FAW Toyota boosts vehicle prices with consumption tax hike

FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd., one of the joint ventures of Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp., has led the market in raising its product prices due to the increase in the vehicle consumption tax on big capacity engines in China. The country has raised the tax on cars with three-liter or larger engines, in an effort to restrain the consumption of less fuel-efficient cars. The venture sells the 4.7 liter automatic transmission (AT) high-end Land Cruiser at a new price of 1.11 million yuan (US$162.043), compared to the previous price of 835,000 yuan (US$121,897); the 4.7 liter AT lower-end Land Cruiser sells for 966,000 yuan (US$141,021). Other two 4.0 liter Land Cruiser models see prices rise by about 90,000 yuan (US$13,138). Its urban sports utility vehicle (SUV) brand Prado also sellsfor 60,000 to 70,000 yuan (US$8,759 to US$10,218) more (September 2, 2008)