Best car while living in Taipei?

I will bring a car to me to Taiwan when my job moves me there in May.

Disregarding all the scratch, small street, scooter horror stories, what would be the best car for living in Taipei for a 35 year old single male? 4 door sedan, SUV, 2 door convertible…

Am considering these:

  • Nissan Murango SUV
  • Mercedes 2 or 4 door C series.
  • Corvette.
  • BMW X5 SUV.
  • BMW 2 or 4 door.
  • Audi A4 or TT.

Would a hummer be completely stupid?

[quote=“tango42”]what would be the best car for living in Taipei for a 35 year old single male? 4 door sedan, SUV, 2 door convertible…

Am considering these:

  • Nissan Murango SUV
  • Mercedes 2 or 4 door C series.
  • Corvette.
  • BMW X5 SUV.
  • BMW 2 or 4 door.
  • Audi A4 or TT.

Would a hummer be completely stupid?[/quote]
Yes, a hummer would be completely stupid. (But if you brought one, could I borrow it for a weekend?)
Nissan Murango would be great if you ever weant to get out of the city and up into the mountains - otherwise it would be wasted. Mercedes here are a dime a dozen ~yawn~ A corvette would turn heads, I’m sure. BMWs and Audis are very common here.

There’s a thread on [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/corvette-available-in-tw/15141/1 in Taiwan[/url] in the very same forum here.

To be honest, I think anybody who would want to drive an expensive car here must be mad. Import taxes aside (numerous threads here as well), I’ve never seen as many scratched and dented cars as here in Taipei. Taiwanese just don’t seem to care as much about their own cars, so why would they care about your car? And what’s the point in having a sports car if you can’t enjoy it?

Iris

[quote]And what’s the point in having a sports car if you can’t enjoy it?
[/quote]
Same as for having any kind of expensive high-end car that you can’t use properly – snob value, pure and simple.

[quote=“tango42”]I will bring a car to me to Taiwan when my job moves me there in May.

Disregarding all the scratch, small street, scooter horror stories, what would be the best car for living in Taipei for a 35 year old single male? 4 door sedan, SUV, 2 door convertible…

Am considering these:

  • Nissan Murango SUV
  • Mercedes 2 or 4 door C series.
  • Corvette.
  • BMW X5 SUV.
  • BMW 2 or 4 door.
  • Audi A4 or TT.

Would a hummer be completely stupid?[/quote]

Depends on where you live…For example, I’m about an hour south of Taipei, and could easily drive a Hummer anywhere I needed to go. But unless you are going to purposely off-road it, it’s a waste of money here or in the States.

Mercedes? Dime a dozen, but well suited for upscale Taipei City driving.

Corvette? Very cool. Would be a head turner anywhere you went, and lots of fun on the better paved moutain roads. Parts would be nearly impossible to come by, and finding a decent mechanic versed on the inner workings of a high-performance small block V8 would be difficult at best.

Nissan Murango? Crossover SUV. Pointless and again parts issues as it’s not sold here.

BMW X5? Depends…Who’s paying the taxes on it? If it’s your company than bring in the 4.6liter V8. Very few of those around.

Beemer sedans? The gangster look…They are everywhere.

Audi fairly common as well…Mainly because of the small-displacement, high performance engines. Taxes are higher (exponentially so) for larger displacement engines, so Audi is a fairly popular choice for locals looking for decent performing sedans.

I’d stay away from anything too large or too expensive…If it were me, and wanted to drive an SUV in Taipei, I’d go for a Nissan X-terra/Toyota 4-runner for more aggressive off-roading, and a Honda Pilot for Urbanite SUV-ing.

So many choices…Lucky you.

Bring something interesting…

Nissan 350z.

Mustang SVT

Thunderbird

Toyota 4runner

Mazda Miata turbo.

if you’re going to bring something over here… (almost impossible by the way). I think there’s a law about bringing anything second hand in from anywhere unless it’s dismantled (never to be licensed).

If it were me, and there weren’t importing issues… I’d go home and fetch my 1973 Mazda Rx3 coupe.

All great info. Thanks.

Special situation… no tax worries, duty, etc. I’ll be able to basically bring anything I want not over 3 years old. So it my choosing. I

Bring in a Doubel B car as they are called here in Taiwan. That means Benz or BMW. That is most people’s dream car and the residual value is much much higher than any other type of car. It will be a quick and easy sell when you want to sell it. If you truely have no worries about any import taxes at all then bring in the AMG version of a Benz like an E55 AMG or a CLK500 convertible or the new SLK. The bigger the engine size the better as cars are taxed when imported disproportionally to their engine size.

Don’t go for a C class as there will be a new model soon and then your car won’t be worth as much when you try to sell it, ditto for the BMW X5.

Nobody wants the American cars! They want Double B. Japanese cars are available here, but don’t have a premium on resale.

Yes Benz and BMWs are everywhere, but those are the only status cars that matter here in Taiwan, except maybe a Porsche. With a double B car you will more easily find the babes and the clients, convertible even better. By the way, Mercedes after service is better here than BMW. However, BMWs are fun in the traffic to zip around and race the ricers with.

There are too many cars in Taipei already. Leave the ego extension at home. You won’t need it here.

Parking’s a problem here; bring a Mini Cooper.

Bring a Jensen Interceptor.

You can get a very nice vehicle here, that’s ideally suited to both your own needs and the local environment. Two doors, but plenty of space for your toys. 4 liter turbo intercooled engine, manual transmission, easy to get service and parts. You’ll get lots of respect on the road, and get to park anywhere you like.

Don’t forget to paint it blue - a real hit with the locals.

[quote=“tango42”]All great info. Thanks.
I want to bring something unique, interesting, different, and yet able to get maintenance. Also, might want to sell it in a few years to someone local that wants something special.

Any other recommendations?[/quote]

Anything that’s not already sold here is going to be somewhat of a pain for parts and maintenance. Even if it is already sold here, often times there are slight differences for different markets in the world, and not all the parts are the same. Some comments:

  • Nissan Murano SUV
    You’ll have to find and import your own parts from the country the car was originally sold in. You might be able to find a mechanic to work on the engine, since it shares the same 3.5L V6 as used in many of Nissan’s cars. Other repairs might be hard to find someone who can do them.

  • Mercedes 2 or 4 door C series

  • BMW X5 SUV

  • BMW 2 or 4 door

  • Audi A4 or TT.

  • Nissan 350Z
    Unless the local Mercedes, BMW, Audi, or Nissan dealer can’t order you the color, option, or trim that you want, have your company buy you a new one from a local dealer when you get here. That way you will have no problems with parts or service, and have a warranty. If you do bring in a grey market import, local mechanics should be able to fix it no problem, even if the dealer won’t touch it. Parts may or may not be a problem depending on if the dealer will be willing to order non-Taiwan spec parts for you (for the parts that are not shared across markets).

  • Corvette

  • Mustang
    You’ll have to find and import your own parts from the country the car was originally sold in. Finding a mechanic will be next to impossible.

  • Toyota 4 runner
    Not sold in Taiwan, and nothing similar from Toyota is sold in Taiwan. You’ll have to find and import your own parts from the country the car was originally sold in. Repairs and maintenance might be hard to find.

  • S2000
    Honda originally brought one shipment in 2000 of about 30 cars. Some parts won’t be a problem (the common ones across all markets). Some of the parts specific to the grey market models you bring in will have to be sourced from the country the car was originally sold in. Finding a mechanic shouldn’t be a problem.

  • Hummer
    There was a guy who often parked his Hummer H1 (the big one) in the alley near my old apartment in Taipei. I don’t know how he was able to get in and out of some of the alleys there, and driving in traffic must have been a pain.

IMO, If you’re going to bring something in:

  • Bring in something that you can’t get in Taiwan (otherwise, just buy it in Taiwan and save yourself a lot of hassle)

  • Get a factory service manual, so that you and your mechanic can refer to it when needed.

  • Establish a good relationship with the parts people at your local home dealership, so that parts are always a phone call and Fed-Ex away, and if your relationship is good enough, you get a discount off of list price to offset shipping and import tax.

  • Try to get a parts book or parts microfiche with diagrams, indexes, and part numbers. They turn up on eBay often enough for US spec cars. This will be very helpful when you are on the phone explaning to the parts people back home (with whom you’ve hopefully established a good relationship) what you need. Part numbers are infinitely helpful.

  • Upon your arrival, before the car actually arrives, start asking around, and looking for owners of the same make/model of car. Join their club if they have one. Find out who fixes their cars. Talk to mechanics. Find a good one before your car actually needs service/repair.

buy a pre-scratched car here, like a peugeot 206. they’re great in the mountains, awesome to drive at moderate speeds, small to park, and have decent support. not worth the risk to the duco to buy anything you feel special about, unless you want to stand out …and spend a fortune fixing damage.

still, if you still want something from your list, bring a hummer. that’ll crush those pesky scooters once and for all.

The comments about the hummer in this thread so far I think point to the problem with automobile owners generally. All that has been said about them (aside from the crush the pesky scooter joke) is that they would be hard to drive in the city. What about what what an obnoxious waste of space they would be? What about the trouble they would cause “other” people? If you can walk, ride a taxi, ride a bus, and catch a taxi you don’t need to bring another car into a city that already has way too many of them. The only way you “really” need a car is if you are routinely required to haul around more than three people or a whole lot of stuff to do your job.

Go for a Dodge Viper, it will impress everyone around you, and then on weekends you can let me borrow it. :pray:

My buddy is bringing his Chrysler PT Cruiser. Wonder how that will stick out, or fit in?

Looks like I’ll either go for something really unique (and difficult/expensive to repair) or double B…

First we get two months of rain here and then it clears up for a couple of days, beautiful weather, but already the air outside smells like LA on an evil day. It has been explained to me that the air pollution gets bad here fast as soon as the wind stops blowing because all the mountains trap the smog. That suprises me because I thought it was because of ALL THE FUCKING CARS AND MOTORCYCLES!

LA air smells pretty good most days. At least here on the beach where I live. Sounds like not much use for a convertible in Taipei.