(Was: The best ever 4-stroke vertical twin?) Now: Worldwide MSRP disparities
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From: tomorrow on 24 Jul 2010 13:34 On Jul 24, 12:41 pm, totallydeadmail...(a)yahoo.co.uk (The Older Gentleman) wrote: > tomor...(a)erols.com <tomorrowaterolsdot...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > On Jul 24, 10:38 am, totallydeadmail...(a)yahoo.co.uk (The Older > > Gentleman) wrote: > > > > OTOH, I gather BMW bikes cost a lot more in the US than they do here, > > > because of market forces. > > > Do you really think so? > > > The new BMW S1000RR Superbike has a base price of $13,800 in the U.S., > > which equates to ~ £8,940 at the current exchange rate,; while in the > > U.K. it is £11,500 (~ £9,500 exclusive of VAT and OTR charges). > > > So while the old rule of thumb of £1 of UK msrp for each $1 of US msrp > > (which I have also found to be roughly useful, too) certainly seems to > > be out the door on this particular example, the bike is still > > demonstrably cheaper in the U.S. than in the U.K. > > > I didn't look up prices of other BMW models, but I doubt that the > > numbers are so far off that they actually cost more, and certainly not > > "a lot more," in the U.S. than in the U.K. > > Oh, OK. A while back there was a similar discussion and Mark Olson - I > think - was reckoning that Beemers were priced high in the US. Whatever, it raises a long-held question that I have been kicking around in the back of my mind for years. I still haven't figured out what the major reasons are that Japanese, European, and American-made motorcycles all cost more in Japan and Europe than they do in the U.S. I used to think it was simply the VAT in Europe, but the above example shows that is not the case, and I don't even know if they have a VAT in Japan. Obviously, there are economies in scale in the U.S. compared to, say, the U.K. alone, but surely that doesn't extend to the huge Japanese market or the large European market as a whole, does it? And people could say that "Well, Harley sells very few motorcycles outside the U.S., so they are a boutique item, and thus are priced much higher outside the U.S. than inside the U.S.," but the numbers I looked up and posted a few weeks ago show that Harley EXPORTED almost exactly as many motorcycles last year as BMW sold in total; so they are no more boutique than BMWs, so to me the "low volume" argument doesn't explain why they cost so much more overseas than they do in the U.S. And I would think that shipping is pretty much the same whether it's Harleys going east to Europe or European bikes heading west to the U.S. So, any of your international economic eggheads have the answers? |