Luxury And....Genius

In Taiwan there is essentially a 100% import tax on cars. Granted there are different stipulations and loopholes but for the most part this means that new cars in Taiwan are about twice the price they are in the rest of the world. Just yet another reason why scooters are so popular in Taiwan.

But with such a high car price, you'd think that Taiwan would have it's own car company. Well you would think wrong, that is until a few years ago when a new Taiwanese brand opened its doors, Luxgen! Luxgen stands for Luxury and Genius. But yes, you see the bane of every foreigner's existence here, nobody took two seconds to just ask a foreigner about the name. So nobody pointed out that "gen" and the first syllable of "genius" are pronounced differently. A lot of Taiwan is covered in English that could have been easily avoided if somebody took a minute to say "hey i have an friend who is a native English speaker, let me just have him take a quick peak at this for a second." Granted Luxgen isn't atrocious, but there are a lot of English mistakes from some pretty huge international Taiwanese companies that could have easily been avoided.

But back to the car brand. They started off with a "minivan" and an "SUV." They are in quotes because the style of these cars in Taiwan are a bit different, than what we call these type of cars back in the states. The minivan is pretty similar, just that in the states they have that big sliding door, but here they are just four door minivans. The "suv" is the biggest difference, in that it's not a rugged SUV like you see during football commercials, rather it's more kind of taller sedan. Think Porsche's "suv."

They also just recently came out with their sedan. which i have yet to see in person, only in pictures. Actually i don't know much about this brand. I have only seen a few of them out in the wild, granted since they look like every other car, i wouldn't really notice them anyway. I've never been inside of one or even seen the interior of one.

However, if i do buy a car here, i'd like to get one. Yes i know nothing about their quality, or really how much they cost, but with the high import tax, i'm assuming these cars are comparatively dirt cheap. Also I just enjoy daydreaming about the moral high ground I could have while owning this car. Especially when dealing with the poor service of car service centers. I can act aloof and say "oh you must treat me well and do everything i want, as I am such a great person to support Taiwan's industry and not foreign brands." Granted they will just glare at me while thinking to themselves "i wish you did have a foreign car, then we could charge more."

Yes my daydreams are quite detailed.

[Photo Co-op]

But what does the cardboard sign on the fence say? Reserved parking perhaps?

[Taiwandaily]

@handmade Two of the words i can't clearly see, so it says "parked car, blah blah, electricity" however electricity can also be used for phone number. so what i'm guessing it actually says is that the spot is for rent and please call them if you want to rent the spot. What most people who have a ground floor apartment is that they block off the spot in front of their house, and then rent it out for people to park there and they pay a monthly rate. I don't know how "legal" this is as they don't really own the street in front of their house, however they will usually block it off with some old run down scooter or some other objects and move it when the person who pays to park there comes to park.