The Cost of a German Car in Europe v. U.S.
Same Mercedes model costs $38,000 more in Austria than in the U.S.
A car enthusiast friend in Vienna called me today to make fun of all the hysterical talk in Europe about President Trump’s alleged outrageous affront to free trade by imposing tariffs on the importation of European products.
“Do you know how much a new Mercedes CLE 450 costs in Vienna?” he asked.
“I don’t know—90,000 Euro?” I guessed.
“Good guess. 95,000 Euro,” he replied.
“And in the US?”
“$70,000 dollars,” I again guessed.
“No, $67,500” he said.
In other words, a new Mercedes Benz made a few hundred miles from Vienna in the same EU zone costs $38,000 more than it does in the United States. The reason is because the E.U. levies a 20% Value Added Tax and several other taxes onto the sale of cars. One result of this is that the United States if by far the largest market for German cars. Los Angeles is the largest market in the world for Porsches.
I wondered what an American Corvette Stingray costs in Vienna, and I found a dealership that sells them. In the States, the C8Z06 starts around $115,000. In Austria, including all of the taxes (“Preis Brutto”) the car goes for 350,000 Euros.
At least with respect to the auto industry, it is perfectly silly for the Europeans to claim that Trump’s tariffs are some sort of unfair, punitive, jingoistic action. Even with the new tariffs, American taxes on cars will still be lower than what they are in Europe.
I was just at the Bangkok international auto show. An Audi RS Q8 top model is 14,425,000 Thai baht. That’s 420,459 USD. Importing a new Chevrolet corvette to Thailand has a 300% tariff.
That same model sells for 154,900 with the same options in the USA.
And in Germany is 163,550 Euro.
Every country is screwing each other.
It’s about time the USA stops getting stepped on.
It's everything like that all in Europa is more expensive, because they were imposing so many taxes everywhere then, when you buy doesn't matter the product you are fucked up. Last example, I look to buy and reserved the new Switch 2 for my kid, it comes out in June. The price for Europa is 469 euro and with game 499.99 Euro. The same product, in Japan, cost 306 euros and with game 429 euro. If you look the price of this one without a game, we paid 163 euros more just because we live in the fucking Europa. And I can give you more, like MacBook Pro and iPhone, where in America is cheaper and Europa so fucking expensive.