What the F***!
I played around a bit to check out the new Mazda 3. especially checking prices.
On the Local Website, this is what I found.
that's R198 000 for a stock 2.0L Mazda 3 Sport 5 door.
However on the US website, where they have options to build your car and add stuff, I got this:
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
That's R130 000 for a 2.3L version with a sport appearance kit (spoilers) all round, Leather seats, ABS, Xenon Headlights, Diffuser
How does this compute???
This kind of Cr@p Really bugs me about SA. How can SA charge R70 000 more for a Stock Vehicle than for a Better Vehicle in the USA?
Kronos wrote:...mmm, I don't like the new carolla's shape. Looks like a tortoise.
Now the old Carollo RXI is a different story. 8O
Fair enough... Just out of interest - there's a facelift coming out next month. Basically has the following changes:
- Colour-coded mirrors.
- Colour-coded number plate housing
- Round-lights inside brake lights.
- Round-lights inside front lights - something like the current Lexus.
But still they refuse to put mags on the thing!!!!
It costs R400 for one of those crap plastic wheel caps...???? Surely a mag isn't that much more???
Last edited by wit_skapie on 14 Jul 2004, 15:20, edited 1 time in total.
Car prices in South Africa are SHOCKING to say the least!!! In the U.S. you can get a pristine condition Mazda RX-7 second hand for well under $20000. An fantastic (M3 eater) for a measly R130000 or less. 8O
Even the UK has way cheaper cars. They had an article in the Top Gear magazine recently where they tested cars for a 100 pound 8O , (yes a 100 pounds i.e. close to R1000). In South Africa I doubt you could get 4 wheels for R1000. They figured it was cheaper to buy such a car for a return trip from London to Bristol (including petrol) than taking the train!!!
Expensive PC spares,
Expensive internet,
Expensive cars.
Only reason I don't emigrate is 'cause the beer is CHEAP
MOOD - Thirsty
A surprising amount of modern pseudoscience is coming out of the environmental sector. Perhaps it should not be so surprising given that environmentalism is political rather than scientific.
Timothy Casey
From last years carte blanche
*************************************************************
Car Prices
Date : 14 September 2003
Producer : Rob Brown
Presenter : Derek Watts
Genre : Consumer
This is the bottom of the range Toyota RunX 14 hundred. It is South Africa?s most popular small car, but it costs R122 000. No air-conditioning, no electric windows, no radio? R122 000! That is well out of the range of most South Africans. Why are our new car prices so high?
The RunX is made here at Toyota?s manufacturing plant in Durban. We wanted to know what it really costs to make a car in South Africa, but none of the manufacturers were willing to give us the exact figures. But we found out anyway and it?s quite frightening.
In the case of the average car, the real cost of the materials is less than 40% of the retail price. In the case of a R122 000 car that means the materials cost less than R50 000.?
It costs about R10 000 to actually assemble the vehicle, including labour. To distribute the vehicle to the various dealers and get it ready to sell costs a further R8 000. One key element is marketing. You must want to buy the car. We worked out that when you purchase a new vehicle, at least R10 000 of the retail price has been spent on selling it to you. Then of course the manufacturer and dealer need to make a profit? about 15%, or R18 000. The government - in the form of import tax on parts, ad valorem and VAT - takes a massive 21%. So to sum up, the real cost of making that car that you just paid R122 000 for is approximately R68 000.
Deon Schoeman is the Editor of Topcar magazine and is concerned that these high prices are making cars unaffordable and this is seriously damaging the motor industry.
Deon Schoeman (Editor Topcar Magazine): ?I think we are paying too much for cars in general. That is a statistical fact and if you just purely look at the the cost of a car relative to disposable income in this country it is very high.?
Brand Pretorius is the Chairman of McCarthy Motor Holdings. They deal in most makes of vehicles, both new and used. He feels strongly about the issue.
Derek: ? A basic question, are our vehicles too expensive??
Brand Pretorius (Chairman McCarthy Motor Holdings): ?Yes definitely. I believe our cars are too expensive. Because the fact of the matter is that vehicle price increases have outstripped salary increases by quite a considerable margin over the last four years. So, should one look at the disposable income of the average South African family compared to the price of a new car, we have a sort of an affordability crisis in the motor industry. I am very concerned about it.?
But not as concerned as the consumer? Since 1997 the average annual salary increase has declined from 12.5% to 8%. The average annual increase in the price of a new car has gone from 0% to 28%. That?s why you can?t afford a new car. Put another way, since 1987 the increases in new car prices have outstripped the Consumer Price Index to an alarming degree. In the UK for example, a house costs 10 times more than a new car. In South Africa the average house costs only twice as much.
Brand: ?My view is that the only way in which we will unlock the potential of the local market over the longer term would be to do something really concrete about vehicle affordability.?
Johan van Zyl is the President and Chairman of Toyota South Africa. Toyota consistently sells the most cars in this country.
Derek: ?Now why, for example, can?t you produce a cheaper Tazz??
Johan van Zyl (President Toyota SA): ?Well if you look at that, this is one thing that you must take into account, to produce a vehicle; a ton of steel? and the price of steel is the price of steel. People say then, ?Why don?t you produce an old technology vehicle because that would be cheaper.? But it has four tyres, it takes steel, it takes the same amount of labour, and steel and materials going into the old technology vehicle than what would be going into a new technology vehicle. ?
Derek: ?Now if you could reduce the price of a Tazz by say R10 000, surely you could create a whole new market??
Johan: ?Ja, If I could produce a Tazz with a reduced R10 000 it would just be another R10 000 loss.
Derek: ?Is it that tight? Are the margins so low??
Johan: ?It is that critical. Everybody believes that the motor industry is making a huge profit. That is not true. Over the last three years, for instance, Toyota SA, we have had very bad financial results.?
Daimler/Chrysler manufacture one of the top selling luxury cars in SA, the C class Mercedes. The cheapest one costs over R230 000.
Fritz van Olst (Daimler Chrysler): ?We have an economy that is a little ?distorted?, if you can use that word. And South Africans earn relatively little in world terms. But if you take housing, it is dirt cheap in comparison to income and compared to first world countries. If you take cars, the income ratio to the affordability of cars is skewed - it is wrong. But I don?t think that that is the Motor Industry?s fault.?
Derek: ?But Fritz what about all of the conspiracy theories about car prices that we hear about in the pub??
Fritz: ?In the short term of course, if there are big fluctuations in the rate, the manufacturers make a gain in the short term or take a big hit. But that is part of the game - that?s the way it is. I don?t think it is do-able to take those very severe short-term things and pass it on to customers. In my mind a car costs R100 000 today, R120 000 tomorrow and next month R80 000. That certainly - if you just think of the impact on financing. What kind of residual value? How do you determine a monthly payment? These things become a little complicated when car prices fluctuate like that. So sure, it will follow the currency over time and the competitive nature of the market will keep the players honest.?
The manufacturers are in the business of selling cars. They feed our obsession by making their products as desirable as possible. Perhaps we, the consumers, are also partly to blame for the high costs. We demand the latest models and every conceivable extra. Currently there are over 800 different models for sale in a country that only sells 250 000 units a year.
South Africans love their cars and are willing to spend a fortune to own a flashy one. This one costs more than most houses. The cars in this showroom are worth more than R6 million, and they are all sold.
Deon: ?It is no secret that South African?s are mad about their cars - passionate about their cars - and are very emotional about their relationships with their vehicles. And I guess it is because we don?t have a public transport system to speak of. We rely on those vehicles very heavily to get us from A to B, and whether that is into town or to Cape Town. And so we feel the car is actually a member of the family rather than just an appliance. I think that South Africans feel that their car is perhaps an extension of themselves. They picture themselves behind the wheel of a car and they say, ?Well, what is this car going to say about me? Are people going to think that I am successful or a failure? Or will they think that I am too old or too young? How are people going to regard me when they see me in the peak hour traffic?? And that is what taints their decision-making in terms of what they like to drive.?
For most of us who can afford a new car, the purchase then needs to be financed by a bank. The real cost of car repayments has escalated by 34%. Cost of the deposit has gone up 40% over the same period. Don?t think many of us have received salary increases to match that! Let?s go back to our example of a new car that costs R122 000. At present the 10% deposit would be R12 200 and the monthly payments over 54 months at prime interest rate would be R2 780. Add to this insurance of R1 500 and - just to park the car in your garage would cost you R4 280 per month.
In the USA, for example, it takes on average 19 weeks? salary to pay for a new car. In SA it takes an average of 208 weeks. But the dealers and banks have got together and have asked government to change the law and allow private leasing.
Ronnie Watson (Wesbank): ?The rules that govern it are somewhat archaic. It says the man in the street cannot take a credit agreement over a period longer than 54 months. He has to put down a ten percent deposit. But I think that one of the killers is that the payments cannot differ by more than ten percent. So I cannot structure a deal for you Derek, which, for instance, says that if you get a bonus in December why doesn?t your payment escalate in December? So I can actually make a new car or a better car than you drive now more affordable if I am allowed to be able to pay more. Currently our hands are somewhat tied.?
Private leasing may assist with the affordability situation, but this does not help the actual prices of new cars. So it?s off to the second hand car lot for us.
The high prices of new cars don?t just affect the affluent few who can afford to buy one out of the box. The prices of second hand or pre-owned vehicles go up in tandem, affecting buyers right down the line.
And more importantly, the cars on our roads keep getting older. The average is now 11 years old, and this certainly contributes to the high accident rate. So what is the solution to our affordability crisis?
Deon: ?I think that it will take an effort from all parties concerned to try and address that, including government. And maybe looking at taxation and the structure of taxation as an element, and saying that all cars under 1600cc or 1400cc are going to be exempt of tax or exempt of some of the tax. That would be a big tangible benefit. And government would go to industry and say that they would only make it available to locally produced cars, but would need them to contribute to it as well, and really address it as an issue of national interest.?
Well then you get to Australia and you buy a Toyota or a Nissan there for almost half the price you get it here for and you pop the hood only to find a plaque that states that this car has been made ins South Africa. Now what does that say about import taxes. The fact is simple The Motor industry in SA is making a killing off the local market and it is cuz the demand is soo high. Every Tom, D!ck and harry that matriculates has to have a car. I mean it is just not coooool to be matriculated and not have a car in order to get to and from parties. And we sit with one of the biggest car markets in the world (also having the most vehicles on the public roads). So yeah they are plain and simply ripping us off. The mazda 3 should at the most not cost over R130k since they are assembled here in SA they don't pay import duties on the car since it is not a complete product. The law regarding import duties has changes so as to allow a company to import an incomplete product and then do the assembling here without having to pay import duties since they would have to hire local labour in order to assembel the bloody thing.
The Motor industry in SA is making a killing off the local market and it is cuz the demand is soo high. Every Tom, D!ck and harry that matriculates has to have a car. I mean it is just not coooool to be matriculated and not have a car in order to get to and from parties. And we sit with one of the biggest car markets in the world (also having the most vehicles on the public roads). So yeah they are plain and simply ripping us off. The mazda 3 should at the most not cost over R130k since they are assembled here in SA they don't pay import duties on the car since it is not a complete product. The law regarding import duties has changes so as to allow a company to import an incomplete product and then do the assembling here without having to pay import duties since they would have to hire local labour in order to assembel the bloody thing.