Hm, looks like I'll be moving to U.S.A. for a while @ some point

[marnold***]

Wow! What's the "logic" behind such a high tax? Is it an import/protectionist kind of thing? If the U.S. government decided to tax things at a rate like that, there would be another revolution. I knew that gas taxes across Europe are ridiculous.

[piebaldpython***]

What's her doctorate in? Is she a medical doctor?.....or a person who has PhD after her name? Gave us more info and we might be able to help you out more.

There are more universities within a 50 mi radius of Philadelphia than any other city in the USA.

[deeaa*]

Wow! What's the "logic" behind such a high tax? Is it an import/protectionist kind of thing? If the U.S. government decided to tax things at a rate like that, there would be another revolution. I knew that gas taxes across Europe are ridiculous.

Beats me...not for protection since they don't make cars here (save for some electric ones and I think some Porsches). Cars have always been a good milking cow for the government. I suppose they'd love if everyone just used public transport. Sometimes I feel like driving a car is next to the worst environmental crime there is :-) there are tax reductions if the car is especially low-polluting one, though.

There are or at least were several loopholes in the law that people use. For instance, in the late 80's someone realized you could buy a pickup truck with lower tax than normal cars. Thus there was an influx of U.S. cars like TransAms which were promptly 'chopped' i.e. states-side someone justf used an angle grinder to cut off the back of the roof and the back seats and turn them into pick-ups and shipped here :-) crazy.

I also used to have a Chevy Van that used a loophole in the law that you could have a cheap-taxed van that still had a backseat; the cargo room had to be left certain size and the backseats had to be shaped 90 degrees angle and maximum one inch of padding. There must still be thousands of such Chevyvans here in service. Oh yeah and with all these they had a fixed speed limit of 55(80km/h) even on 120 roads. There were also STW's built to similar specs, with 'temporary' backseats.

These days the only loophole I know is buying a heavy van, and if it's just heavy enough like the heaviest Chevyvan or a Ram pickup, you can legally register it as a truck, with low tax again. Only then only people with professional licences can drive them (I don't have one). And those have a speed limit of 60 (90Km/h).