In the US market you could not sell a loaded 550 for $101,000. Prices are driven by the cost of production and the market for the product. If a BMW 550 were priced that high we would be driving a MB, Audi or Lexus, instead of a BMW.

 

Unless all cars would be x% more expensive. Here in Holland, all cars are roughly 60% to 80% more expensive than in the US. People just accept that they have to spend relatively much for a car because we pay a lot of tax, so the market changes as well.

Personally I think the high amount of tax has quite some benefits as well: There's only a small difference between rich & poor here, unlike the US. Even if you don't have a job, you can have a house, a car (ok not an E60), and everybody has the right of good healthcare etc...

Sorry, this is a bit off topic. Congrats on your car!

 

But that's still only 86 k ?!

Still missing all the goodies.

 

What is my 550i missing?

 

A fully loaded 550i is about 120.000 ?uro in Germany.


Of course those prices are including 19% VAT, but you have VAT in every country... plus shipping, import, etc...

 

Jonathan, your car priced out on the Canadian site is about $94,900 before taxes. By my calculations, that is about 20% more than what you would pay in the states for the same vehicle.

The cross border discrepancy in car prices between the US and Canada is a big topic in Canada right now. People are going to the states and buying a used BMW and saving big dollars.

As an example, my 06 535xiT currently has a used sales price of about $59k before tax. That is about what the car would have been NEW 2 years ago in the states. New 535xiT with premium and msport is about $85k keeping in mind that the features in the cold weather package are standard in Canada.

US market pricing is well below the pricing throughout the world.

 

How does one get from my fully loaded 550i at 85.640,- ? to 120.000,- ??

I left a few things out by design (auto. trans) and some things I can?t order (active cruise, not avail. without auto trans) but I don?t think I left more than a few other options off the table, certainly not 35.000,- ? worth.

 

The A$ is about 89 US cents now, and rising. However prices are still relatively high, certainly compared to USA. My 530d was reasonably highly specified, Professional Nav, Hi Fi speakers, sunroof, Active Steering and Auto is standard in Australia, the Dealer list price before options was $113,500 but with options $132,000.

With the LCI the price has dropped a little, and specification levels have increased if anything.

SAT has only just now been released into the Australian market.

I configured a 550i on bmw.com.au with all reasonable options and it topped out at $175,000!!!

 

Korea levies an 8% tax on imports in addition to other taxes making it about double the US prices. Only about 3.4% of cars sold are imports. Most countries like Japan and Taiwan are around double the price as well-- but in Taiwan, foreign cars make up perhaps 1/3 of all the cars on the road...

China is 30% + 17%VAT and then I'm sure there are other things to factor in such as testing fees, etc.. which makes it around the same as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

I think that Singapore might have the highest tax levies but I'll leave that to someone from Singapore to comment on that....

 

INDIVIDUAL