VW North America

[Psyk]

I think it's genuinely hard to compare...

You'd need to look at standard of living costs such as taxes (income and GST/sales tax), comparable salaries, cost of education, housing costs and health-care? Just because you can get a car cheap over there means you pay elsewhere... What about the running costs, are they similar? Car insurance, petrol, 3rd party insurance, servicing etc?

It's about the TOTAL cost of running the vehicle vs. what you have available to pay for it from your income...

Lastly, I would imagine it's also about the volume of cars they can sell over there. They probably sell more VW's in a month than we do in a year and there's a lot more competition...

[Maverick]

Lastly, I would imagine it's also about the volume of cars they can sell over there. They probably sell more VW's in a month than we do in a year and there's a lot more competition...

Texas sells more cars than Australia in a year. Gives you an idea of the volumes they do.

But a fair part of the difference in price is that their taxes are a lot lower. There's far too many taxes in this country at too many different levels.

[rudiger]

stupid taxes, we could sell alot more cars if they where priced as in america

[pologti18t]

You're kidding right?

For a start in Australia we have specific requirements that are unwarranted when we could piggyback on EU standards for example child seats by using the ISOFIX system. All of these little requirements cost to develop which adds to the cost of the car.

You do realise that the USA (and canada) have specific safety and emission standards that aren't aligned to european standards. From bumper standards to additional side marker lights and reflectors. In fact emission standards differ between states in the USA!

Australia has harmonized most of its design standards with the EU. It's one reason that new euro models hit our shore so early after release.

Taxes in the USA are normally applied at the state level. Essentially a "gst". They also get hit with dealer delivery just like us (destination charges) and registration. In general car insurance is more expensive in the USA as well.

[Corey_R]

You do realise that the USA (and canada) have specific safety and emission standards that aren't aligned to european standards. From bumper standards to additional side marker lights and reflectors. In fact emission standards differ between states in the USA!

Yes, but Australia has a 'habit' of coming up with their own standards when existing ones are elsewhere. The thing is, Australia has the population of New York. Yet we come up with our own standards which often require electronics and car manufacturers to create products specifically for Australia. Which is why we sometimes just get left off a release schedule for a product because it's just not worth it for the manufacturers.