Norway Does NOT Like Powerful/Fast Cars!

[aeropilot]

colonel c said:

Why not find a cheaper older car or have the Norwegian's banned those.

Old car scene is big in Norway/Sweden.

Vintage american stuff in particular (kustoms and hot rods) are very big there, with lots of younger people into it.
Classic rallying is big too.

[ess]

I think the 'vintage' category is for a vehicles over 30 years old with lower importation taxes.
But there are also laws on modifications, say if the engine has been swapped out.

Fuel is also very expensive in Norway and speeding fines are ruinous.
I lived there for a year with a UK plated Impreza WRX; perfect for winter mountain roads on Nokian rubber.
Was stopped doing 15km/h over the 90km/h motorway speed limit.
An eye watering £600 fine.

s

[NordicCrankShaft]

Yeh, I've thought long and hard about buying a Mustang as I've always wanted one and I can buy a 1965 289 V8 Fastback for around £20k or a 78 Corvette Stingray for £12k but as much as I love my cars I'm not sure if I have the commitment for something as serious as that.

Fuel isn't too expensive when you compare wages. A litre of Shell 97RON is currently 14.6NOK a litre......£1.40.

[ess]

NordicCrankShaft said:

Wages are very good here as an example the minimum wage for a cleaner in Norway is 160NOK and hour.....£16 but then there isn't that much of a wage gap in the population. Obviously there are people out there earning a lot of money but with the general population there isn't too huge a salary gap. It's also quite a good quality of life out here and the main focus is on spending time with your family. a normal working week it 38.5 hours and in most cases less, my holiday package per annum is 7 weeks!!! Also new fathers can take a year of paternity leave and still get paid 80% of their salary. It's a beautiful country and the people are great people and to be fair the only gripe I have is the whole cost of cars thing!

I've been working on and off in Norway for about 5 years now; London flight commute most of the time.
Agreed, it is a beautiful country and lovely friendly people; great quality of life (supermarkets need sorting out tho...).
I don't think there is any easy way around the whole powerful/fast car thing.

I believe the high import taxes date from pre-oil and hence set high to limit money going out of the country.
There are lower taxes on 'commercial' green plated vehicles. You may notice this on some MPV's also, but the rear seats have been removed.
There was a story knocking around about a Norsk chap who imported a Porsche 928 in the 80's and had it green plated by removing the rear seats. Could be a Norwegian troll story tho... :-)

[ess]

Some gratuitous shots ice driving at Gol (East of Bergen) with the Norsk Sportsvogn Klubb in 2009.
Great bunch.

[lamboman100]

MitchT said:

Are wages similarly spectacular then or do people just live in Norway because they have a desire to be impoverished?

Norway is the richest "proper" country on the entire planet.

Lots of oil and fish, which have not been plundered by the EU or US.

Cars in Norway are / feel expensive because of a) the country's communist taxes, and b) the weak UK Pound, crippled by debt and economic failure (London excepted).

Having said that, Norway is a rather boring place to live and drive (good for a holiday), so you can't win 'em all

[MH]

Motorrad said:

I was offered work in Norway but as a single bloke with no kids it just wasn't an attractive place to live.

Having been to Oslo many many times the 'scenery' definitely makes it an attractive place to live

[thekingisdead]

There was an article on the Beeb website last week that norways sovereign wealth fund is big enough to make every person a millionaire. Rich country indeed.

Personally I can see quite an attraction to a country where income inequality is low and there is a strong focus on quality of life. (I'm aware that's a very un PH thing to say)

[Sway]

To be fair, they also have a national debt pretty much exactly the same size as their wealth fund...

OP - surely the answer in this instance is to play the game and achieve fun through light weight?

Elises are pretty simple things really, and if it's a second car, whilst a cliché would an mx5 fit the bill? Can always add fairly serious power (for the weight) post purchase if it's allowed over there?

[gvij]

1983 500SEC? What would the ta be on that? Cost buttons in the UK and great car.

[otolith]

thekingisdead said:

Personally I can see quite an attraction to a country where income inequality is low and there is a strong focus on quality of life. (I'm aware that's a very un PH thing to say)

How do you feel about the creed that underlies that kind of society? It's often expressed thus;

You're not to think you are anything special.
You're not to think you are as good as we are.
You're not to think you are smarter than we are.
You're not to convince yourself that you are better than we are.
You're not to think you know more than we do.
You're not to think you are more important than we are.
You're not to think you are good at anything.
You're not to laugh at us.
You're not to think anyone cares about you.
You're not to think you can teach us anything.

Maybe a life of quiet mediocrity, plodding on without ambition and without any incentive to be better than average while still getting much the same as everyone else has an appeal, but it seems stultifying to me.

[Looket]

Rich they may be, but it's not called the last Soviet state for nothing.

That, and they're an easy target to make fun of.

[sealtt]

thekingisdead said:

There was an article on the Beeb website last week that norways sovereign wealth fund is big enough to make every person a millionaire. Rich country indeed.

Personally I can see quite an attraction to a country where income inequality is low and there is a strong focus on quality of life. (I'm aware that's a very un PH thing to say)

Currency is important here, whilst they are 'millionaires' that is in NOK ... so about £100k!

[XJ Flyer]

Looket said:

Rich they may be, but it's not called the last Soviet state for nothing.

So far federalism isn't one of the things that they can be accused of unlike the UK and other members of the EU.

[Looket]

XJ Flyer said:

Looket said:

Rich they may be, but it's not called the last Soviet state for nothing.

So far federalism isn't one of the things that they can be accused of unlike the UK and other members of the EU.

Well, they do have some fairly backward policies.

The term was coined by the Swedish minister of business in 1999 - himself a social democrat and quite the lefty.

[XJ Flyer]

Looket said:

XJ Flyer said:

Looket said:

Rich they may be, but it's not called the last Soviet state for nothing.

So far federalism isn't one of the things that they can be accused of unlike the UK and other members of the EU.

Well, they do have some fairly backward policies.

The term was coined by the Swedish minister of business in 1999 - himself a social democrat and quite the lefty.

To which my reply would have been to remind him that Norway chose independence from Sweden in 1905 and the Swedish remit obviously stops at the Swedish border as of that date.As for an EU member calling a non EU member a state of a federalist type union I'd have said people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[Looket]

XJ Flyer said:

Looket said:

XJ Flyer said:

Looket said:

Rich they may be, but it's not called the last Soviet state for nothing.

So far federalism isn't one of the things that they can be accused of unlike the UK and other members of the EU.

Well, they do have some fairly backward policies.

The term was coined by the Swedish minister of business in 1999 - himself a social democrat and quite the lefty.

To which my reply would have been to remind him that Norway chose independence from Sweden in 1905 and the Swedish remit obviously stops at the Swedish border as of that date.As for an EU member calling a non EU member a state of a federalist type union I'd have said people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

......right.

[NordicCrankShaft]

I earn 3 times my UK wage in Norway. My quality of life is much better, I work less, see my family more and my life is more recreational. Everything in the country runs on time. Even down to things like crime rate and criminal re-offending rates are some of the lowest in Europe. This country is run a lot better than the UK, they have their st together.

That post about the underlying code of society is from a 1920's story book, which yes they used it as a basic set of social rules but then they woke up and struck oil and since then these social codes are far from adhered to nowadays.

But back on topic!!!

Been looking at and seriously considering an S2 Elise or 65 Mustang both completely different but I've always wanted a Stang!!

[aeropilot]

NordicCrankShaft said:

Been looking at and seriously considering an S2 Elise or 65 Mustang both completely different but I've always wanted a Stang!!

Go for the 'Stang.

Old cars are much more fun.

With old yank stuff being so popular, you'll have a pretty good support network in Scandanavia for maintaining one, probably more so than the Elise.

[supersingle]

ess said:

I think the 'vintage' category is for a vehicles over 30 years old with lower importation taxes.
But there are also laws on modifications, say if the engine has been swapped out.

Fuel is also very expensive in Norway and speeding fines are ruinous.
I lived there for a year with a UK plated Impreza WRX; perfect for winter mountain roads on Nokian rubber.
Was stopped doing 15km/h over the 90km/h motorway speed limit.
An eye watering £600 fine.

s

The motorway limit is 56mph?

I'd be looking for a vintage 2CV. Anything remotely fast is going to be hell.