HI I live and work in the UAE which is tax free middle east country. Car prices here are also cheap compared to the UK especially the Japanese brands. For example a brand new shape honda accord auto with the 2000 cc engine costs 64,000 dhs. 3.67 dhs = 1 $US so in UK it equtes to 11k brand new, and the cars are well speced here due to strong competition all cars come with a/c elec mirrors/windows/pas/c-locking/ abs etc etc.
Local Mercedes dealer is selling 1.8 classic c lass with leather and auto at 108,000 dhs which is 18.4k uk sterling plus 1 years free insurance.
New shape Toyota Camry\'s start at approx 60,000 dhs
Rip of Britain.....god bless here....
any thoughts....
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Is there any VAT over there? Are the emissions control regulations the same?
For once, I'm going to beat MB in and say that there is a genuinely different cost base - UK rent and salaries are higher, and taxation is a much more important element in the whole.
£18400 + VAT is £21620, which not far off what we pay. There are clear examples of price gouging, but this isn't one of them. Even the Accord price (£13k now) is fairly close to what they'll be once the market settles down and Honda dealers start discounting.
Factor in things like payroll taxes, rent, salaries and emissions controls and if anything, the UAE looks expensive - which is pretty much as you would expect it to be, as only a portion of cost savings are ever going to be passed on to customers.
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tax free means no taxes what so ever, no vat , no rates , no fuel duty etc etc
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Well then, it's not surprising that our prices are higher. If there were no tax to pay here either, they would be about the same if not less.
Of course, you could argue that taxes here are in general too high, but that's a whole other debate and wholly unrelated to motoring.
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> Of course, you could argue that taxes here are in general too high, but that's a whole other debate and wholly unrelated to motoring.
No it isn't!
£38 billion is extracted from us per annum in motoring related taxation.
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no vat and cars are supplied with cats
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Yes we certainly do get ripped off here and when I worked in Abu Dhabi everything seemed to be much, much cheaper than the UK with models either more current or unavailable in the UK.
Having said that, we have a number of French and Italian friends who are reporting price rises and a growing rip-off culture in their respective countries following the introduction of the Euro.
We have had several 16-18 year old French students to stay with us already this year and even they still think in Francs as opposed to Euros and find the comparisons very unpalatable. A miniscule statistical sample I'll grant you, but none have welcomed the Euro. If it happens here I think we'll all be able to spell rip-off with a capital 'R'.
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Will we also be able to spell 'off' with two f's?
Sorry, but frankly I am bored with this tedious and repetitive Britain-bashing.
Andy
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Rip-offs will continue until we get Federation of Europe incorporating USA/China/UAE/FarEast/7continents ( i.e. it includes the whole world) and everyone using Euros, being paid the same fair wage for equal work for all from Eskimos to Aborigines,and we all pay the same tax and we all have the same housing costs, and ...
Well, the world is different and we have to pay a price for living where we do. If I want cheaper cars and the lifestyle of UAE, now I know where to go.
One man's rip-off is another man's fair price and fair wage and living. There are rogues in every society in every corner of the world, but that does not justify sweeping generalisations. As HJ pointed out above to Kal,you can get the car in question here at a good price if you want it.
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Surely it's issues like the net profit margin and whether there is a cartel situation which determines whether something is a rip-off or not.
In the case of cars, so far as I know it's not Britain which is to blame but the car makers who it appears in some cases have rigged the market and flouted EU rules to keep prices artifically high here in order to subsidise their operations in less profitable regions.
I don't think anyone objects to a manufacturer deriving a fair price for their product but why should a company be able to engineer circumstances in which they can make a much greater net profit in one country relative to another by, for example, taking advantage of its lax laws or enforcement ?
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al Hamdul'lillah.....even better, Gulf comp and bens packages all up are probably UK salary with ma-fi tax....buy that Merc now.. :-)
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Get a Grip everybody.
If you don\'t like the price DON\'T BUY THE THING. IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE. I\'LL EXPLAIN LATER THE BASIS FOR ALL BUSINESS, BUT HAVE TO GO NOW AS SENIOR MANAGEMENT HAS ANNOUNCED THAT DINNER IS SERVED. PRIORITIES I TELL YOU, PRIORITIES!
REGARDS.
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I think i've been in receipt of censorship. Quite rightly so I imagine. Apologies.
Regards.
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