A GREAT CYPRUS PROBLEM...PLEASE READ AND COMMENT

[ae86 cyprus]

MY DEAR FRIENDS,
please comment on the following:

in cyprus, we (car enthusiasists) face one great problem: we are only allowed to import cars that are 5 years old or newer. Not only that, but we are charged with a tax, the so called "consumption tax" which is paid just as soon as the car is registered! this tax is put according to the displacement, for example, the tax for a hachi should be 1600CYP (2000euro but still im not allowed such an import), for a skyline 2500CYP (4000 euro) and for a land cruiser more than 4300CYP (6000 euro!) its the only country in the world with such a tax, with only reason our government to make money! its not enough that they overcharge pertol prices! today we pay 1 euro per litre!

and while this happens, there are cars which have no insurance, no exhausts, no number plates, with emmisions 300% higher than allowed, trucks with no lights, buses with no belts! we also have turkish cypriot people coming from the other invaded cypriot land, who have no lights, insurance, licence, belts or anything! recently i saw a turkish cypriot taxi driver who was putting tape around the T on his plates, just to cancel out the TAXI, which the car is meant to be! unbelievable!

Another problem we face, is street racing! the means of mass information (tv, the papers) say that people who tune their cars kill themselves and others, that they are danger to innocent people and tuning is NOT allowed by our very very skillful policemen, who measure a car's dbs with their ears, or measure the height with their eye, even know how much you are speeding just by listening! we, cypriots, fight every day in order to get permission to start building a drag strip!

a strip which will be only 1000m long, 12m wide, and comply to all FIA regulations! everything is almost ready but we cant get the permission of the government! THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO THAN STREET RACING THEN! with no regulations, no nothing! but why? what did we cypriots do to deserve this? In USA, road accidents were reduced even by 65% when tracks were built in the different states. We are a small island, 150 km in max diameter, and we can't have ONE STRIP OF 1OOOM! WHY?

[nmwisima]

ae86 cyprus Wrote:in cyprus, we (car enthusiasists) face one great problem: we are only allowed to import cars that are 5 years old or newer.

In Greece, we (carenthousiasts) face one great problem: we are NOT allowed to import NO car at all. Especially from Japan.
So plz marios, get your self together man. Cyprus is full of Evos, STi's and Skylines...

Drag strip, thats a problem...

But a real problem for you to bother is that half your island is conquered by Turkish soldiers. Better deal with that first, drag racing second.

[Mux213]

Mate,

Count yourself lucky, yeah importing an older car is allowed here and the older the car, the less tax you pay. All that is required is that the car has european type approval or dutch type approval at some point in the past.
That does rule out importing skylines. The only 'loophole' for us is to first import the car into britain and then importing into Holland but that means paying twice for one car.
That mentioned, the newer the car, the more tax you pay. For a brand now car you pay 35%!!! tax, so that brand new 50.000 euro sportscar will set you back an extra 20.000 fucking euros, please let me have that displacement tax, that would be a load cheaper. Even for a 10 year old car the tax is still around 10% or 15% of the _NEW_ value of the car.
But I heard the scandinavians have it even worse with up to 100% sales tax on import cars. Totally illegal according to EU rules but they found their loopholes to keep their precious income..

Owh and did I mention petrol prices? Highest in the world, 1 f*ing 50 euro per liter. Man my poor little hachi guggles up over 50 euros on a 30 liter gas refill, I cry everytime I need to fill her up, luckely not that often....

[banpei]

Mux: you are allowed to import a Skyline or Sil80 to Holland eventhough they were never approved here: then you have to import it as a one off. They will look even more thourough through your car. So importing would be practically impossible.
Why do you think a lot of shipped Skylines, FDs and other exotics are unregistered for sale here in Holland.

And ae86_cyprus: the regulations for cyprus are about the same as in Hungary. If those rules weren't there my GF's parents wouldn't still be driving a trabant.
Cars in Hungary are very expensive compared to other countries.

[Knudsen]

Mux213
The Danish tax on new cars is 180%.. Beat THAT!
The tax on imports depends on how old it is.

ae86 cyprus
You think that 1E pr. litre gas is much? In Denmark its not uncommon that the pricetag hits 1,5E pr. litre...

The only dragstrips we have here, is owned by private peoples or companys. Its usually old airstrips, the rent for 1 day is roughly 1500-3000E.

Most of our proude policeforce doesnt fully know the law, because its changed constantly. That means alot have tried getting tickets for something thats infact fully legal (windowtint, foglights turned on during daytime ect.).