Hello.

Something has me puzzled for a while and perhaps you can help me find an answer..

How can it be that a german build porsche can be that that much cheaper in the US and UK?
For instance a 911 turbo s cost:

195000 euro in Germany
181000 dollar in the US which is about 133000 euro
141000 pound sterking in the UK which is 167000 euro.

Perhaps due to lower vat? Or does have that much marging that they can 30% off just to be competative in the US market?

 

Good question. I'd like to know too.
Im guessing simply supply and demand with lack of better explanation?

 

I am wondering that for a long time. For U.S. I know they needed to keep the prices low, because of the competition years ago and they still need to do that. (Notice that U.S. Prices are without any taxes)

for U.K. i have no clue how that is possible. Another strange thing is that for example in holland a GT3 is priced between turbo and turbo S, where in most countries the GT3 is priced below the turbo.

It can't be the VAT... We have only 8% VAT here in Switzerland but prices are as high as they are in for example belgium where they have 21% VAT. I think the various different ECO-taxes of countries also play a roll in this....

Turbo and turbo S got a lot cheaper in Holland compared to the 997 because of the lower emisions.

 

It's what the market can bear plus import duties, taxes, etc.

 

Each country has a different tax system based on things like pollution, road congestion, etc. That's why a 991 in Singapore costs approx. $300,000USD and it's more expensive in other areas of the world.
Additionally the cost of keeping the car licensed varies enormously as well costing several hundreds to several thousands of USD.

US buyers should consider themselves fortunate that Porsches cost almost the least here than any other place in the world.

 

See Putin, we are exceptional...at least when it comes to buying Porsches

 

In addition to points above, US is historically also the most important and competitive market in the automotive world with a population of 300mln, a (used to be but regaining) large domestic car market (I can't quote annual car sales though, I will confess). Now we have the Chinese and Russians catching up (or overtaking) but in terms of overall affluence and influence automakers know this market is critical to how their makes do in the rest of the world (by the way, I'm not American).

 

I wish luxury goods (LV, Rolex, etc) extended the same pricing as the automobile companies did.

But, I'm happy we get (somewhat) low priced cars at least.

 

This also explains why the GT3 is so expensive in holland. The GT3 has 55k! BPM tax where my 4S 'only' had a 17621 euro penalty. A turbo and turbo have 21k and 22.5k of BMP included.

But I also noticed like you said before is that is seems like dutch dealers artificially keep there prices up especially on options. I think this has something to do with their situation too as the 997 4S had almost 40k of BPM on it and I think their trying to protect the used market a bit too since now the BPM is 100% calculated on emission where as before january first of this year it was a percentage of the list price and thus much more expensive.


Is there no VAT on a US car btw? That would explain about 20%

 

Dumb question, but I believe in Europe the price is quoted with VAT? And in the US our advertized prices never include our sales taxes.. in fact none of our prices for anything ever include taxes... So in a state like California that an additional 8%.. I realize that is just part of the disparity..

But I'm not sure any of this surprises me.. My general observation just when I travel in the UK and Continental Europe.. that for typical things in the US, I pay about the same numerical cost in the local currencies.. And this doesn't seem that far off from what you are indicating...

For example if a business class hotel room is $250 in a major US city, I typically expect for a comparable room to be 250 sterling in London, and 250 Euro in Germany.. Just as a rough observation.. So the disparity for whatever the reason seems comparable.. And the reasons I assume are simply supply and demand economics + tax differential.

 

Yes you are absolutely right. Although VAT or sales tax is very different for each country. In Holland and Belgium for example, where I used to live, the VAT is 21% (called BTW over there). In Switzerland, where I live now, the VAT is 8% (here it's called MwSt. or Mehrwertsteuer). Germany has 19% but even then, the price differences are not equal to the VAT only... There are a lot of different taxes in different countries, especailly for cars.

Long live the EU.... They will never anything at one level regarding taxes...

Suzy991

 

I wasn't aware it varied so much between countries in the EU.. But that shouldn't surprise me.. In the US some states have no sales tax and others have I think up to about 10%..

What drives me crazy in the US is that all of our prices are obscured and we never really know what we are paying.

I like that in Europe when you go to a store or a hotel the advertized price includes all taxes etc.. I can calculate basic stuff like standard sales tax but for example here you book a hotel for $200 US, and they add on all kinds of fee's, and extra taxes, resort fees, just so I can fee's that aren't in the advertized costs. It's common when you go to San Francisco for example to have a room that is $200 cost you almost $300 with extra local taxes, energy fee's, tree hugging fees... Makes it hard to plan accordingly.. It isn't that I mind paying the higher costs, it's just they don't disclose it in order to be more competitive..

 

Totally agree. In most European countries a supplier is obliged to mention clear pricing. This is to prevent consumers for surprises. For example, when advertising for flight tickets, it's mandatory to mention the airport tax and registry fees.
Companies like Ryan Air advertised in the past with extreme low prices (like EUR 1.00 for a one-way holland-spain), but when ordering those tickets, you found out that there were a lot of additional costs and you found out that thise tiickets weren't as chaep after all and that is misleading. Misleading advertisements are now banned in most cases, which is a very good thing IMO.

Suzy991

 

Yeah, if there is anything I despise here in the usa is the aversion to basic consumer laws.. Almost any type of proposed law that addresses basic consumer issues such as disclosure of prices and banking practices is fought heavily..and considered anti-business.. I'm a very pro-business but not at the expense of making it difficult for the average consumer to know what he is paying for or signing up to...