For more examples of questionable taxation, look at the Giulia's native country. We've got a wide variety of stuff to choose from.
Extra-steep VAT (38% instead of the ordinary 18%) on cars with engine displacement >2L in the eighties (which is the reason why cars like the Ferrari 208 and the BMW 320iS E30 existed).
Annual registration/road tax surcharge on diesels from the seventies to the nineties.
Another similar surcharge meant to hit off-roaders, except the law defined off-roaders as vehicles with all wheel drive and more than 5 forward gears, so AWD sports sedans with 6-speed gearboxes were classified as off-roaders and subject to that tax.
Car radio tax. LPG tax. Oh boy, we've had it all.
And the current situation isn't much better.
Let's start with purchase. We've got 22% VAT/sales tax, plus IPT, a "provincial transcription tax" that is paid every time the car gets a new owner, whether it's brand new or bought used. IPT is based on engine output power, and varies slightly between provinces. In my province, IPT on a Giulia Quadrifoglio is 1408.92 Euro.
Then we've got regular vehicle taxation (bollo, an annual registration/road tax). While in past decades it was based on engine displacement, in contemporary times it is based on engine power, with no correlation to vehicle value, or CO2 emissions, or anything else. It varies slightly by region. In my region, bollo on a Giulia Quadrifoglio is 1455.50 Euro/year.
But there's more. We've got superbollo, a surcharge on bollo, meant to hit luxury cars. The problem with it is that, like bollo, it's purely based on engine power, with no other considerations. It kicks at over 250hp, and it's very steep. Superbollo on a Giulia Quadrifoglio is 3800 Euro/year in the first 5 years, then goes down in steps every five years, first to 2280 Euro/year, then 1140 Euro/year, then 570 Euro/year, then goes away. All that is always in addition to the base bollo of 1455.50 Euro/year.
Then there's gas, which on average currently costs between 1.50 and 1.60 Euro/litre, the equivalent of over $7/gal. And that's for regular (95 RON, roughly equivalent to US 93 octane). Over half of that price is taxation.