This has been an ongoing debate for some time and extends to many other Consumer areas than just motoring. I
think it would be naive to suggest that a global pricing policy is ever likely to happen, as there are far too many sociological and geographical issues at play to permit this. Nonetheless, it is a fact that most other European car dealerships charge between 10 and 30% less for new car prices than dealerships in this country.
This is one of those issues that has become particularly evident over the last few years, as the Internet has opened up a world of commerce to us all, and suddenly we are seeing what offers are available around the world. The BBC Motoring programme Top Gear have been champions of this issue for some time now, and although there hasn't been a widescale decrease in prices, there have been many good steps taken in the right direction.
European Car import agencies are now a very common solution to the problem, as they will source the vehicle of your choice for you and arrange all documentation and delivery (for reasonable fees) enabling you to take advantage of the prices overseas. The biggest downfall of this is that you will have to wait at least 20 weeks before taking delivery of your new vehicle. This method would certainly be no use to those who want their new vehicle quickly.
A new arrival on the market are direct import dealerships, who source and import cars en masse, and therefore have the stock on the forecourt for you to drive away immediately - at near to European prices. My suspicion is that these will now start to spring up everywhere, and will cause the biggest fall in UK main dealership prices so far.
But before we get carried away with working out what we will be able to buy for the same price as an Escort I think we should bear in mind one thing. Ther are many arguments to say that car prices should be high. Our roads are already heavily congested, we already have prevalent urban pollution and we have a very high number of road-related deaths. Surely if we reduce the prices of cars too much than this will only serve to heighten these problems?
And whilst we are filling up the forecourts with all these new cars, what is happening to all the existing cars out there? Anybody who owns a car now will be suffering massive depreciation - as new car prices decrease so will the value of your car. We are already starting to see this in the used car market - a new car suffers up to 40% depreciation once it has left the forecourt - if new car prices are now falling on a regular basis don't be surprise if your car is depreciating at a greater rate as we speak.
The long and the short of it is, the amount you save on your new car will more than likely fail to exceed the amount you have lost on your existing one.
As I was saying, new car prices aren't that bad I suppose...........
by (42%):
09.03.2001 00:06
I'm glad to see that you have raised the issue of the value of used cars. Quite a number of cars are just dumped because they have no retail value even with a valid MOT and are just left for scrap on the verges of many Roads in the UK. Many scrap yards make little money on every car they take in, and new legislation and taxation is forcing what were profitable scrappies to go bust.