[chris5252]

The standard BMW E90 In the US is $32,000- £15,000. Which has a 3.0 litre engine. The equivalent however in England is $58,000- £29,000. I simply just do not understand. Its with all the cars. You can get an X5 in the USA for the price of an E90 in the UK.

[ksfrogman]

Currency exchange rates between Germany and the UK vs Germany and the US?

[1stKnight]

Larger number of Buyers? More competitive Market?

[simnew]

The UK is not called Treasure Island for nothing !

The fact that the pound is worth 2 dollars, should make the cars cheaper !!!! but it is a lot to do with the fact that over here, BMW's are bought by people who are prepared to pay more for them. If we all stopped buying them and if Companies bought more Audi's, then the price would drop.

Back in 2000 when I imported my first BMW, I saved £7000 on the list price of the car. At the time, BMW started to adjust its prices, but now they are back up where they used to be.

At least now you can get a bit of a discount but nothing like the States and the UK is a VERY important market for BMW. After the States and Germany probably the most important market.

[DervFan]

Right-hand drive vs Left-hand drive - well that's the BS they've been selling us for years

It's probably because they're trying to get their war reparations back

or more likely that we always take it up the arse on everything we buy in this god forsaken country. Cars, Electrical items, even software is more expensive than the US :mad:

[ROCKETRON]

Its just that they wouldn't pay the prices that we do in the States. It is a very competetive market in the US and if BMW's were the same price as in the UK it would probably be around 3 times the price of comparable size US car or jap cars and most would decide that BMW aren't better by that much. The retail price for my 320d m-sport with options was £34000 this represents nearly $70000 for a 4 cylinder BMW and for that sort of money in the states you can be into real exotica.

[dxb335d]

Originally Posted by ROCKETRON

Its just that they wouldn't pay the prices that we do in the States. It is a very competetive market in the US and if BMW's were the same price as in the UK it would probably be around 3 times the price of comparable size US car or jap cars and most would decide that BMW aren't better by that much. The retail price for my 320d m-sport with options was £34000 this represents nearly $70000 for a 4 cylinder BMW and for that sort of money in the states you can be into real exotica.

crazy really isnt it, i wonder how hard it would be to import a US BMW over here

hey lets allmove over there


Carlos

[jasongtr]

nah its beacuse they smell of cheeseburgers to suit the market they sell them in

[NFS]

Originally Posted by chris5252

The standard BMW E90 In the US is $32,000- £15,000. Which has a 3.0 litre engine. The equivalent however in England is $58,000- £29,000. I simply just do not understand. Its with all the cars. You can get an X5 in the USA for the price of an E90 in the UK.

Historic pricing

Cars have alway been cheap in the US, if BMW want to compete there then they have to sell cheap.

In the UK cars have always been 'relatively' expensive so BMW sell higher and make a bigger margin.

It's also worth noting that the volumes are much higher in the US, so BMW get some economy of scale.

[dxb335d]

are BMW to the Americans not quite the same as what they are to us europeans??

Are there cars less equiped?


Carlos

[Becksgold]

Its all due to pricing politics, market share and local sales tax (VAT) etc.... Everyone wants to move the metal in the US market.. I believe the rest of the BMW world is subsidising this...

[Evil Diesel]

The base spec is lower but nowhere near to justify the difference.

At the end of th day we just take up the arse when it comes to every product comparison.

Even crap made in the UK is cheaper in the States ......

If you are going to shaft yourself youcan't blame the rest of the world for joining in.

[peterg1965]

Originally Posted by ksfrogman

Currency exchange rates between Germany and the UK vs Germany and the US?

That is a completely bogus and false argument. We pay more in the UK because the manufacturers can get away with it. If you look at exchange rates over the last ten years (I am making some assumptions here) the rates have not fluctuated that wildy. Over the last 7 years they have ranged from about $1.75 - $2.05 to the £. The high price comes down to corporate profiteering (cos they can) and this reinforces the widely held consumer view that we live in 'Rip Off' Britain. Again, a slight guess, but this is probably the most expensive country on the planet, maybe only exceeded by Japan.

[hmi1750]

Originally Posted by Becksgold

Its all due to pricing politics, market share and local sales tax (VAT) etc.... Everyone wants to move the metal in the US market.. I believe the rest of the BMW world is subsidising this...

I completely agree... the world subsidises America.. the land of the free.. which is the largest waster of international energy resources, excessively obese, and generally greedy to keep its living standards high at any expense to the world... It directly effects the so called developing countries from developing!

Mind sound like a rant, but I hate the whole capitalist and rather selfish nature.

[Evil Diesel]

Oh, and while we are at it, we buy up their poor debt in our f*cking pension funds so the party can go on .......

[peterg1965]

..and the world financial markets fall apart becuase they give Mortgages to hobos.

[NathanJT]

If you really want proof of "Rip off Britain" take a look at difference in price on the Windows Vista and even WORSE Adobe Photoshop CS3!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04...wice_you_wish/

For software there cannot be any reason why the cost should be so much higher!

[Evil Diesel]

Thats why God invented BitTorrent ......

[peterg1965]

Apple iPod Video US iStore $249 (about £125), UK £179.
No reason other than profiteering.

[330cdsport]

Originally Posted by Evil Diesel

Thats why God invented BitTorrent ......

Well said

It's no wonder there is 'illegal' file sharing when these greedy b@$t@rd$ (music, film, and software industries) try to steal our 'hard earned' with their bully-boy tactics.

[silverbmwz3]

Originally Posted by NathanJT

If you really want proof of "Rip off Britain" take a look at difference in price on the Windows Vista and even WORSE Adobe Photoshop CS3!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04...wice_you_wish/

For software there cannot be any reason why the cost should be so much higher!

I actually think there's more justification for software than there is for cars. The cars are presumably made in europe and shipped out to the US so could in theory be cheaper for us. The software is made in the US and there are a number of economic arguments for it being cheaper over there i.e. they can do one ad campaign for the whole US market but they have to do a tailored one for us here with a smaller number of users to collect the cost. That's just one example. There's translation costs (yes windows is translated to a degree into UK english vs american english), infrastructure costs (have to have a support function in the UK for x users versus having a support function in the US for x*y users - economies of scale etc. etc.).

I agree that both situations (software and cars) smell a bit fishy but I think there are *SOME* economic and commercial arguments for at least some of it.

[lumpy]

335i M-sport coupe in Aus is approx A$135,000 on the road. which using rates from xe.com make it US$109,000, UK(where's that stupid pound sign)$55,000 and Euro$80,700.

We are VERY heavily taxed and excised on imported cars here to protect the lacklustre local car industry.

Of that $135k, $7500 (varies state to state, but here it's high - just for registering a car in your name.)of it is government stamp duty over and above whatever other taxes and duties you've taken on the chin alont the way