[from oz]

In how many threads must the ol' Dollar comparison be made?!!

You pay less for cars due to a market of scale. Larger population = larger market = greater sales per percentage of total market share. In 2007 16.06 million cars were sold in the USA compared to just over 1 million sales in Australia.

Companies can get away with selling cars at a lower cost in the USA due to the amount of cars they can sell. If a company makes $1 profit per car on a model with 10% market share they would be making over $1.6million in the USA. In Australia that profit figure would be roughly $100000. Yet in Australia, wages/taxes etc are comparable to that of USA, so Australian automotive distributors must raise the cost of each model to be financially viable.

Hence the reason you guys pay just $31000 for a Pontiac G8 GT and in Australia the comparitive model (Holden Commodore SSV) costs $54000+.

So consider yourself lucky that you live in a country where cheap vehicles seem to be a right rather than a privelege while I count my blessings that I live in a country where cars like the HSV W427 can actually be bought.