Industry news

Ferrari LaFerrari the Victim Of An Idiot Owner

Don’t you love rich pricks who think they’re above laws? Sure, douchcanoes like that are a dime a dozen these days, but most of the time a work of art isn’t the victim of such prickish-ness. Such is not the case in South Africa, where a poor Ferrari LaFerrari might pay the ultimate price for her owner’s jackass behavior and mindset.

The LaFerrari is no pedestrian supercar with a $250,000 price tag; these things run at least $1 million in most cases. Apparently this one idiot seems to have the money to spare, as he tried not once, but twice to sneak the car into South Africa while circumventing import taxes and fees. That’s the true definition of “cheap asshole;” someone who absolutely can, but just doesn’t feel like paying the tax.

This saga started in 2014 when the owner attempted to smuggle the car into the country. Deciding he was actually not above the law, the authorities seized and held the care in a warehouse for three years. Fast forward to 2017, where Mr. Genius planned to get the car out of South Africa and take it to the Democratic Republic of Congo. All appeared to be well as the vehicle was released to the owner and he was permitted to cross the border.

A day later, Einstein decided to re-sneak the car back into the country at the very same border crossing where he left the day before. I guess money can’t buy intelligence! As expected, the car was seized yet again, with an official statement by The South African Revenue Services:

“When it was first brought into the country, the owner failed to follow correct import procedures including paying the necessary customs duties and VAT. As a result, the vehicle stayed in a bonded warehouse for three years because the owner could not finalize the required customs processes.

Then in February 2017, the vehicle owner submitted an export declaration to take the car to the DRC through Beitbridge border post. A day later, there was an attempt to have the vehicle return to South Africa through the same border post.”

Left-hand drive cars are illegal in South Africa since 2004, so right there you have an additional issue on top of the owner not wanting to pay the import tax. If the owner refuses to do things the right way, the LaFerrari will be crushed, which is a true shame considering the work of art that the LaFerrari is. I’m going to assume based off of the two previous attempts sneak the car in, that the owner will allow the car to be crushed and simply get another one.

SOURCE | Fin 24 via Jalopnik

Tony Hsieh

Cars, the Buffalo Bills, video games, comics, sandwiches, jelly beans, and the shooting star press; these are the things that Tony loves (in addition to his family, of course). When he's not spending his time writing tech reviews for theslanted.com, Tony puts his lifetime love of muscle cars to use on his 2015 Mustang GT. Tony's top three favorite cars are the 1973 Mustang Mach 1, Ferrari 458, and Aston Martin DBS.

Related Articles

3 Comments

  1. so to be fair, he couldn’t import the car legally even if he wanted to since it is left-hand drive. Could’ve started this shit-talking article with that

    1. The vehicle isn’t legal in SA. If they were to auction it off, the government would be guilty of trafficing in prohibited goods.

      Stupid, but that’s how governments work.

Back to top button