Roverman wrote:Plenty of space in that one, is it a converted ambulance?
No, it's a specifically tailored model to take advantage of certain paragraphs of the Finnish automobile tax system. Do a Google image search for "bx van" to see lots of those.
Finland has since 1950's had a very high tax on cars (I think it was 127 % in the 80's and 90's, now the system has been changed somewhat). At different times and ages, there have been several loopholes in the law that have allowed automobiles to be classified into a lower-tax rate class. One typical exemption from the ridiculous taxing has been vans, which are supposedly used by professionals to transport goods from one place to another. The rules for classification have changed several times, and it is a continuous play of cat and mouse between the tax authorities and innovative car owners/importers. In the 80's (up until 1991) a car could be classified as a van and sold at half price compared to a regular car, if it had only one row of seats, minimum boot height of 135 cm (IIRC) and minimum boot volume of 2m3.
So by getting rid of the back seat, cutting a hole in the original roof and then installing this specially tailored fiberglass thing on top of the car, the resulting BX Vans were sold at about half price compared to a regular sedan/estate. The modifications were made in Finland by a special company, and all BX Vans were initially red or white.
Furthermore, in addition to the exemption from the 127 % automobile tax, cars officially classified as vans pay only 1/6th of the annual so-called "diesel tax", based on car gross weight and collected in order to compensate for the lower tax on diesel fuel. So I for example pay only 50 euro (=40 pounds) of diesel tax per year, whereas the tax rate for a similar sedan/estate would be around 250-300 euro.
So this peculiar-looking BX is actually a specially tailored model designed to evade certain taxes invented by the Finnish authorities. No need for such cat-and mouse play in UK, I guess?
I'll see if I can manage some photos of my cars to the gallery - even though I must warn you that they are really tools and certainly no showpieces. The Van I'm currently driving on a daily basis has more than 700 000 km on the clock, and I drive it 50 000 - 60 000 km per year. Lots of things to do to keep them running, but the kilometres are cheap.
Speechless quad lying flat on his bed, communicating by moving eyes.
BX Van 1.9D -90 Gone.
BX Van 16S -90 For sale.
BX Van 1.9D -90 (Earned!) Gone.
BX Break 1.9D -90 (officially a "5 seat van" since 2005) Waiting to be towed to a new home.