Ford thought it was being smart by importing the Transit Connect van from Turkey, but US Customs and Border Protection has other ideas.
Not an issue, right? Lots of cars are imported in to the States, right?
Thanks to the chicken tax, important vans and trucks have to pay 25% import duty instead of the regular 2.5% for passenger cars.
To get around this, Ford built American Transit Connects (except the diesel taxi) with windows and flimsy rear seats so that would qualify as imported passenger cars. On arrival in the US, the crap rear seats were pulled out and the windows replaced.
25% tax avoided. Billions saved.
Well, the US Customs and Border Protection agency thinks otherwise, and will charge the company $181 million in missed duties, and could put a further $652 million to $1.3 billion in fines on top of that!
