I just wanted to share this article on car pricing with those readers not in Australia. After reading this you’ll never complain about your car pricing ever again. Our cars are 2 to 3 times the cost of the same vehicles in the USA/UK/Europe. And of course the government won’t allow you to import your own car from elsewhere. It’s a disgrace.
The DRIVE article is a well written demo. Read it and weep.
I don’t believe this! That ‘luxury car tax’ is stupid! Do you know if it would be returned/deducted if one were to import a car from Australia to the UK – or would it follow the car wherever it went?
It’s not like VAT or our GST so I don’t know what happens if the cars leave our shores. I know our Monaro (vaxhaul monaro VXR) was about $70k here but only $30k USD. And, as I pointed out the Rolls Royce Phantom is over 1 million here but only $350k in the USd and about the same in the UK. All countries provide assistance for their motor industry but as I pointed out our LCT is 15% over $57,000 so in no way does that make a rols 3 times what it costs in euro/usa/uk. It is one thing and one thing only, we are not (by law) allowed to buy our cars by privately importing thus the car makers can charge what they wish and we have no choice but to pay it. If the taxes were deducted here I’ll wager your VAT would be added when it got to the UK. Remember our dollar is worth more than the USD and about 0.69 GBP. There is no reason I can find apart from price fixing!
wow! I just read that article. I see now that my joke about buying a Porsch was in bad taste. You guys really do have it unfairly in AU. I particularly think it stinks that you cant even import your own personal car.
Nope. The Porsche Boxster is about 150,000 and in the USA is about 70,000. As I keep saying don’t forget our dollar is worth more than the USD. It is just appalling. Oh and thanks so much for dropping in and saying hi:)
I do it up in word first then transpose it. Sadly only the text is successful in the trip across to wordpress
Yeah, the forums are full of warnings about using Word as an editor for WP. Windows Live Writer works pretty good though. It’s both free and can post directly to your WP blog!
Wow, 2 to 3 times the cost?!?! That’s crazy! I’ve heard that cars imported into the states are more expensive than domestic ones because of import tariffs, but 2 to 3 times the cost is outrageous! 😯
And the more expensive cars get the greater the difference. The bottom of the Honda range isn’t that different but the top BMW is about 100k in the USA and $375 k here and remember our dollar is higher than yours. It’s because we can’t go anywhere else for our cars and the government won’t let us bring our own in. You can’t order one from Germany then go get it and bring it back. There is something rotten about it and the internet has only rubed more salt into the wounds because now everyone can see how ripped off we are.
I don’t understand this. You guys DO live in a democracy don’t you? There must have been some politically acceptable justification given for this to get the voters to go along, right? I did a Google search for an explanation, but all I found were complaints about it – nothing from your government at all! 😕
it’s because no one has even been able to get to the bottom of it. There was a group of people who tried privately importing cars but that was stopped. They also tried importing Japanese cars (they drive on the same side of the road as us) and that was stopped by the car companies who lobbied the government. I’ve asked the tax dept how much of the price of a new car is tax and it is 40% which is huge. But it is something similar in the USA. No the problem lays somewhere with those who import and manufacture cars. Don’t forget, our Caprice is now sold in the USA as the new police cars to replace the old Crown Victoria. It costs $70,000 here but is being offered for 25-30 k there. There are no import duites charged here for our own cars, There have been many cars designed and built here, then sold in the USA for half the price we pay. They used the exchange rate as an excuse but that hasn’t been the case for some time. We are being taken for a ride and no one can do anything abiout it.
YAY I got it working. The “link” in the HTML editor needed me to highlight where I wanted the link. )the word DRIVE) so now it all hionky dory
I’m glad you got it. Patient experimentation and previewing before publishing are the keys to getting it the way you want. Of course, using a text editor to backup your attempts will help too! 😀