Car companies do this every year before the end of the financial year?

The illusion is that the AUD is strong. It is doing well obviously but people seem to forget that the USD has actually crashed on its own. Even in Asia the USD is worth less. What has happened and we will see in time that most Asian producers have increased pricing in USD to maintain earnings in their local currency. While the AUD is strong against it we have not noticed the increases. If the AUD falls import costs will rise sharply.

Personally the AUD at $1.06 or whatever is terrible for our economy in so many ways. I hope we don't find out how bad at any time soon.

Yeah, fair points made by everyone. Thanks.

Not just cars!

Looking at touchscreen monitors and found a 42" by HP


US$1999 = AU$1908.71 (www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1999&From=USD&To=AUD)
h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/382087-382087-64283-72270-3915216-4032279.html

AU$3999
h20386.www2.hp.com/AustraliaStore/Product.aspx?hpproduct=EM893AA


Since when does it cost double for exact same bit of kit!?!

rod_bunny said...




Since when does it cost double for exact same bit of kit!?!

Ever since Australians are prepared or have to pay double.

As these things are imported we should be trying to get it at the cheapest cost. The government should be supporting us, not penalising us through supporting corporations who want to keep their cozy money maker.


This sort of rip off is especially annoying when the goods come from a third country like China. There must be a big toll gate on the equator. Somehow everything gets doubled in price when it comes down south.

I would strongly recommend researching

Import duty
Luxury car tax
Stamp duty
GST
Imported car legislation's (very important)
Imported car caveats
LH drive permit costs
Rules about selling the car
Conversion of car to meet Australian design regulations

Just to name a few

Hi Just reading the above and doing a little research, check these out.

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/private/details.aspx?Cr=4&R=10796898&keywords=&trecs=26&__sid=12C8DEE28850&__Ns=pCar_RankSort_Int32|1||pCar_PriceSort_Decimal|1||pCar_Make_String|0||pCar_Model_String|0&__Qpb=1&tsrc=allcarhome&__Nne=15&seot=1&__N=1216%201246%201247%201252%201282%204294963846%204294776694%20903&silo=1011
Aud $63,500 = ?41,818.73 GBP

Same age and milage
www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201124391694020/sort/priceasc/usedcars/model/370_z/make/nissan/postcode/hp236bu/page/2/radius/1501?logcode=p
?24,850 = $37,748.84 AUD
you guys are definitely being bent over.
and that has nothing to do with import duties esp seeing as you are closer to Japan than us pomes.

recently i bought an ion riot wetsuit, from back home including Post was ?200 here the same wetsuit was Near $600, thats ?395 almost twice the price.

only way i see here is to buy abroad and force not the local shops but the distributors and government to lower their levies, the shops aren't getting rich but someone is????

Mobydisc said...

rod_bunny said...




Since when does it cost double for exact same bit of kit!?!

Ever since Australians are prepared or have to pay double.

As these things are imported we should be trying to get it at the cheapest cost. The government should be supporting us, not penalising us through supporting corporations who want to keep their cozy money maker.


This sort of rip off is especially annoying when the goods come from a third country like China. There must be a big toll gate on the equator. Somehow everything gets doubled in price when it comes down south.

Australian governments are too closely associated with business, the tories are actually proud of this but it just leads to corruption. We need a new model for political party funding with no donations bribes allowed.

And direct democracy too, give power to the voters and not politicians

Little Jon said...

Mobydisc said...

rod_bunny said...




Since when does it cost double for exact same bit of kit!?!

Ever since Australians are prepared or have to pay double.

As these things are imported we should be trying to get it at the cheapest cost. The government should be supporting us, not penalising us through supporting corporations who want to keep their cozy money maker.


This sort of rip off is especially annoying when the goods come from a third country like China. There must be a big toll gate on the equator. Somehow everything gets doubled in price when it comes down south.

Australian governments are too closely associated with business, the tories are actually proud of this but it just leads to corruption. We need a new model for political party funding with no donations bribes allowed.

And direct democracy too, give power to the voters and not politicians

I don't think the political system as described above has a great deal to do with the problem when you look at the Yanks (they are cheaper in most things).

Business interfering in politics is a way of life over there when you consider the HUGE amount of money required just to run for office. Lobbying politicians to "see the light" is an art form in the US of A and policy in favour of your "sponsor" doesn't happen for free !!

Dick Cheney is a prime example with Halliburton........for those that remember him.

Australian costs are more related to population, transportation and lack of competition in my opinion.

Transport is 2 fifths of stuff all. You can move about 10 cars from Sydney to Brisbane for about $3,000 in raw costs. Or $300 per car. The shipping from Japan to Aus should be less than Japan to USA. Or at least the same. But I have no actual cost info on that.

I still think we are being ripped off on some of those items. Profits being kept by the importers. I understand there is a certain amount of longer term currency hedging with the car industry though....

OK - Take USA / USD out of the equation...

Here is Subaru Japan Link.
www.subaru.jp/forester/forester/grade.html
They seem too have a lot of 2 litre Foresters, but ours are 2.5 litres. However, the S-Edition seems to the same. Priced as Y 3,129,000, appears to be drive away. Same car here is AUD $54,500.

3,129,000 divided by 84.7 = $36,950. A difference of $17,550.

The S-Edition for Japan would be identical to the one that comes here.... Steering wheel is even on the correct side for us ! Sure our emission standards would (or should) be very similar/identical to Japan's....

Based on $37,000 in Japan, I think we should be paying around $42,000 to $44,000, not $54,000.

And this has NOTHING to do with the USD, USA, Luxury Car Tax, Left Hand Drive, and is shouldn't have anything to do with emission standards either.....

(I'm still wondering if the prices will adjust a tiny bit in the next few months... but I would expect they will only adjust by about $1,000 per $20,000... ball park...)

Little Jon said...

elmo said...

I would strongly recommend researching

Import duty
Luxury car tax
Stamp duty
GST
Imported car legislation's (very important)
Imported car caveats
LH drive permit costs
Rules about selling the car
Conversion of car to meet Australian design regulations

Just to name a few

I still think we are getting ripped off, what about itunes, the USA website will sell the same content as the Oz itunes site but huge difference in price

What's itunes?

raynef2005 said...

Just did a comparison on A Porsche Cayman S:

UK: 49 000 pounds

Aus: $149 000

you do the math. Why is there such a discrepancy?

As I mentioned above the discrepency is there because Australian consumers are prepared to pay for it.

If Porsche or any of the other European car manufacturers tried to sell their cars in Europe or North America at the prices they charge out here, they wouldn't sell any as the consumer there would not be prepared to pay that much.

However in Australia we have the idea that European cars and cars in general are priced at a certain level and are prepared to pay that much.

Why should Porsche sell their cars cheaper if we are stupid enough to buy them for twice the amount an American or Brit would buy one for?

Ok dinsd but what about locally manufactured goods?
small example: 550ml bottle of coke 0 (made here by Amatil) OZ from $3-50 Switzerland (locally made as well) from $ 1-75 and remember that the salaries are higher there as well! We are getting ripped off! Bought a carton of Alsatian beer there for $ 8-00 (smaller bottles 250ml).
WTF?

On the subject of Beer, I remember buying a 30 Can Block of Budweiser in Monterey CA. It was about $12.99 !!

I saw the other day that a cases of Euro Pilsners are about USD$15-$20, but here, the same beers range from AUD$45-$60. Broadly, one third the price.

Mobydisc said...

If Australian prices are more expensive due to the small market or because of the length of time it takes a ship from Rotterdam or wherever to get here, would that not result in that be a market where there are few brands and limited range available in the market? We would be limited to some crap offerings from Holden and Ford along with rubbish from some other countries.

So brands could not be bothered to send 100 cars here because its not worth their while. Why put up with the Australian design rules. Why put up with the steering wheel on the wrong side. Why deal with the boat that takes six months to arrive?

Why do they? Why can Australian car buyers buy cars from almost every car manufacturer in the world? Its because all the manufacturers know they can make good money in Australia.

Why sell a BMW in America for $50K when you can sell the same vehicle in Australia for $120K? Why sell a Ferrari in the UK for 120,000 pounds when you can sell it in Australia for over $400K?

The Australian car market is quite important, though car companies never want to say why.

Exactly!! The range of choices in Oz (in all manner of goods) is awfully stunted. Having visited USA, Canada, Britain and Europe a few times over the last decade this has been brought home to me clearly. Manufacturers will produce limited models for Oz, but seldom the full range.