I saw a tv commercial today that, as a consumer, pissed me of a bit. I believe it was for the new Toyota Yaris.
Recently the danish government passed a bill, making SUV's and other vehicles in that category, more expensive, and smaller more environmentally friendly cars cheaper.
This is because during the rapid increase of the SUV's popularity over the last 4-5 years, people have started buying them for company use, even if they have no company, or no need for a company car of that magnitude. Cars registered as company cars, are VAT exempt, and VAT in Denmark comes to about 25%, regardless of the item you purchase, be it an apple or a monster truck. There's also a hefty registration fee on motor vehicles, and especially on cars, where you end up paying for two cars or more. But for company cars (registered on yellow license plates here in DK, contrary to the standard white plates) there's also big savings on the registration fee. So you'd end up getting a Porsche Cayenne for an almost reasonable price.
Now obviously if a person drives only him- or herself and noone or nothing else around in a vehicle big enough to hold a small kindergarden and a years supply of nachos, it is at great cost to the environment when said vehicle uses 0.1% of the earths fossil fuels per mile travelled, and spews out an amount of CO2 comparable to the smog covering the Rurh district.
Hence the danish government tought it was time to do something about it. Very commendable.
So they've passed this bill that more or less removes this registration fee savings from those big SUV's.
Toyota Denmark instantly picks up on this new bill, because naturally everyone wants to save a bit whereever possible. Nothing wrong with that, and given the VAT and registration fees on cars here in Denmark, it is indeed nice to save a bit on a car. And for this particular car, it is in fact quite a bit. About 10% or so. But here's the thing : The bill will not take effect until june 15., as far as I understand it, and the little foot note in the commercial says "*estimated price reduction based on the new bill - untill june 15th, the car sells to the old price".
But the woman says "Now you can get the new Toyota Yaris a great deal cheaper"... But you can't NOW. Not until June 15th, and maybe it won't even be as cheap as they advertise it.
I think that's absolutely rotten business conduct. That's selling the skin, before the bear is shot.
Long story short : They're advertising a discount, they don't yet know if they can keep WHEN the new bill is in effect. And they're advertising that you can get the discount NOW, even though you can't (unless you read this after June 15th.).
Shame on you, Toyota! Shame, I tells ya!
