Canadian cancer patient wins Koenigsegg, opts for cash instead
Click for hi-res gallery from Autoblog's first drive of the Koenigsegg CCX
If you won a lottery that offered you million-dollar supercar or a large cash prize, which would you take? Okay, well you might be a little biased if you're reading Autoblog. So let's make this a little more challenging: what if you lived in a town with no paved roads like Norman Wells (population: 761), some 690 kilometers northwest of Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories, where Louie Edgi lives with his family.
Edgi bought ten tickets for the Alberta Cash and Cars Lottery, which was giving away a Koenigsegg CCX and supports local cancer research funds, on a trip down from his northerly home-town to Edmonton, Alberta, (still considered ridiculously close to the North Pole for the rest of the world, including this Canadian-born writer) to undergo cancer treatment. Since getting the car home would have required a long trip up a winter ice road – a prospect that apparently hasn't caught on in the Northwest Territories as it has in Koenigsegg's home country of Sweden – Edgi opted for the cash instead, and is reportedly feeling a lot better about his treatment now.
Gallery: Autoblog Drives the Koenigsegg CCX
[Source: CBC News via Jalopnik]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
okapi 4:43PM (11/23/2008)
hmmm, that car would have looked nice in chains
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rndmnme 8:00PM (11/23/2008)
Right.
The only thing more dangerous than driving a Koenigseggeeggegeggggg without the Top Gear wing is driving it on ice.
Kitko 4:46PM (11/23/2008)
All the best to Louie Edgi in his fight!
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TheMagnificen7 4:46PM (11/23/2008)
I live in Calgary, Alberta. If I had won the car, I would have driven it for a week, and then sold it. The climate here is not suitable to make a car like that worth it. Our summers are nice, but the roads are coated in gravel and I would only get to drive it maybe three months out of the year. It would pain me, but I would sell the CCX.
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XGM 9:30PM (11/23/2008)
Same out here in Ontario. Id take the cash and move to a nice place and get a nice car where I could actually drive it.
Jon 4:49PM (11/23/2008)
This may be the only scenario in which it is acceptable to forego the CCX.
Good luck to Louie Edgi!
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P.V. 6:06PM (11/23/2008)
Absolutely true. I would do the same. Get some world-class treatments to keep myself alive, THEN get the CCX.
Good luck, Louis!
P.V. 6:21PM (11/23/2008)
Oops. I meant Louie. My bad.
At any rate, good luck!
fmwso 7:19PM (11/23/2008)
i totally agree w/ you, even thought that's such a nice car... good luck Louie
Michael 4:53PM (11/23/2008)
I'd still take the car.
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PiCASSO 7:44AM (11/24/2008)
Here's where the truth hurts: In Canada, at least Ontario, the guy would have to pay taxes on the vehicle based on the assessed value. So unless he had the cash on the side to pay off the taxes, choosing the cash itself (which is taxed as well) is a lot easier to deal with. I believe this Koenigsegg CCX runs in the $500,000+, so even with low 6% taxes, the guy would have to pay out $30,000 in taxes. Not sure how high taxes apply in NWT.
CBR 11:20AM (11/24/2008)
PiCASSO...
Actually there are no taxes on lottery winnings in Ontario
Majarvis 11:41AM (11/24/2008)
PiCASSO: In Canada, you don't pay taxes on lottery winnings. The car/cash prize is a lottery winning and thus tax is not applicable to it. Had the car been simply given to him and he were to register it, then he would pay taxes on the market value of the vehicle. However, since the vehicle was a lottery prize through a charity lottery, if he had kept the vehicle and went to register it, he would not pay taxes on the vehicle's market value. He would only pay the amount for licensing and registering the vehicle, but not on the value of the vehicle itself. I think that's what you were trying to say.
RamblinReck89 5:03PM (11/23/2008)
I'd take the cash too. Then I'd go out and pick up an Ariel Atom, Aston Martin DBS, and something more practical like an Audi RS4. Then I'd use the remaining money to pay off college, get insurance, and put gas in the damn things.
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mkevin88 5:51PM (11/23/2008)
i would pay for the cancer treatments
Crackberry Addict 6:58PM (11/23/2008)
Canada handles that!!!
mkevin88 12:52AM (11/24/2008)
ur right....i totally forgot, oops
Ben 8:42AM (11/24/2008)
No it doesn't. The provincial health care system is slow and doesn't cover cancer treatments.
inteller 8:47AM (11/24/2008)
now if this isn't a statement about national health care I dunno what is.
"Oh your leg is broken? We'll fix that"
"you say you have cancer? oh sorry you are screwed, but I hear there is a lottery you can take you chances with!"
Rocketboy 9:47AM (11/24/2008)
That's why people from Canada come down to the states to pay for cancer treatment? Yes, you can get 'free' (really, already paid for) treatment in Canada, but if you want something done sooner as opposed to later, the free market is your best bet.