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Nice try, Ford. LOL


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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-says-could-face-1-142709831.html 

 

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Ford Motor Co said Thursday it could face up to $1.3 billion in penalties in a long-running dispute over import duties paid on Ford Transit Connect vehicles.....

 

....CBP ruled in 2013 that Transit Connects imported as passenger wagons and later converted into cargo vans were subject to the 25% duty applicable to cargo vehicles, rather than the 2.5% passenger vehicle duty.

 

The vans were assembled in Turkey.

 

The Justice Department said Ford "designed, marketed, sold, and delivered the van to consumers exclusively as a two-person cargo van. But to avoid the higher rate of duty that applies to cargo vans as compared to vans principally designed for passenger transport, petitioner imported each Transit Connect ... with a temporary, cheap rear seat that was designed to be immediately removed as soon as the van cleared Customs".

 

The government noted the seats lacked head restraints and "was upholstered with cost-reduced fabric that did not match that of the front seats....." 

 

-Ovaltine

 

Edited by Ovaltine
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3 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

Did those seats even make it to the dealer?

On arrival in the US, the TC went into a Ford facility where the passenger van parts (seats and, IIRC, side windows) were removed and/or replaced with cargo van parts. I don't remember if the parts were trashed (err, "recycled") or shipped back to Turkey.

 

ETA: the funny thing is we do pretty much the same thing with the Transits we buy. We don't need the seating, so there were times when one part of our shop looked like a theater with the lines of Transit passenger seats all lined up...

Edited by SoonerLS
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4 hours ago, SoonerLS said:

 

ETA: the funny thing is we do pretty much the same thing with the Transits we buy. We don't need the seating, so there were times when one part of our shop looked like a theater with the lines of Transit passenger seats all lined up...

Is it really cheaper to buy the passenger version and convert it than just buy a cargo version?  The transit is made in KC so there wouldn’t be a tax difference...just what Ford can get in market pricing between the two.

 

oh, and can a moderator merge the two threads?

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On 6/3/2021 at 11:15 PM, slemke said:

Is it really cheaper to buy the passenger version and convert it than just buy a cargo version?  The transit is made in KC so there wouldn’t be a tax difference...just what Ford can get in market pricing between the two.

 

oh, and can a moderator merge the two threads?

It's not about pricing, it's about availability. We mostly use the cargo versions, but sometimes the lead times are just too long (we're currently waiting for two that have been on order since December), so we take what we can get. Also, for some projects we need the low-roof version, and those are a lot easier to get in the passenger version.

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