[rawcpoppa]

Greetings from the Caribbean,

I've never owned a Jaguar but I always admired their cars from a distance over the years. More recently I was very smitten by the relatively new Jag styling for the XF and XJ. The Jetta opened me up to european cars versus the market capturing Japanese vehicle here and I began seriously looking at Jaguar when the news of the XE broke.

Hope to be here posting often.

Cheers!

 

[Kingpin]

Welcome to the forum.
Where about in Trinidad are you from?
Never heard much about Jaguar vehicles in Trini, how common are they?

 

[Winger]

Japanese cars have a big hold in Trinidad, eh? Never knew that.

If you had a Jetta before then the XE will be an amazing car for you. Simply a different class of vehicle.

I'm sure a Jag in Trinidad will get you some good looks.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Kingpin]

Yeah no doubt, it will be a head turner over their.

 

[rawcpoppa]

Thanks!

I'm from the city of San Fernando.

Jaguars are not common locally. This is due mainly to engine taxes. Engines here are taxed based on displacement with different tiers having different rates. We are also charged VAT on all vehicle after that engine tax is applied. Generally engines with "large" displacements have a sever rate attached to them. This plus the VAT applied afterwards makes the larger displacement vehicles extremely expensive so hence not too many Jags. Plus I'm sure the dealer doesn't really push them as they have other brands they like to sell. e.g. BMW, Merc, Audi.

I see a few XF 3.0 V6 on our roads. I've come across one XJ. ONE F-type has just reached the dealer's showroom for the first time so yeah as you can tell by now Jags aren't ubiquitous here. The few Jags here are head turners I agree. I do believe if the XE comes for the right price they might sell a few more here. Especially considering the fact that optional engines may be 2.0T. Those aren't taxed very heavily here and would allow Jag to compete with BMW, Merc and Audi better here as those three offer most of their vehicles here with downsized turbo charged engines as well.

 

[Kingpin]

Good to know, to be honest I was never expecting a smaller country like Trinidad to have a regulation like that, thought it was something that bigger countries would have.

Did you manage to see what type of F-Type it is? I hope it's a V8

 

[rawcpoppa]

Trinidad and Tobago (One country, two islands) has an economy based on hydrocarbon production. So the economy generally does well. Fuels are subsidized here. Heavily.
Diesel is TT1.50 per litre. $TT10.5 to 1 pound. So approximately 14 pence for a litre of diesel here. Ron 92 is approximately 26 pence per litre and Ron 95 is about 54 pence per litre.

So to help prevent abuse of these subsidies the really large displacement engines have high taxes.

I haven't had a chance to go see it in person but others have stated its the V6 model. It's priced at TT$ 1.4 million or about 133, 000 pounds...

 

[Kingpin]

Thanks for explaining that, i always wondered why T&T became one of the more wealthy nations in the Caribbean, that explains it.

Just curious but have any other premium car makers open up shop on the Island? Maserati?

 

[rawcpoppa]

Porsche has an official showroom here so there are a few 911, Cayennes and Panameras on the road.

Unofficially there are Bentley, Lambo, Ferrari and Aston Martin vehicles all over the place. I've seen a few Maserati vehicles as well.

If you get the time have a look through this thread to get an idea of what's here:
http://www.trinituner.com/v3/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=356156&start=9960

 

[Kingpin]

Porsche has an official showroom here so there are a few 911, Cayennes and Panameras on the road.

Unofficially there are Bentley, Lambo, Ferrari and Aston Martin vehicles all over the place. I've seen a few Maserati vehicles as well.

If you get the time have a look through this thread to get an idea of what's here:
http://www.trinituner.com/v3/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=356156&start=9960

Wow,

Glad to see this picture of an F-Type that got delivered to Trinidad and Tobago

Any events go on over their like Little Tokyo (Antigua)?

 

[Kink]

whats motorbike culture like? Perfect weather year round and cheap fuel would be a DREAM, plus low emissions would keep them compliant

 

[Kingpin]

I Think Trinidad or some other countries down in the caribbean have some sort of bike even called bike week, the bike scene down their is supposed to be good from what i have heard

 

[Winger]

The tax on engine displacement basically works as a progressive tax. That makes sense in most societies. I ma guessing that Trinidad has some income disparity so this allows the poorer people to pay far less taxes than the rich people who want to buy things like Jaguars and Porsches.

I also saw this video on Trinidad crime on vice. Hope that you are staying safe as things look a little scary there right now.

 

[Kink]

Its a little condescending to use one documentary as a blanket notion for the status of said country. Its like saying all Americans wear Gallon Hats and Spurs because you saw a video on Texas.

Its like the world view on Iran because FOX news and the BBC said so, when in actuality Iran is a beautiful country with beautiful people. Iranians are some of the most friendly and intelligent people I have ever met, but not if you believe what media sells you. They're selling you a view and you've bought it hand over fist!

 

[Kingpin]

Its a little condescending to use one documentary as a blanket notion for the status of said country. Its like saying all Americans wear Gallon Hats and Spurs because you saw a video on Texas.

this is so true, although the documentary gives an idea what to expect in trinidad it does seem to be glorified to an extent. best to hear from those that actually live their like the OP

 

[rawcpoppa]

To be honest the documentary doesn't give on an idea of what to expect here. Maybe I'm lucky or just naive but I have never come across characters like those in the video. Crime is a problem here like anywhere else. The papers constantly bombard us with each murder daily. The documentary makes it seem like that's how it is for the majority of citizens which in reality it isn't. As with anything else and any other country things are more complicated and I'd say not as gloomy as the document portrays.

Trinidad and Tobago is a nice country with an element of evil but what country truly has no bad side to it?

The bike culture here is small I would say. I thought about purchasing a bike but honestly the road laws and drivers here don't acknowledge them generally. Splitting lanes is illegal here so drivers do not generally look out for bikers. As such defensive driving for bikers is a must. The bikers here though to me are cool. Generally drive well and put on a good show for people at times. They seem to be a close knit community too.

 

[Kingpin]

guess it's like anywhere populated..... if you watch the news all the time and stuff along the lines of what they always report on then you'll always have that idea of whats going on