[KennyP]

Yep... the guy who manages the repair shop i use told me aswell that these cars are for DIY enhusiasts who have a garage, a lift etc.

Proper repairs and maintenance ensures cars longevity... For some these cars may be their forever cars...

In my case... in my country we did not have a proper car tax before... Cars were taxed through the taxes on fuel and that way taxation was based on fuel consumption...
Now our goverment is implementing a separate car tax... Country needs more money in its budget... As Russia is our neighbour we need to up the defence spending and our country also supports Ukraine alot... So these are probably main reasons for it.

This car taxation starts next year... 01.01.2025...
it has 2 components... yearly tax and registration tax...

First is yearly tax that is calculated on cars pollution stats and its weight. heavier and more polluting cars pay more. Weight isnt just the weight of the car but its full weight with its maximum carrying capacity....

For civilian cars age gets taken to account aswell... basically when car is new your tax gets multiplied by age factor of 1 which means it essentially stays the same... as car gets older this age factor starts dropping towards 0...
when car is 20 years old it reaches 0 and you only have to pay the minimum base tax...
So for example 5 year old cars tax gets multiplied by 0.8 and tax is reduced that way...

Now this yearly tax isnt that bad....

What is bad is car registration tax... so every time you import a car or buy a new car... on first registration in the country you have to pay this tax...
This is also based on weight, pollution and age of the car....

This is going to make importing a car from Germany way more expensive... and in a tiny country that has only 1.3million people you basically have to if you want to get anything thats close to what you wish for... local market is very limited.. i havent seen any n54 z4-s for sale within the country for years for example... you have to look abroad..
for example..
my current 2009 z4 35i ...
next year someone wishes to import one similar in: 2147 eur registration tax on that...on a 15 year old car...
say i want to lease a 2020 3l Toyota Supra and bring one in from Europe...
6000 eur registration tax to do that... yearly tax 444 eur...
And these are small light cars... as tax is also based on the weight of the car... heavy SUV-s, large luxury cars get hit hard with this tax...
2022 bmw x5 30d : to register 7500 eur and yearly tax 665
audi Q7 was like 10k eur to register... Cayenne was highest i think... about 15k eur to register...

While my 2009 z4 35i yearly tax is going to be only 99 eur... as its so old and doesnt weigh much either...

So this incentivizes me to keep my old z4 in top shape and just keep driving it on... Its basically free motoring compared to newer options...

Basically if you want to import something to Estonia.. this year is really the year to do it and get one in before the taxation hits...

Also it was popular to buy a car to a company name here. This cartax is even worse to company cars... essentialy for company cars tax doesnt take age into account.. so it doesnt matter how old the car is company gets taxed as if its a brand new car...
So if i registered my current Z4 to a company name my yearly tax would be 540 eur instead of 99 eur as a civilian...

I have myself thought of getting something to replace the Z but i really dont like most of the newer cars at all... or they are so freaking expensive and out of my budget... with way higher upkeep costs...
And then i think that i dont have to pay like 500 eur every year to drive my current car... and i truly still enjoy it. So the result of it all is that probably my Z4 is going to be with me for a very long time... ill just keep it well maintained and fix everything on it... and keep enjoying it...

It will probably even stay rare. Noone will import any more of them to the country when tax is over 2000 for a 15 year old car to do so... and to import a newer 2015 z4 35i its over 5100 eur of tax to do so...