly impossible to kill, given even half assed maintenance. And you can perpetually rebuild them, and its still economically feasible, unlike ‘disposable’ minivans.
Personally, the panel truck look suits me just fine.
Well MR74, I must say that the LaRo is a cult-vehicle, you either love it or you hate it. You either get it or you don’t. It does last long, but it’s also VERY spartan and these days they only come with (too) small 2.2 liter diesel engines.
To us this is the best mixture of comfort, power, durability and towing capacity: the Land Cruiser Prado (150 series) with the 3.0 liter D4D diesel.
The picture shows the 5-door LWB van, a SWB 3-door van is also possible. Another big plus is that Toyota dealers are everywhere and Land Rover dealers are rather thin on the ground.
“No politics, please.”
You know, that is really what this type vehicle is all about – the utter stupidity and incompetence of governments around the world.
The USA has a rich tradition of federal government incompetence and vehicles designed or imported around that impediment are vivid demonstrations of such – Subaru Brat, “gray market” Mercedes of the 1980s and much more recently the first generation Ford Transit Connect.
Among the various US states other often silly, arbitrary, poorly conceived and spottily enforced vehicle registration regulations lead to defiance and creativity by owners reacting to the costs imposed by government. These include state ad valorum property taxes that do not exist in adjacent states; greatly reduced “antique” or “collector” license plate fees; license plate fees based on vehicle weights; variances in registration fees for otherwise identical passenger vans and delivery vans; sales tax differentials among adjacent states; even additional city or county vehicle or “wheel” tax fees.
Give government bureaucrats a chance to to stupid stuff and they will. Give creative, entrepreneurial citizens a chance to overcome government idiocy and they also will.
– constellation –
Took the words right outta my mouth! Im a pretty non political person, myself. Im against ALL government overreach. I don’t care about political parties or the corrupt leeches that make them up. There is no common sense, or greater good when it comes to stupid laws like this. It only serves to limit our choices as consumers and leech away money for those who choose to actually own a nicer car.
You can attribute a huge slice of the malaise era to regulatory headupassery. The mandates that came about during this time served to wound and almost kill our domestic auto industry. Technology eventually did catch up to where those mandates weren’t as much a hindrance, but how long did it take? We saw AMC go belly up, and Ford and Chrysler nearly did. Only with the help of govt subsidies did they survive, and now its a repeat with Chrysler and GM.
Theres nothing ‘political’ in nature here. Politics are what DRIVES this, of course but we’re talking end results.
I wholeheartedly agree. You know, on another thread I read of someone who filled his cars in Vancouver because he didn’t like the (govt mandated) “full service” pumps that he had to use below the border. In some way that is somewhat different than saying “govt at work” one would suppose. Yet if I haven’t gotten my wires crossed that is the same person who asked for no politics please.
YMMV. I think I will just butt out having had my say.
The OPEC crisis motivated some Americans to make considerable efforts to save fuel — gas could be scarce — which led to more interest in Japanese cars.
With that experience, a growing number of consumers began to realize that the Japanese cars were better. If the choice was between a Vega and a Celica, it became pretty obvious that one was inferior to the other.
American cars just weren’t that great. The lack of competitiveness was Detroit’s fault, and it took them decades to figure out how behind that they were (and to some extent still are.) You can’t blame the government for bad engineering and the belief that styling could be used to sell any POS.
Hope he has some good tie down points
It’s not a displacement thing. When this car was converted the tax on all passenger cars was 180 percent in Denmark. That’s not a typo and I don’ t mean 80 percent. The sticker price was almost three times that of the car itself. I’d have to do some research but pick-ups were taxes less than vans and much less than passenger cars. There are conversions of W124, 126 and 140 Mercedeses as well. The best ones were Camaros and Firebirds from the nineties. Re-install the rear window and it looks like the original except for the yellow commercial plates as opposed to the white ones on passenger cars.
To this day new station wagons and even some hatchbacks can be purchased without rear seats, with a flat floor, locked windows and a divider behinde the front seats and sold at a lower price.
Danish car taxes are still crazy. Full electric vehicles are exempt. Apart from that it depends on the fuel economy with gas savers being taxed “only” 120 percent.
Mads you just got the old brain working here. There was a guy who made an electric Opel GT back in the early seventies. Pulled 75mpg on the lawnmower charging engine. It would not qualify for tax exclusion in Denmark because it was not full electric. However, it made me think about a subsequent iteration that possibly would.
He took a VW van and did the same thing with the electric motor. The van itself was total electric. Then he added a trailer that had a small diesel. Totally removable making the van total electric. Hook it up to charge and call it a range extender.
Would this qualify for tax exclusion?
Lee: Well, I don’t think so for a number of reasons. Cars are subject to an inspection every two years (every eight for vintage cars). And I just don’t see the pictured setup passing the inspection. I suppose you could do a full electric conversion and then just hook up a trailer with an engine on it, but you are also only allowed to make a certain amount of modifications to a car. I imagine a full electric conversion with a host of batteries would call for better brakes and altered suspension and then you’d be getting close to a vehicle so different that it would not be able to pass inspection.
On a side note, you can modify your car to put out 20 percent more horsepower, but if for instance you swap a Volvo 240 Turbo engine into a GLT, you’d be within 20 percent bit the aurhorities would likely say that your car is no longer a GLT but a Turbo and would bill you the tax difference so there would be nothing won.
IIRC he runs electric in town. Just a thought as it seems as good a turning a porsche into a pickup. The trailer with it’s two point hitch and single wheel axle is not how I would do it and seems very awkward.