Signs irk Britons

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 28

Signs irk Britons

Allegations that British cars are being banned from Japanese municipal car parks have been made by Austin Rover’s top Japan-based executive, David Blume. Now Austin Rover executives are planning a top-level complaint about the wording of signs at parking areas in every town, which warn drivers that it is against regulations to leave foreign-built cars parked there. The warning is in official car parks on the outskirts of Tokyo and virtually every district in

the country. It is nothing less than unfair discrimination, according to Blume. The Japanese appear to be going out of their way to make things difficult for car importers. Blume has attacked what he says are repetitive and time-consuming trade barriers. “Apart from a commodity tax, the Japanese Government charges premiums for car acquisition and weight, and just being foreign means insurance costs are three times

greater than for equivalent home-produced cars,” he said. To avoid extra punitive taxation in the world’s second largest car market, Austin Rover Japan has to make Vanden Plas and MG versions of its Montego fractionally smaller by removing rubbing strips from bumper bar ends and turning in wheel arches because, left unmodified, they would attract a 28 per cent commodity tax as they would be 5 millimetres too wide to comply with regulations.