[tony20009]

Originally Posted by rjpeaks

i have been told 1st hand that modest lux cars are extremely expensive to own in China.

They are. Everything that's deemed to be an imported item is also deemed to be a luxury item and is accordingly slapped with an import tariff.

I don't know if BMW's making cars in the PRC allows it to avoid that tariff, but cab drivers in the PRC aren't any more highly paid than are cabbies in the U.S, so it seems plausible that BMW might be selling them more cheaply there. I haven't gone to a BMW store in the PRC to find out.

The import duty seems to apply to all non-native PRC brands. Even McDonald's, which is technically speaking inexpensive, costs more than competing Chinese fast food, cheap places to eat. For example, one can go to a noodle place and get a bowl of noodle soup with veggies and meat, hit a street side barbecue and pick up grilled chicken (leg + thigh), grilled green beans, mushrooms and an ear of corn all for about $4. A meal at McDonald's will run about $10.

The extent of the difference only becomes greater as the general prices of things increases. Indeed, it makes no economic sense to every buy non-Chinese made goods in the PRC. Also, even though you and I from outside the PRC consider things like our iPhones to be Chinese made, the Chinese system of taxation and whatnot doesn't consider them to be Chinese made. There are however, Chinese-made copies of pretty much all of the products we non-Chinese natives are familiar with. For every copied product, one can find high quality copies that perform as well as the thing copied and one can find cheap ones that do little more than look like the thing copied. The prices of the copies vary accordingly, but in all cases they are dramatically less costly than the original.

All the best.

[Sharp_Cai]

It might be a 320i or 328i with M kit and quad exhaust tips. I have seen a 520i transformed to M5 in China. This is not something new in China or Taiwan.

http://club.auto.qq.com/t-479572-1.htm

[carzaddict]

i guess if your job is to drive people around...might as well enjoy what you're driving right? I guess it also counts as a business expense