News Roundup: 2023 VW ID.4 gets Canadian pricing, plus new luxury tax details

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Welcome to our round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam.

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Here’s what you missed while you were away.

VW prices the all-electric 2023 ID.4, including new entry-level trim

There’s a new trim level for the 2023 ID.4, Volkswagen confirmed this week, while also sharing Canadian pricing for the electric vehicle. The ID.4 will carry over its rear- and all-wheel-drive options paired with an 82-kWh battery, but also add another model with rear-drive and a smaller 62-kWh battery. 

North of the 49th, this new smaller option will start at $43,995, which is $4,000 less than the other rear-drive model and $9,000 less than the all-wheel model, but a fair bit more than the 2022 ID.4 with the same setup, which sold for $44,995. (Shocker: the cash saved by making the cars in North America and not having to ship them from Europe is apparently being used by VW and not passed along to the customer.)

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Production of the 2023 ID.4 is set to begin at Volkswagen’s factory in Tennessee. 

Canada vehicle luxury tax will also cover accessories and add-ons

New measures set to come into effect this September and retroactively hit any purchases since January 1, 2022 will add a little extra for the Fed to the price of luxury vehicles in Canada. The new vehicle luxury tax will apply to the import or purchase of any vehicle over $100,000, and even include some after-purchase additions such as stereo upgrades and aftermarket body modifications made up to a year after purchase.  

Shoppers will pay the lesser of 10 per cent of the total vehicle cost or 20 per cent of the difference between the cost and $100,000. So, on a $150,000 Mercedes-Benz, the government will take an extra $10,000, which is 20 per cent of $50,000 and less than the $15,000 alternative. Lucky you. 

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Get the details here. 

Legal battle involving Mississauga auto body shop accused of fraud continues five years later

In 2017, Aviva Insurance Canada enacted ‘Project Bumper sting’ and, through the use of secret cameras, caught a bunch of auto-body shops doing shady business. But not all of the guilty parties faced consequences. Mississauga’s McLaren Collision has somewhat successfully drawn out its legal battle with counter-action against Aviva, which initially sued McLaren Collision for $100,000 for the cost of its undercover investigation; and $200,000 in punitive damages, insisting the shop invoiced for work they didn’t do and even “deliberately damaged” the staged car so it would require hundreds of dollars in repairs.

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The shop’s claim that Aviva’s actions constituted a “criminal enterprise” has been denied by a judge. Years later, a tribunal will now gather to decide whether to impose a one-year insurance-repair ban on McLaren Collision.

Watch: Russian belly dancer falls from moving car window

We all have a few songs that truly make us want to dance and sing, but the social contract that is adulthood dictates that you can’t bust a move any-old-where just because ‘your jam’ comes on the radio. Breakdancing at funerals, for example, is generally frowned upon. So is belly dancing out of the window of a car that’s travelling down a roadway.

But the memo didn’t reach one young woman in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, in southern Russia, who, as per a video shared by the Daily Mail, accidentally flipped backwards out of the open rear side window of an SUV she was hitching a ride in while trying to ‘get low, get low,’ belly-dance style. 

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The 24-year-old driver recounts the incident: “I gave a lift to a young woman, and as I drove I put the music on too loud… I missed the moment [she started dancing], so the young woman fell out. In future, I promise to use seat belts and follow traffic rules, and suggest others do the same.” That, or don’t play such bangers. 

Street Outlaws star Ryan Fellows dies in crash

Driver, presenter, and commentator of Discovery+ TV Series Street Outlaws Ryan Fellows passed away last weekend when the gold Nissan 240Z he was driving flipped and caught fire. Fellows was driving the car in the eighth of nine sanctioned filmed races taking place outside of Las Vegas, Nevada when the incident occurred. Emergency aid could not respond in time. 

TMZ shared an image of the fiery wreckage, and you can find the link in the original coverage here, but be warned: it is shocking. 

“The Street Outlaws family is heartbroken by the accident that led to the tragic death of Ryan Fellows,” Street Outlaws said in a Tweet. “We extend our deepest sympathy to Ryan’s loved ones as they process this sudden and devastating loss.”