Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWCadet
I always enjoy when europeans point out that the cars cost more in their country than the United States, yet fail to mention that their currency is in Euros which is close to twice what the dollar is worth. Get a better job.
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What has the currency being worth 1.3 times the dollar (way short of the double you state) got to do with it?? The price of the cars in Europe is down to manufacturers charging more and higher import taxes. The FACT is that cars, regardless of exchange rate, are a hell of a lot cheaper in the US than most Euro countries.
In the UK the M3 costs stg54,000 or so which makes it only a little more expensive than the US but in Ireland the base model is 115k euro due to our huge import tax so it becomes a hell of a lot more expensive than here even ignoring the exchange.
Telling someone to get a better job in the current climate is just insulting. You being able to buy cars cheaper over here doesn't make you a better person. I had a Boxster S at home which over here wouldn't be anything particularly special but cost me over 100k euro there. That lists at $56k. So $ to euro it's double the price. $ to $ it's almost 3 times the price. Even ignoring the exchange rate ($130k by real rates or $200k by your calculation) there is no comparison between purchase prices in the US and Ireland.
The initial increase will be blamed on volume (4.5million population) and in the case of the UK and Ireland, RHD which is even lower volume.
Bottom line is no matter what way you calculate it, cars cost more in Europe and in some cases hugely more.