ofey wrote:did any of you actually read what was written?
I did, and while the writer made some good points, some of his comparisons were a bit... iffy, such as the $28,000.00 Mustang costing $120,000.00 here - the car would have to be converted from LHD to RHD prior to registration in Australia, which would alone cost $45,000.00.
It's all relative. Ikea may charge 2-3 times as much for items here; but they are paying more for rent, employees, transport, consulting, etc. and cannot operate profitably at the same price point as that in countries like the US.
Another thing to note is that the juxtaposition between the cost of cars, computers, phones etc. in Australia vs other developed countries only began in the last half decade, when the Australian dollar experienced an unprecedented appreciation.
Regardless of the above; some industries are 'ripping us off' more than others. Carmakers love to use taxes (among other BS excuses) as the reason mid - premium cars are sold at such high prices in Oz compared to other countries. A simple breakdown of costs shows this to be mistruth.
C63 AMG in US = ~$60k USD MSRP = ~$67k AUD at current exchange rate.
C63 AMG in Oz = ~$167k AUD driveaway
MB Australia's website breaks it down like this:
Recommended maximum dealer delivery1(incl. GST) $3,269.23
Luxury Car Tax (LCT) $22,725.97
Total Registration2 $1,096.42
Stamp Duty $7,040.00
Having the retail price as $132,800.00 AUD including GST = $120,727 ex GST.
After import duty is removed, the actual cost of a C63 AMG is then $115k in Australia; approximately 72% more than in the US. Generally, the gap grows larger for more expensive cars. Sure, these companies could bring up wages, rent etc. as reasons for this, as I mentioned in the Ikea example above; but those are not the primary reasons for the price discrepancies. It's the government's import laws.
There's a long explanation, and a short one. The short one is that the government only allows manufacturers and their agents to import cars into Australia, no one else (bar some private imports that can only be brought in under stringent rules). This means that we have no alternatives, and have to buy up whatever limited supply Australia is allocated by the global head offices, leading to almost year long wait times for the latest performance vehicles, at prices sometimes double (and occasionally triple) of those in other developed countries.
It's a horrible system that has a small chance of changing soon, but until then, I dream of leaving the country and picking up something like a used one of these:
for less than the cost of a new one of these:
You can't tell, but I just rolled my eyes so hard, I detached my retinas.