Hi all you fine people, I am new in this site but I find it very enlightening. I plan to get my car in the new year, but one thing that gripes me is the prices in England. I have done a build on US site, it requires a zip code so I used DC 20500 as an easy one to enter. So If George W is in the market this is the price for his zip code! It will cost him $26265. the same spec in England at current exchange rates, will cost me $42794! If other members could do the same thing in other parts of the world then it would make an interesting case to put to Toyota and the world trade organization. Hope others can run with this and see what comes up Jon.
There's already a case here in Canada where a firm is planning to take on several major auto manufacturers on the price difference between a US-spec car and a Canadian-spec car. Toyota Canada Inc. already dropped the price of the Prius in response to the price differentials.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jon the Chief @ Oct 14 2007, 03:31 PM) [snapback]525539[/snapback]</div> How much of that $42,794 is due to customs duty and VAT? Import taxes in the U.S. are negligible and local sales taxes, license and registration, which can easily add up to 10% to the cost of the car, are not included in the price as quoted on the Toyota website.
Australian price of Prius is Base model $37400AU (33,872.48 USD) iTech model $46900AU (42,476.45 USD) http://www.toyota.com.au/toyota/vehicle/Fr...382_842,00.html Currency converter used http://www.xe.com/ucc/ This price does not include delivery or on road fees. Australia has low import duties. A Hyunai Getz Auto cost $15990AU (14,477.95 USD) as a comparison from http://www.hyundai.com.au/swf/default.aspx?vehicle=getz
As with any product in a free market, when you buy in bulk you can negotiate a better price. Compared to the rest of the world, what percentage of Prius sales are in the U.S.? If we have a large percentage of the market, that may be why the U.S. is priced as it is. (Ignoring tariffs, import fees, transportation costs, taxes, etc.)
