Rip off Britain!!

Want to buy the Honda Shadow 750c 2008 model.

Quoted price from dealers in UK around £5800

Price of same bike in USA = $6799

at my banks (Lloyds) current exchange rate that is £3577

Thats 62% MORE!!!

even taking VAT into account, it's still extremely excessive

What a bloody rip off!

anyone know of an importer?

Rand

 

Yes - Honda.

 

Haha very funny, brought my car from Holland and saved £3000. Just can't
find same situation for bikes is all :-(

Rand

 

DIY?

 

Do snip sigs.

 

I think the point Rand was making is how stupid we are in UK to accept the
cost of thing here. Friend of mine has a HD 1450cc (I think). I said to him
that all the chrome accessories must have cost a fortune, No, he said,
imported all chrome from US and saved £700 on UK prices.

Foreign manufactures must be laughing all the way to the bank for what we
are prepared to pay for their goods

and judging by the responses here, I can see why they are full of joy

Alan

 

The parallel imports market has been clobbered by manufacturers' own
price reductions.

Cruisers are relatively cheap in the US because they buy lots of them.
Economies of scale. We don't.

Secondly, there's rather more than VAT to be added to the UK retail
price.

Thirdly, freight is a hell of a lot more from the Far East to Europe
than it is from the Far East to the US, for all sorts of complex reasons
I won't go into here, because it's too much like what I do at work.

If you want a cheap cruiser, go on a cheap flight to the US, have fun,
and bring one back. I guarantee the saving will not be as much as you
think it will.

 

Fewer annoying landmasses like Africa in the way, for starters.

Which he'll notice as soon as he figures out that import duty and VAT
are due on purchase cost /plus/ shipping. Although some bikes are still
tempting at the current exchange rate, but I wouldn't import Japanese
cruisers...

 

*Ding*

Oh, and VAT is levied on top of the import duty as well....

 

I know, I looked into when thinking about shipping containers full of
ShiteOldBikes across from the US...

 

In

Which all sort of proves the rip off Britain claim

I seem to recall the yanks got upset with Britain over a tax spat

--
Steve Parry
BMW R45 <arrived>
01 Kawasaki ZX12-R
07 K1200GT SE
95 BMW F650
87 Yamaha FS1
Sukida SK90PY
91 Kawasaki AR50
07 VW Passat SE Estate for comfort
www.gwynfryn.co.uk

 

Shadow 750c 16500 YTL in Turkey

Thats about £6278 at the mo

 

A friend of mine in the 80s and 90s was importing containers full of
used bikes from Japan. He got around the tax problem by including some
crashed or broken bikes in the lot and described the contents as
"Motorcycles broken for spares."

 

What I would like to know, is why a Ducati will retail at a hell of
a lot less in the US than they do in the UK. While I agree that the
margins may be smaller due to economies of scale, and you would pay
less tax in the US [1], surely the shipping cost goes in our favour
this time round?

Eg (at today's rate of £1 = $1.99725)
US: 2008 Ducati 1098S $20,995 ~ £10,512
UK: 2008 Ducati 1098S £14,250 ~ $28,461

[1] US generally quote ex-Tax figures (due to differing State taxes)
whereas our are quoted On The Road to include all taxes [2].
[2] 'Cos Brits ain't no good wiv maffs, innit.

 

Retail space generally in the usa is a lot cheaper than the uk per
square foot

Shipping costs by road are far higher in europe than by cargo ship per
mile to the states per unit , usa import tariffs are generally lower
than those in europe for motorcycles



--

 

Hmmm ... but would that all add up to 40% price increase?

I can't believe it would cost more to get a bike from Italy to
the UK via road than it does to the US via water.

But then what do I know!

 

Well your average 40 foot artic can haul roughly 30 tons excluding
vehicle weight and the fuel is heavily taxed and you got the cost of
the driver to throw in as well

cargo ships can carry thousands of containers , non EU or USA sailers
are dirt cheap and there is very little tax on fuel oil for ships

When my freinds church sent a container to africa it cost them £500.00
I am sure the likes of ducati could halve those costs to the USA


You also need to appreciate many of the contracts for the supply and
purchase of bikes will have been negotiated a few years ago when the
dollar rate was higher --

 

There shouldn't _be_ any import tariff between Italy and the UK,
n'est-ce pas? Or are they making Ducatis elsewhere now?

Of course, there are also the specification differences, especially
having to produce a RHD version just for the UK market (+Japan, etc.).

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

*boggle*

 

I have never seen a RHD Ducati.
Having a senior moment Ivan ?.