, who asked that TBL withhold his last name, recently challenged the town's $24,629 valuation of his 2010 Camaro LS. How could that assessment be possible when he paid $23,655 for it more than a year ago?
"No used vehicle sells for more than new ones," he says. "Everyone knows you lose $3,000 to $4,000 the minute you drive off the lot. But assessing more than [Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price]?"
Outraged, he requested a hearing before the town's board of Assessment Appeals. Last month, he got that hearing and — "after careful consideration" — was shot down. The assessment stands.
So what's going on here? Is owning a car a better investment that stashing cash in a savings account or CD?
Sometimes, yes. What's happening is an unusual confluence of market conditions and town standards for assessing a car's value.
Don't blame local town government for your tax bill. Years ago, state lawmakers determined the baseline for motor vehicle property-tax assessments: dealership retail prices posted by the National Auto Dealers Association. That's how Connecticut towns do it. So do towns in most states across the country.
"So what you are saying is if my 2-year-old Camaro sits on a dealer lot for sale next to a brand new 2011 it sells for almost $2,000 more, used?" Marks asks both NADA and TBL.
In some cases, bizarrely, yes. But not yours.
The NADA last month identified 107 used cars, model year 2011, whose used-retail values are higher than new 2011 model MSRPs. This statistical head-scratcher is attributed to the Japanese earthquake, which created a shortage of new 2011 cars, slow sales of new cars, fewer trade-ins, people buying (instead of returning) leased cars and even the federal Cash for Clunkers program, which encouraged trade-ins of undesirable older cars for new vehicles.
"From a tax standpoint, it is not pleasant," says Jonathan Banks , executive automotive analyst for the NADA Used Car Guide, "but you actually have equity in your vehicle — a welcome sign when most people are upside down on their houses, retirement funds and stock portfolios. It actually offers consumers an opportunity to use their vehicle as an asset for a trade-in."
Or the unwanted opportunity to pay higher taxes. To support his appeal, Mark did some homework at the library, comparing prices in the June NADA Guide. Here's what he found: The MSRP of a new 2010 Camaro LS was $22,245, the used retail $23,925. That's an appreciation of $1,680.
Banks, however, says consumers are often misled by MSRP listings in the NADA Guide, which includes only standard equipment and excludes taxes, transportation and destination charges.
"So a customer can't even buy a car at the MSRP we have in our book," he says.
Banks says car owners should compare used retail prices to a comparably equipped MSRP. The NADA's base MSRP price for the 2010 Camaro LS was, he says, the $22,245 figure Mark found at the library. The "typically equipped" price, a closer match to Mark's Camaro, is $24,525. The used retail is $23,925.
That, suddenly, adds some perspective to Plainville's assessment.
"I'm sure some people are [upset]," says Jane Buden, Plainville's assessor. "The value on used cars did go up. It's supply and demand. If people can't afford new cars, it makes the demand for used cars higher. When the demand for used cars is higher, usually the average retail on some of those vehicles do increase."
State lawmakers probably never saw this coming when they set the standards in the 20th century. Back then, the auto world was a much simpler place.
Reaction to a recent column about Restaurant.com and a Windsor restaurant that refused to honor the discount certificats (read it at cour.at/rfM5Bt):
"Over the months I've become a near-fanatical evangelist for restauranta.com, continually boosting it to my many restaurant-crazed friends. My portfolio is, whoa, 51 coupons. With the perhaps 20 or so I have already used to date, I've never had a single problem. In fact, one of the restaurants whose coupon I was holding apparently backed out of the deal – and restaurant.com notified me in advance, before I ever got to the place, and helped me initiate an easy exchange, for the full value of the thing. All other restaurants where I've used a certificate have accepted it graciously. Except Nat Hayden's.
For him and the other restaurant owners, obviously the message is caveat venditor. And almost all other restaurants can surely tailor the uses of the coupons to make them worthwhile.
>> Send your consumer complaints, questions, tips, suggestions or how you stood up for your consumer rights to khunt@courant.com. Please include The Bottom Line or TBL in the subject field. Or call 860-241-6455.
Source:
