Do you think Taiwan has more luxury cars than other places?

I see quite a few Mercedes-Benz cars these days, and others with like prices here in Kaoshiung. Today went to Carefour, and I am going say at least 20% the cars in the car park fall within this price or higher (I had mid level local made Japanese brand car). Where I was before here in Taiwan, there are much fewer luxury cars, most were like Toyota (Japan), Ford (USA) and Holden (USA). Here I see mid range cars but less and less I feel, and not only that I see more and more Maserati’s and very high end cars like it. So I wonder it locals getting richer or just people spending their savings or maybe a big car loan?

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Taiwan is a pretty wealthy country. Even though the wealth is far from evenly distributed, there are people with a lot of money and they face a lot of social/cultural pressure to display it through material possession.

It’s not all that different from LA.

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I’m not sure but i’ve seen plenty of dick heads driving them. The posh car and chances of the driver being a dick head has to be pretty high in taiwan. but i have seen one top bloke who took pride in having a flash car but still letting pedestrians cross the road. :+1:

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Taiwan also isnt spread out so easier to see a group of lamborghinis cruising around.

Cheaper expenaive cars like benz and bmw are actually very cheap to lease. Many of my old students would lease them for 7000 to 10000/month and pretend they are something special. Meanwhile living with mom, too broke to anything other than fried rice and when milking mom doesnt work getting a 711 job. There is a lot of that going on.

Also a lot of the really high end ones. Taiwanese quite enjoy showing off. Wouldnt be surprised if east Asia in general was the worlds best in that category.

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All the Ferrari and Lambos I saw in Italy had Swiss tags…

Taiwanese definitely love there European luxury cars.

I totally agree, the number of semi expensive to luxury
cars on the roads and parking lots is ridiculous sometimes. I go to public sports centers all over north Taiwan, you will see many luxury cars parked there.
So many new SUVs and also huge numbers of Audis, BMWs, you name it.
They aren’t old cars either , they are usually quite new.
August car sales were up 30% on previous year.
There’s a bit of an obsession with owning/driving a nice car in Taiwan and yes many are driven by assholes going by their behaviour. The biggest number is of course cross over SUVs. God help it if one gets a scratch or a dent.
I also noticed a lot of newer cars seem to have copied Tesla’s designs.

And could somebody please buy a car that’s not white (70%), black (20%) or grey (10%). Fuck me that’s boring !

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Indeed a lot of fancy cars. But many times I see owners of very expensive cars living in very old, run-down buildings like there are so many in Taipei/Taiwan. Why do people care so much about how their car looks like, but not about where they live? In most places in the world a nice car and nice home go together, but this seems to be much less so in Taiwan.

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Where?

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The rich of 10 to 20 years ago were millionaires but you’d never know it. Cheap crappy car, run down looking house that was bare inside. But were totally rich they just didn’t flaunt it. Nouveau rich now love to flaunt their wealth (or loans) and driving like a douche is to let people such as pedestrians or scooter drivers realize where they are (very low) in the hierarchy.

It doesn’t help that I hear all the time… you don’t want to confront a luxury BMW owner with tinted windows, they are gangsters.

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What is one of the most popular nighttime or weekend hobbies. Washing your own car now. FFS. :sunglasses::joy:

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Taiwan does have a great variety of cars
Many are not found in the USA

Back in the day used to think HK was the place to see a lot of fancy cars

I heard it’s because Hong kong has a 100% tax on all cars so the only cars worth buying are luxury cars.

I wash and wax my own car because I don’t trust most workers here. I do let them clay and polish twice a year though because I don’t want to buy the tools for a twice a year job. I watch them do it all though, so they have to do it right.

OP - I think, like @Explant said, a high percentage are leases. It’s really cheap here, and most people replace their cars every five years or so. It’s usually cheaper to pay a monthly lease than pay the monthly payment on a five year loan. Plus you have no worries about insurance or anything beyond basic maintenance.

I will buy neon green. Just for you.

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Anything except those copper top batteries driving around. Ugliest things ever.

That’s the color of my car!

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When i was here talking to friends friend who’s husband turned up in S Class Merc, my friend said oh I didn’t know you had a car, she replys we don’t use often he drives it to golf club once a week sometimes to Costco.
works out they did less than 20 kilometres a week in this car.
Did some asking around seems very common for high end car owners, we had this joke they buy a Tesla fully charged then replace it 3 years later without having to charge it. I had not seen a single charging point in taipei.

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Australia.

Ghost month discounts!

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It still is. In Taipei you see the occasional RR, McLaren or Porsche RS3 (for the younger crowd) but HK has waaay more fancy cars.

Mostly black.