Importing a new vehicle from the UK???

[flappist]

Originally Posted by SSVPom

Merc E250 CDi in UK = $57,000
Merc E250 CDi on Aus = $110,000, give or take... Around the same price as an E63 AMG in the UK.

Petrol is over $2 per litre in UK, diesel even higher.

This sort of thing crops up every so often usually started by someone who can't afford to buy "item X" even if it were available at the same price here.

IF all import restrictions were dropped including the requirement to be RHD and we went to the same standard as Europe the following would happen:

1) The Falcon would cease to exist along with the Commodore and everything else made in Australia including all the parts and components makers.

2) Anyone who actually owns a Falcon would be in the same position as someone who owns a P76 or Valiant except as they would not be rare there would be almost no collectibility.

3) We would be flooded with extremely cheap junk from China and Eastern Europe which would increase both congestion especially in the cities and the road roll.

4) As we have a tiny population and lots of very long rough roads there would be lots of dead cars all over the place. Look outside to cities to see what the miners and cockies drive. Not a lot of Euro although plenty of $100-200k Saharas etc.

In the big picture our system is in place to run Australia, if you don't like it you have three options:

1) Run for parliament, get elected, obtain a ministry and chance the laws and policies.
2) Move to UK.
3) Whinge a lot on an internet forum about how unfair everything is even though you really have no idea. (which historically has worked well in option 2)

Of course you could do something positive like buy a nice new FG2 and help keep the Australian car industry running. After all this is a FORD forum not a "imports on the cheap" forum........

[SSVPom]

^ LOL

Here's me thinking it was an open forum for discussing Ford/motoring issues!

[RedHotGT]

The amount of money you will save on the purchase price will be swallowed up in the import/compliance/no warranty/no service in the long run...

It doesn't work - and that is exactly why the government has the import rules set in this way...

[flappist]

Originally Posted by SSVPom

^ LOL

Here's me thinking it was an open forum for discussing Ford/motoring issues!

Well it is a FORD forum primarily with motoring as second but apart from that suddenly it occured to me that there could have been merit if we had applied the restrictions on cars to other things that have been imported from UK.

[XR Martin]

You cant blame it on import costs or the Government.
When the AUD wasnt so strong against the GBP (3:1 remember), the difference in price wasnt as much.

Do you expect Mercedes to drop all their prices by huge amounts at the same time? Imagine what that would do to resale.
You would instantly destroy the brand if prices jumped up and down to reflect exchange rates.

[midnightXR6]

There is a point in the UK market. There is a heap of tat but also good stuff.

Seen an advert for those great wall jeeps not so long ago here now.

E63 in the UK starting from a used 08 model is around 18k GBP up to brand new they are something like 74k GBP new.