Imported Car Prices

[tranquilized]

This topic has been done to death here I realise, and many of us have our theories as to why we're charged what we are for cars in this country.

I've said in a few other threads that I'm starting to notice a change, with a few new imported cars becoming cheaper - for example most of the Chrysler range and the Toyota 86, nevermind anything from Korea.

Now Porsche are getting on board;

http://motoring.ninemsn.com.au/cars/...now-36-cheaper

There is so much discussion going on right now about the sustainability of the local industry, while at the same time most of us (me included) like to whinge about the price of cars in Australia in general.

Well, they seem to be on the way down. Obviously the new Porsche pricing isn't relevant to our local industry specifically, but I see a trend. Anyone else? Good or bad thing?

[falconnut]

Overall its a good thing for everything except local industry, Holden and Ford have been on the downward slope since the 90's though so thats nothing new.

Whats really killing us is this one sided free trade agreements and we cant export anything.

[Brazen]

Its funny, back in 1994 a Subaru WRX was 45 grand and in 2013 it is 42 grand. So it has gone down in price.

[GQ_Smooth]

While it's good for the consumer, these price drops will also reflect decreases in service levels from the majority of importers. When margins are cut, someone has to pay in one form or another.

[Wretched]

A good thing

[Rodge]

Originally Posted by GQ_Smooth

While it's good for the consumer, these price drops will also reflect decreases in service levels from the majority of importers. When margins are cut, someone has to pay in one form or another.

Its all about the rising value of the Australian dollar and there's still heaps and heaps of fat in those prices to keep the fat cats that sell them laughing all the way to the bank.

We have no import barriers in N.Z. and for example you can buy a brand new parallel imported Jaguar XJ for under $100K Kiwi = $80K Aussie. How many people would jump at the chance to buy high end Euro cars at a fair price if they had the opportunity ?

[JOESBOSS]

I'd just love LHD imports to be ADR approved with a simple headlight change and changing steering geometry to suit our roads, there's no need to convert the steering position, all of the safety standards are the same.

[flappist]

I see wages in other countries are much lower than Australia, they don't have super, 4 weeks paid holidays, sickies, workers comp or leave loading etc.

Now if we could just lower our working conditions to those of other countries we would all be so much better off, well I would be anyway.......stuff everyone else

Or is that being rather rude and trying to disadvantage a significant part of our economy sort of like grey importing..............

[Shonky.]

Originally Posted by JOESBOSS

I'd just love LHD imports to be ADR approved with a simple headlight change and changing steering geometry to suit our roads, there's no need to convert the steering position, all of the safety standards are the same.

what about the fact that you can't see the road ahead from the kerbside of the car?

[Cheech]

Originally Posted by shonkymofo

what about the fact that you can't see the road ahead from the kerbside of the car?

This works fine for the tens of thousands of Britons that take their car on the ferry over to RHD Europe.

In regard to the OP....

Exchange rate of the Aussie dollar vs USD, EUR, GBP & JPY are at all time highs, so the base import cost of a foreign car is cheaper.

On the positive side of the high aussie dollar - imagine if it went back down to USD 0.65 and then consider what you'd be paying for fuel (possibly 35% higher than it is currently).

[EDManual]

I notice that we actually get Toyota 86's WAY cheaper than the UK does! Thats different!

[Cheech]

Originally Posted by EDManual

I notice that we actually get Toyota 86's WAY cheaper than the UK does! Thats different!

Uk Pound is in the toilet at the moment comparitively speaking to the AUD.

Depending on which currency they buy from Toyota Japan, will effect the cost price in the country of import.

Eg. If paying in JPY, the UK pound (being de-valued), doesn't buy as many Yen as 5 years ago. On the flipside the Aussie dollar buys an awful lot more yen than it did 5 years ago. So a cheaper base import price is the result in Australia. The flow on of this is that duties & GST, which are percentage based, are calculated on this price converted to AUD. So the Australian importer (Toyota AUS) get less taxes as well.

The above is a rather simplistic look at things as a lot of these companies have forward exchange contracts in place to protect them from currency fluctuations.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by shonkymofo

what about the fact that you can't see the road ahead from the kerbside of the car?

Of course you can. The vehicle in from of you has two sides, look around the other one.

Where there IS a potential problem is when you are siiting right up the back of another vehicle trying to push them faster and acting like an impatient idiot ducking out every 10 seconds just in case theer is almost enough room to overtake.

Of course the cure for that is sit back a few car lengths and you will have no problems as in drive like you actually have some sort of ability and understanding of what you are doing.

Driving LHD is not that hard....

[tranquilized]

I'd love to see a relaxation of the laws regarding LHD vehicles. Not open slather, but to allow for the registration of specialty cars, similar to what New Zealand do where you see a few new Mustangs and Camaros getting around fully registered in LHD. This way the only people who would bother to do it would be the enthusiast, who hopefully would be better equipped to drive a LHD car than the average person who parallel imports a LHD Camry to save a few $k.

But I dont think LHD vs RHD has much to do with the costs of cars in this country, except for some of the ultra low volume high end models. There is no "conversion" to RHD we have to cover, a car is either engineered to be RHD and LHD from the start or it isn't. If it is the costs are just part of the overall development bill. If it isn't we miss out on the model.

I think the importers have been charging the most that the market can bear, which here in Australia is stupidly high. But now the Aussie dollar has been so high for so long and its easy to learn what other countries pay, people are finally questioning the price of cars in Australia.

[ryeman]

Everybody selling a product into Australia knows that in most instances there is little or no price discipline forced on them by competitors, because they are gouging too!

[2011G6E]

I remember a news item from the USA I saw on another forum where a high school was in trouble with green groups for doing some sort of sponsorship deal with a local Chevrolet dealership, whereby graduates could take advantage of an offer to buy not a lovely little fuel efficient econobox, but a massive Chev Silverado V8 truck at the cut price discount of only $19,000...down from the "normal" price of about $24,000 grand.

These are the same trucks that importers bring out here, convert to RHD (because of our unique requirement that new cars must be RHD), and sell for up near (or over depending on spec) a hundred grand.
USA (and European to a lesser extent) prices are sickening...300C's start from a little over twenty, other vehicles we get here at half the price they sell here, etc.

Imagine if we could do away with our requirement for RHD only for imported cars, and let people drive whatever they liked (those who were afraid of driving a LHD car wouldn't buy one, but plenty of people would, as they do in England and other countries with no real problems)...no special engineering for ADR's, prices only a little higher to account for freight from the USA...the Australian industry wouldn't last six months...

[Nikked]

Everything we by here in Aussie land is expensive, Sunrise had a list of things this morning...why should cars be different?

[rab]

Its globalisation, being so far away from everywhere has seen Australia survive this plague.

The playing field will just even out, Australia will suffer, other countries will gain.

I am not Australian but have seen this happen elsewhere, not good for us in OZ long term.

[rab]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

I remember a news item from the USA I saw on another forum where a high school was in trouble with green groups for doing some sort of sponsorship deal with a local Chevrolet dealership, whereby graduates could take advantage of an offer to buy not a lovely little fuel efficient econobox, but a massive Chev Silverado V8 truck at the cut price discount of only $19,000...down from the "normal" price of about $24,000 grand.

These are the same trucks that importers bring out here, convert to RHD (because of our unique requirement that new cars must be RHD), and sell for up near (or over depending on spec) a hundred grand.
USA (and European to a lesser extent) prices are sickening...300C's start from a little over twenty, other vehicles we get here at half the price they sell here, etc.

Imagine if we could do away with our requirement for RHD only for imported cars, and let people drive whatever they liked (those who were afraid of driving a LHD car wouldn't buy one, but plenty of people would, as they do in England and other countries with no real problems)...no special engineering for ADR's, prices only a little higher to account for freight from the USA...the Australian industry wouldn't last six months...

There are problems with lhd in RHD roads...overtaking, car parks, headlights and more.
There would be a **** load of accidents if they flooded the market with lhd cars but why bother ?
So many good RHD cars.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by flappist

I see wages in other countries are much lower than Australia, they don't have super, 4 weeks paid holidays, sickies, workers comp or leave loading etc.

Now if we could just lower our working conditions to those of other countries we would all be so much better off, well I would be anyway.......stuff everyone else

Or is that being rather rude and trying to disadvantage a significant part of our economy sort of like grey importing..............

Indeed, if all youse bludgers in Victoria were prepared to work 80 hours a week in appalling conditions, and live in a one room flat with 3 other families on a diet of boiled rice, then people in WA would be much better off becuase Falcons would be cheaper.

[302 XC]

Originally Posted by flappist

I see wages in other countries are much lower than Australia, they don't have super, 4 weeks paid holidays, sickies, workers comp or leave loading etc.

Now if we could just lower our working conditions to those of other countries we would all be so much better off, well I would be anyway.......stuff everyone else

Or is that being rather rude and trying to disadvantage a significant part of our economy sort of like grey importing..............

Have to agree .....
Some workers O/S live in the poorest of conditions and get paid the absolute bottom of the barrel
You don't work, you don't get a decent meal, heavens forbid you can afford nice brand name clothes or even maccas or junk like that
My retired invalid pension neighbours live on around 25 K a year,there life consists of nothing, they cant afford to pay rent , centrelink contributes there as well, they drive once a fortnite to shop, pay the absolute minimum on things just to stay alive,the wages people get in other countries there lucky to get a roof that doesn't leak,diseases are rank, you cant afford to see doctors,you get sick youll probably die,their doctors work in bad conditions,wear the same clothes forever cant afford new ones every week,$100 or more work boots doesn't happen
They don't get a centrelink handout for every child they pop out, no or minimal living assistance from govgo,some countries their children sometimes just girls, sometimes boys, get taken for child slave labour
Yep lets live in a country like that all to save a few bucks on a new car that you couldn't afford to have

So next time people brag how their children or grand children get handouts from the government for popping kids out,or sitting on their backside for doin nothing ,or those totally rapping the system , we all pay some way or another

[cobramania]

Was pondering this, this morning. The high Aussie dollar is frequently blamed for our manufacturing problems, but for the local market (made & consumed here), the value of the AUD has no effect, as there's no currency exchange. It wouldn't matter to locally made & sold Fords if the dollar was worth $0.20 US.

The problem only lies in Aus. exports (to which there's very little) & Tourism (cost OS visitors more to come here).

Cheap imports damaging our local market is the fault of free trade & no import tariffs or subsidies to protect local goods.

If you have equal imports & exports it's a good thing, but our country is unfortunately heavily weighted to imports, & we are one of the only countries that don't protect our own local product, with a heavily import market. The US subsidise just about everything local, even though they have free trade. They also export quite a lot more than we do too.

It wouldn't help Aus. jobs, but Ford & Holden would be better off, shutting up shop here, moving to New Zealand, manufacturing cars there & importing them back to Australia. We'd have cheaper cars too, thanks to the high AUD to NZD exchange rates & free trade with NZ.

A lot of people probably don't realise, but many previously Aus. made products are now made in NZ & imported back here. China makes a lot of our products, but NZ is now a big supplier for us. A large chunk of our food stuff now comes from or through NZ.

I know this is the lucky country, but it's in a sorry state & falling fast IMO.

[Shonky.]

Originally Posted by flappist

Of course you can. The vehicle in from of you has two sides, look around the other one.

Where there IS a potential problem is when you are siiting right up the back of another vehicle trying to push them faster and acting like an impatient idiot ducking out every 10 seconds just in case theer is almost enough room to overtake.

Of course the cure for that is sit back a few car lengths and you will have no problems as in drive like you actually have some sort of ability and understanding of what you are doing.

Driving LHD is not that hard....

"Vehicle in from of you"......

Not sure where the car in front came into it

Just simple geometry I would have thought....

Stand on the side of the road and tell me how far you can see in each direction.

Now stand in the middle of the road and tell me how far you can see

[flappist]

Originally Posted by shonkymofo

"Vehicle in from of you"......

Not sure where the car in front came into it

Just simple geometry I would have thought....

Stand on the side of the road and tell me how far you can see in each direction.

Now stand in the middle of the road and tell me how far you can see

Exactly the same distance if the road is straight, if curved then you will actually be able to see furthest on the side of the road that is opposite the apex.

The other vehicle came into it as the primary whinge is seeing around vehicles before overtaking.

It is quite obvious you have never actually driven a LHD car, why don't you go out and try it rather than just try to make up some theory to support your agenda......

[Shonky.]

Agenda???

You should relax

[rab]

We had a LHD Volvo back home in UK.
Much more safer with RHD.
Easier to see, parking etc.
tolls
Car parks.
Everything is geared towards RHD here.

[Franco Cozzo]

Lets face it, the real reason you can't drive a LHD car in Australia is because of the Maccas drive through.

THE HORROR!

[Pickle7]

It's still 1/4 mill, not sure there will be a big rush from Oz.

[Pickle7]

Originally Posted by shonkymofo

"Vehicle in from of you"......

Not sure where the car in front came into it

Just simple geometry I would have thought....

Stand on the side of the road and tell me how far you can see in each direction.

Now stand in the middle of the road and tell me how far you can see

Like a 4wd and sports car. You just need to use different driving styles.

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Lets face it, the real reason you can't drive a LHD car in Australia is because of the Maccas drive through.

You just reverse through it, what's the problem?