Discuss: Feature - Canadian vs U.S. vehicle prices: are we paying too much?

[chrischasescars]

Because I have a feeling this will generate some comments, discuss this article here.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/cc/price_diff.htm

[mdxtasy]

Dude....it's been done....over and over and over and over.....

[AVToller]

Dude....it's been done....over and over and over and over.....

and over, and ovr. 

[random006]

... and over and OUT. 

[Helder]

I have done some research on my own regarding cars sold in Canada and the US and have found that cars sold in Canada are at least between $5000 to $10000 more than the same car in the US after the exchange rate has been factored in. The Canadian dollar is almost on par with the US dollar, but this change in the CAD getting stronger has not been realized in the Automotive sector here in Canada.

This message should be reported and heard by as many people as possible until the manufacturers realize Canadians will no longer stand for these unfair pricing practices.

Kudos to you Chris for reporting on this and not letting this issue be swept under the carpet, as I am sure you and Canadian Driver might get some heat from your automotive advertisers.

Cheers,

Helder

[Turbo Bob]

I have done some research on my own regarding cars sold in Canada and the US and have found that cars sold in Canada are at least between $5000 to $10000 more than the same car in the US after the exchange rate has been factored in. The Canadian dollar is almost on par with the US dollar, but this change in the CAD getting stronger has not been realized in the Automotive sector here in Canada.

This message should be reported and heard by as many people as possible until the manufacturers realize Canadians will no longer stand for these unfair pricing practices.

Kudos to you Chris for reporting on this and not letting this issue be swept under the carpet, as I am sure you and Canadian Driver might get some heat from your automotive advertisers.

Cheers,

Helder

And the only way you can do that, is to either import, or stop buying cars.  Or just suck it up and consider it a cost of being a smaller economy.

[stodge]

It's funny but this used to be a problem in the UK. Prices there (I think from memory) were more expensive than mainland Europe. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I believe the end result was that prices were eventually forced down. Must remember to research this as my memory is failing in my not-so-old-age.

[Turbo Bob]

It's the same situation as Canada more or less.

In mainland Europe cars are still cheaper, but if you can be bothered, you can import from Europe and save money, or just accept it and buy from a UK dealer with no hassle.  Most people buy from a UK dealer 'cos they don't want to import.

E.g. Save $8K on a new Cayman, this dealer will do all the paperwork for you, so you could save even more if you do it yourself....

http://www.alliancecarimports.co.uk/index.asp?Page=nnu

Most people don't know, or can't be bothered, which I suspect is the same as in Canada.

[safristi]

Yhat's RICH...leaves all the more Caymans fer U BOB....soon ye'll be up to yer arse in alligators

[pickles]

Yeah this issue has been beat to death.  Unfortunately I could not afford a loss of $20000+ and had to go south to purchase my 2 Legacy 2.5i Limited Wagons.  My neighbour ending up doing the same thing I did but he ended up getting 3 subies from the south (His intensions was to buy 2). With the savings he felt it was like buying 2 cars and getting 1 free so his daughter got the 3rd car. Not just subies but there are other cars with very good savings.

I would encourage those close to the border to do their homework and consider a purchase from the south.

[CSH]

To prevent multiple threads from cropping again and again we should have one thread and make it a sticky

[Turbo Bob]

Yeah this issue has been beat to death.  Unfortunately I could not afford a loss of $20000+ and had to go south to purchase my 2 Legacy 2.5i Limited Wagons.  My neighbour ending up doing the same thing I did but he ended up getting 3 subies from the south (His intensions was to buy 2). With the savings he felt it was like buying 2 cars and getting 1 free so his daughter got the 3rd car. Not just subies but there are other cars with very good savings.

I would encourage those close to the border to do their homework and consider a purchase from the south.

[Martin]

"In Canada, consumers have access to more incentives than in the U.S., and the result is that in the end, many cars can wind up being less expensive here," despite sometimes-large differences in MSRPs between the two countries, says Judy Wheeler, Vice-President for Marketing for DaimlerChrysler Canada. "  With 4-10K prices differences between Canada and the US, this is just "SPIN". Let's ask them to put their money where their mouth is and warranty vehicles in Canada that are purchased in the US.

FYI :Chrysler and Honda are the only companies that do not warranty vehicles with US title. Unless you had a good excuse, i.e. moved from the US to Canada.

"When the Canadian dollar was worth about 70 cents on the U.S. dollar, Volkswagen of Canada did its business based on a Canadian dollar worth about 81 cents," he said. "At the time, Volkswagen was losing money on the cars it sold in Canada." How many businesses are in it to lose money year over year ? VW has done well for many years in Canada, and most companies are not in the "charity game". If your business lost money year over year in  a market, wouldn't you pull out ? So why did Hyundai and Mitsubishi come into the Canadian market ?

Dennis Desrosiers says drastic price drops will cause many buyers to put off their purchase simply to see how much more the price will drop.

"The industry is very sensitive to price changes," he says. "Lowering prices affects (resale and) residual values, and will also anger those who bought the same car a week ago at the higher price." The Sky may fall! Imagine, consumers getting upset because new vehicles prices are coming down, YES, resale prices will be affected, but in the end everyone will benefit. All class’s of society will benefit, I’m not implying that buying a used car puts you in a different class, but if someone today can only afford a 10K used car, imagine “ a 2006 Ford Taurus SE with 23,000 miles for 10K or a 2006 Freestar SE with 59,000 miles for 10K (on autotrader.com), compared to a 2002 or 2003 Ford Taurus with 80K or a 2004 Freestar w/90K for the same price (autotrader.ca). Suddenly a young family will be able to buy a relatively “new” used car – how bad can that be

Desrosier calls himself as an expert, but people within the industry don't have any respect for him, this is one area where the unions and manufactures would agree.

Look in the end, we are getting the short end of the stick with most cars. The dealers associations and manufacturers are using very excuse they can think of to keep the prices high (I would do the same if I were in their shoes, 1.7million in new car sales with an extra 5-15% profit!). In this article alone we are hearing several different sources use completely different excuses.

They talk about how the markets are different and in a different article the person being interviewed commented on how Canadian typically buy smaller cars . . . well, I think we would buy more Cadillac’s and other large cars if they we priced as they are in the US.

I think that everyone should walk into dealers armed with a quote from an importer or US dealer. We need to become more active in taking this fight to the manufactures, the minute we stop, the issues will get forgotten.

Here's an example of some price differences:

Toyota Sienna CE          $ 31200 CANADIAN  vs $24,155 USF
Toyota Sienna Loaded    $51,375 CANADIAN vs.  $35,465 USF

I know that this issues has been beaten to death, but we must KEEP UP THE PRESSURE !

[Robert Wilkinson]

I want to say to the last poster, well spoken, and great pointing out the flip flopping of claimed auto expert Denis D. I don't think he has any clue what he's talking about, and the MSRP is just an estimate, and many of the dealers up here always tell me this, "Don't you ever read the fine print", "DEALERS MAY SELL FOR LESS", and then I say to myself, if that's the case, why are your prices so far above theirs down south with our $$$ nearly at their $$$. And then the tell me, Canada has larger import fees, and taxes, and all these administration costs. Honestly we are being ripped off, and it's by the manufacturers, they know there's easy profit for those naive to look into it. And as the last poster said, we need to start taking those figures from the south in and demanding an equivilant, or we should be starting a class action lawsuit over price fixing. There is not competitive pricing here in Canada, and it's about time the consumers took the fight up and started keeping some of their hard earned canuck bucks!

Thanks,

Rob

[Cord]

You guys can talk until you're blue in the face. But in the end that's all it is - talk. Talk doesn't put pressure on a business, action does. Until people start acting on their empty threats and actually go buy cars in the U.S. little will change. Car makers don't change their pricing in response to internet moaning. They change pricing when it is clear they have to in order to maintain sales numbers. Once Canadian dealers start losing sales in significant numbers, pricing will change. Until then, forget it.

[soj]

What frustrates me is that this article is obviously trying to respond to reader concerns but in actual fact says very little.   A series of different opinions from so called experts are thrown out and the reader is left with some insights but certainly no greater clarity as to what the real situation is.

What I suspect is that this is a simple case of what the market will bear.  We as Canadians have been used to certain price points and as our dollar has gone up, the manufacturers have simply not messed with that perception and gone on to reap the rewards.  Now is that a crime?  Not yet, this is simply the downside of a free market economy.  Admittedly it's neither fair nor just but if you feel strongly enough about it, punish the worst offenders by not buying from them or do the leg work and buy out of the States.  That way the balance will eventually be redressed.

[Jeff_D]

Seems some journalist are suggesting to read only the american magazine! Better to encourage the United State than are own Economy!  

Its not the retailers fault is the manifacture wont level the price.

If everybody buys their car down the border, the dealers will go bankurpt, the manifacture 'wont' loose any money, and for the maintenance of the car will be a real headache for the consumer.... GOOD THINKING! NICE GOING!!

[tpl]

Soj & Cord
As I understand it, it is difficult to get financing in Canada for a vehicle to be bought in the USA. That is, one way or another you have to pay the US dealer in cash money.  Then you have to pay the GST in a lump from your own resources... and the PST...
You can't lease either...
 These are BIG  problems for many people, we sometimes scoff at "buying a car by monthly payment " on this forum but most of the population don't have the option to pay cash, have a line of credit that big or available capital to use and  the easy dealer or bank financing is the only way they will get a car at all.

So the hope of getting any appreciable number of people in the general population to source their cars in the USA is fruitless IMHO

[Cord]

Soj & Cord
As I understand it, it is difficult to get financing in Canada for a vehicle to be bought in the USA. That is, one way or another you have to pay the US dealer in cash money.  Then you have to pay the GST in a lump from your own resources... and the PST...
You can't lease either...
 These are BIG  problems for many people, we sometimes scoff at "buying a car by monthly payment " on this forum but most of the population don't have the option to pay cash, have a line of credit that big or available capital to use and  the easy dealer or bank financing is the only way they will get a car at all.

So the hope of getting any appreciable number of people in the general population to source their cars in the USA is fruitless IMHO

I agree. So basically the argument is that Canadians have a "right" to buy things for less than they are being sold for. I'm in favour of cheaper prices as much as the next guy but I just don't see a compelling argument that that "right" exists, especially for discretionary purchases like cars and trucks.

[mdxtasy]

Like I've posted in all the other 'US pricing' threads....


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