Canada-U.S. Pricing Dilemma

Posted by on Jan 25, 2012 in 11th Article | 0 comments Canadians look at sharply lower auto prices in States and feel it’s very unfair they’re paying thousands more while the buck hovers near par; Wheels talks to buyers, dealers and car makers. Like Seinfeld’s non-fat yogurt, the pitch seems too good to be true. A brand-new Ford Focus with air conditioning for just $9,999, a factory-fresh VW Rabbit for $12,999 and a 2007 Chevy Trailblazer 4×4 for $21,999 are three pinch-me-I’m-dreaming bargains advertised recently in The Boston Globe. Prices like these take the breath away of vacationing Canadians who open a local newspaper in the U.S. The lease deals seem even more unbelievable Boston’s Kelly Nissan offers a new Altima for $139 per month (with $2,723 due at signing) and a Pathfinder 4×4 for $239 monthly. While priced in American dollars, the gap between the two currencies is closing, making the U.S. stickers especially appealing. Yet it begs the question with the loonie’s rise against the U.S. currency, why aren’t Canadians seeing lower automobile prices here? Reader Tom Becker asked the same question of Porsche North America, the importer of his 2001 911 C4 Download the video from amazon library. He’s contemplating purchasing a new 911, but noticed the wide chasm between American and Canadian prices on the auto maker’s website. “Why do I and every other Canadian get unfair pricing?” Becker wrote in an e-mail. “You list a GT3 at $147,300 Canadian and $106,000 American. After conversion, I would have to pay more than $24,000.” When he posed his question last December, one American dollar cost $1.16. Plug in a more recent exchange rate ($1.06) and the gap between the two prices has widened to more than $33,000 (Canadian) (the GT3 is now listed at $107,500 in the U.S.). Porsche wrote back, explaining that its German-built cars are valued in Euros, not American greenbacks, so the Canada-U.S. exchange rate was moot. But when Becker crunched the Euro’s exchange rates, he discovered that Canadians were still paying well over $20,000 more than Americans for the same model wie kann ich video downloaden. “Wow, that would buy many sets of tires, gas and insurance!” he wrote to us. Despite growing awareness of the loonie’s favourable exchange rate, auto manufacturers seemingly have done nothing to address the situation. If anything, they’ve let the price disparity grow unchecked. “The gap has become embarrassingly large,” confirms George Iny, president of the Automobile Protection...
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