[throwaway049]

BMW will become a slightly more premium option if there are higher taxes. Meanwhile asian-made cars (like mine) will likely occupy the same market position they did before. Depends on the strength of Sterling as well of course.

[junto]

That's unlikely. The current trade deal with countries like Japan, is direct with the EU powerhouse, not one single country like the UK. The size of the EU has a much stronger bargaining power than the UK can ever hope to achieve.

More importantly, your UK purchased Japanese car is most likely fabricated in a UK or EU factory. The UK factories exist simply because Japanese manufacturers then have direct access the the EU market without tariffs, and take advantage of the EU subsidies in order to set up and operate.

Those subsidies and tariff benefits just evaporated. The EU market for their vehicles is much larger than the UK. It now makes sense for them to move their final manufacturing inside the EU zone and out of the UK. Bye bye jobs. The only benefit is that the GBP devaluation buys more Euros, so if you still have a job in the UK after this, you can buy your Japanese European made car cheaper as an import from the EU.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/asian-company-shares-reeling-aft...

[throwaway049]

I mostly agree but I think you have it backwards when you say a devalued GBP buys more euros. A weak pound makes it more expensive for me to buy an imported car.