Johannes Dutch has made us aware of the popularity of these kind of “vans”; SUVs with their rear windows blanked out and no back seat, so that they are taxed (significantly lower) as commercial trucks. Here’s an ad for one from Austria, which brings the point home rather starkly.
These were very popular in Ireland too – a workmate had a LR Discovery with the windows blanked. In normal trim the tax would have been crazy. Not just the tax when purchased new, the annual tax to use it on public roads.
Crazy, crazy .RoI doesn’t like any thing over 2ltrs. A Brit had to remove the back seat and remove the rear seat belt mounts on his MB E280 CDI wagon to import it. With out paying thousands. Driving around Portugal you will see many a compact car with cargo guard behind the front seats and a parcel shelf covering what should be a rear seat. These “commercials ” are as cheaper way for the young to get wheels due to reduced taxes.
Whatever laws are written, it seems like human nature to find the loopholes. Nevada recently revised the “classic vehicle” legislation, because the loopholes were big enough to drive step vans, stake-bed landscaping trucks, and other not-really-classic vehicles through.
….und eine fabelhafte Zugmaschine!
In 1960s England, my aunt and uncle had a Mini van for just this reason – no rear windows and seat meant cheaper tax, even though they didn’t own a business.
Vans escaped the Car tax back then. Mums first car was a Thames 100E van with a fold down back seat but no side windows. The insurance was cheaper than cars too. Not any more. Drivers were forced into. having commercial “van” insurance even though they did not own a business. .
This happened also in Italy, where at the time all diesels, all cars over 2000 cm3 (or 2500 cm3 if diesel) and even 4x4s paid very high taxes (so a normal Land Cruiser would have been very expensive to buy and to run), but weren’t required to be paneled, just 2 places with a separator between front seats and cargo space. Old style 4×4 like these Toyotas, Mitsubishi Pajero, Nissan Patrol, Land Rovers, Cherokee etc. all had a 3 doors/2 places LCV version (not paneled).
Taxes ~ what you pay to live in civilization .
-Nate
Reminds me of what Ford used to do to import Transit Connect cargo vans into the U.S. from Turkey and Spain.
To circumvent the 25% “Chicken Tax,” Ford simply imported vans with rear seats and rear windows, and paid a 2.5% tariff charged for passenger vehicles. Once they arrived in Baltimore, the seats were removed and the windows replaced with steel panels. Voila! A cargo van.
U.S. Customs went ‘round and ‘round with Ford from 2013 to 2019, when Customs finally prevailed in Appellate Court.
The worst part of that is that Ford then turned around and had the stones to charge extra for the extra equipment from buyers who wanted their Transit Connect as a passenger minivan.
Toyota has been doing a lot to appease a certain demographic including disparaging electric cars like Elon Musk’s Tesla, aggressively going after Unions in a way Henry Ford could only dream of, backing political groups that don’t like elections and now marketing to people who like to dodge taxes.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/26/22594235/toyota-lobbying-dc-ev-congress-biden-donation
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/toyota-warns-us-workers-build-132112969.html