Quote:
Originally Posted by jaiman
Exchange rates have changed a bit since I wrote that. Asuming you can get the AM V8 at 70k USD, you are still looking at 83k CAD after import duty and exchange (and that assumes you don't need to change out the speedo, or add an immobilizer). Back when I originally wrote that, the exchange rate was much higher and the AM would have been closer to 92k CAD.
I don't see that as being a really compelling value. You get a car that may have been beaten on by a previous owner, you then have to try to find someone local to work on it, and the local dealers aren't huge fans of people buying out of the states.
But I'm also not a huge believer that the next RS4/5 will be substantially more expensive than an M3. I think dropping the V6 from the A4 will allow Audi to move the S4 down market and have the RS4 slot in at a much lover price than we are used to. They really have no choice unless they only want to sell a few hundred a year in NA, and I think Audi has larger plans.
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For and Aston Martin it is very compelling to me as the same car in Ireland would run you somewhere in the region of CAD$180,000 for that year but I wouldn't rush into Aston ownership anyway.
I looked into the speedo thing and once the speedo shows both mph and kph there is no legal requirement to change it out for driving in Canada. I was looking at bringing in a couple of Maseratis and contacted them here and they do say you have to change and the speedo and software needed runs around CAD$10,000 which is a rip-off. I told them to go stick their cars where the sun don't shine. If I really wanted one I'd consider fighting them on it.
On the pricing, the problem they have is that even though they're moving to V6 power they have existing S5 owners and owners to be that are paying the high price they have right now. They would seriously alienate those customers if they then introduced a new S5 with substantially lower pricing and then an RS5 that was only a small amount more expensive. I think they'll find it hard to reduce the price from that point of view. Who knows though. Wait and see. I have 3 years left on my M3 lease so it won't affect me yet.