[isszy]

This is a question that up until now I had just accepted, but the more I think about it, the more it annoys me.

It has always been the case that cars are cheaper in the US than Australia. With the GTO, a lot of Monaro features were left out and the Aussie dollar was worth about 70 US cents, so the price being about 60% of the Monaro price was justifiable.

But the G8 GT is fully loaded and is directly comparable with the Commodore SS-V. In fact it has the addition of DOD.

The SS-V is $AUD54,790.

The G8 GT with premium & sport package is $USD31,845.

At the current currency exchange of around 0.90USD, The G8 GT sells for around $AUD35,400.

The cars are made on the same production line, they make more Commodores than G8's, and I haven't heard Holden complain that they don't make any money on the G8, so why do we have to pay $19,400 more for the same car ?

If Holden could sell me a new SS-V for $36K, I would be very tempted. At $55K, it may as well be $100K, I can't afford it.

 

[redTT]

Have a look at the price of a new BMW M3 etc in America and compare it to the price we get in Australia.

 

[Titanic]

It's because The United States of America rocks.

 

[vt6banger]

It's because The United States of America rocks.

rocks so good they cant even make adecent rwd sedan, im not sure of your demographic buick61 but I think your stuck in the 60's where american cars where apparently the best, you should have stayed there and with your anti holden ideas you should stay off the holden board . no one wants the hear your drivel.

 

[vt6banger]

oh yeah dont give me that toungue in check **** either, thats worn thin.

 

[AndrewGS]

rocks so good they cant even make adecent rwd sedan...

You mean like the CTS?

A small portion of it would be GST, something we don't have in the States.

 

[Butz]

It just happened to be. Putting a Pontiac badge lowers the price of the car by $19k.

 

[FenwickHockey65]

It may have something to do with demographics...I don't know.

 

[CobaltSScrazy]

It just happened to be. Putting a Pontiac badge lowers the price of the car by $19k.

honestly, that was meant as a joke, but there is ALOT of truth in that. Very very few people will pay a premium for a pontiac not named GTO/Trans Am.

In addition, there is way more competition in the USA than Oz so pricing has been held here. If it had cost 45k in the US, it would never sell. You can get a CTS, 3, 5, GS, G37, M35, SRT8 Charger, SRT8 Challenger, or a Corvette for that price.

No non-muscle worshipping non-hanging lower fruit 'lookin fur Da DEalZ' type shopper would ever buy a pontiac sedan (Chevy V8 or not) for that price when they can get the above said and implied competition. :yup:

CobaltSS

 

[AndrewGS]

Ok, so I put some numbers together and here is a feature-to-feature comparison.


Holden Commodore SS-V Automatic: AU$54,790.00
- Sunroof: AU$1,990.00
- Carpet Floor Mats - Standard: AU$110.00
- Holden Assist Ultra Telematics: AU$2,409.00
- Flip Key: AU$251.35
Total Including GST and LCT: AU$59,550.35 - US$54,875.00
- GST: AU$5,955.04
- LCT: AU$577.58
Total Excluding GST and LCT: AU$53,017.73 - US$48,855.26

Pontiac G8 GT: US$29,995
- Premium & Sport Packages, Sunroof: US$2,750
Total Including Destination: US$32,745.00 - AU$35,534.37
- Destination: US$685.00
Total Excluding Destination: US$32,060.00 - AU$34,791.51

Difference In Actual Price: AU$18,226.22 - US$16,975.26


This doesn't take into consideration that the Commodore gets Bluetooth and the G8 gets satellite radio and remote start. Holden Assist would be the equivalent of OnStar which is standard on G8.

 

[MonaroSS]

Most of the price difference comes from the different pricing strategies employed in OZ and the US. In OZ Holden and other makers like to make profits whereas for many years companies like GMNA and FordNA have sold their cars for no profit instead only making profit on the finance deals. Others like Toyota sacrificed profit for market share, and so Americans have been getting a great deal.

That is also the reason why Holden has been profitable and GMNA has been gurgling down the financial toilet for a decade. I'm absolutely sure GMNA would love to add more profit to their cars in the US but in that market they have no pricing power. It is too competitive. In OZ it's not going to make or break anyone due to it's size so all the traditional manufacturers don't compete so hard on price and rather try to compete on metrics such as service, image, reputation etc.

However, this doesn't explain the entire price differential. What is likely is that when GM first decided to do the GTO the A$ was down as low as US$0.49 but had a rise over time that made the deal less affordable. So when Pontiac decided then to take VE as the G8 they may well, having been burned previously on the GTO, hedged the currencies for the volume they expected to do. So for all we know the deal was set when the A$ was US$0.68 or something like that. That also explains why GMNA was so undecided in bringing over the Ute and then ditched the Wagon, because they had not hedged these at better exchange rates, but because the Ute in V8 form had so much less Aussie content with less local assembly involved in a simpler vehicle, it ended up making the grade. GMNA may well have hedged the Canadian dollar for a massive number of V8 engines and so diverted some of that hedging to the Ute motor. Also, with high fuel prices they probably figured that the number of G8 GT V8's would be less and that they could make them up with a V8 Ute.

So the price reflects a policy of profit for Holden v break even for Pontiac plus currency hedging on the entire deal and then some offset of the NA built V8 which is likely hedged from Canadian to the US$ to the benefit of Pontiac.

 

[HoosierRon]

rocks so good they cant even make adecent rwd sedan,

No. Rocks so good we can get a Commodore SS-V for $AUS35,400! That rocks!

 

[vt6banger]

ok the caddy and corvette are rwd, both are not an everymans car, commodore/g8 is. im patriotic just like buick61, but I dont feel the need to use that as an excuse to sprout off useless statements...oh yeah hoosier ron dont be like that..in OZ where prepared to pay what the cars worth...As long as Holden is making money selling g8's to NA I dont give a rats arse, my favorite car Co. gets to keep making my favorite car, all you guys enjoy...

 

[Titanic]

rocks so good they cant even make adecent rwd sedan, im not sure of your demographic buick61 but I think your stuck in the 60's where american cars where apparently the best, you should have stayed there and with your anti holden ideas you should stay off the holden board . no one wants the hear your drivel.

Your post makes less sense each time I read it. I didn't say anything about Holden vs. US RWD cars. The OP's questions was, paraphrased, "Why do they get our car for cheaper than we do." My response said nothing about the car itself. It was simply, "Our country is the best thing going, that's why we get it cheaper." For the life of me, I just don't see how you can extrapolate my statement into something resembling, "Holden makes bad cars."

And I am in my mid-20s. I am white. I am single (until April 27). I do not have children. I live in the suburbs on the East Coast. I have a college education. I was confirmed as a Roman Catholic. I am a registered Democrat. And my family emigrated from Italy sometime in the first quarter of the 20th century.

So now you have my demographic profile.

 

[Swahili]

For our friends down under, you're experiencing the same thing we've been dealing with here in Canada too. Car made in Oshawa shipped down to the US costs less to buy there than it does at a dealership in Oshawa. Our only advantage over you in this situation is that the US is relatively next door for us to drive down, buy the car and bring it back up. Of course, that didn't make the powers that be happy so they're restricting this practice.

You need to make a big stink about it and eventually the prices will change.

 

[Toto]

For our friends down under, you're experiencing the same thing we've been dealing with here in Canada too. Car made in Oshawa shipped down to the US costs less to buy there than it does at a dealership in Oshawa. Our only advantage over you in this situation is that the US is relatively next door for us to drive down, buy the car and bring it back up. Of course, that didn't make the powers that be happy so they're restricting this practice.

You need to make a big stink about it and eventually the prices will change.

:sad:
Same thing here in Europe. The Saturn Astra is cheaper compared with an equal Astra from Germany.

 

[DuSpinnst]

Does the AU price include tax like EU prices do?

US Prices DO NOT INCLUDE SALES TAX. Add 4-10% to the cost for taxes depending on state.

 

[Titanic]

Does the AU price include tax like EU prices do?

US Prices DO NOT INCLUDE SALES TAX. Add 4-10% to the cost for taxes depending on state.

New Hampshire, Oregon, and Alaska don't have sales tax on cars. They have other fees, but not sales tax. So...you'd want to say 0-10%.

 

[DuSpinnst]

New Hampshire, Oregon, and Alaska don't have sales tax on cars. They have other fees, but not sales tax. So...you'd want to say 0-10%.

Seriously? No sales tax....

 

[AndrewGS]

Does the AU price include tax like EU prices do?

US Prices DO NOT INCLUDE SALES TAX. Add 4-10% to the cost for taxes depending on state.

Australian prices include a 10% GST and cars with a price above AU$57,009 (including GST) have 25% Luxury Car Tax payable on the amount over the $57,009 threshold excluding GST.

See my above post that breaks down these taxes and shows the price difference excluding them.