$2B lawsuit accuses carmakers of keeping Canadian prices high

[Shawn]

^ You got the new slim Apple keyboard or just the one on your MBP?

The thing is wages aren't any higher in Canada... in fact probably lower here than the US. A lot of people go to the US to work since there's nothing that lucrative over here.

[I'm not Takumi]

Originally Posted by GM_IV

I laugh at the notion we get "good" Japanese cars the R32 Skyline GT-R is really the only notable Japanese car we can get that American's can't get, anything else newer than 1992 go to America unless for some reason you want an Echo hatchback. Canadian buyers are stingy with money which is why the Mk IV Supra died so quickly here(1995).

I'm looking at one canadian importers site now....

You can get Keicars, Trucks, heck, even a Nissan Stagea!! Yeah "we get the good stuff" sarcasm....

[nist7]

Originally Posted by thedguy

So the Attorney handling this is going to make $1.5B while the people who actually got ripped are are going to get $100?

That's how lawyers get paid. A high profile sexual harrassment case was settled out of court a couple of mnoths ago here in my city. The defendant had to paid approximately 1 million dollars. $700k of that were "attorney's fees."

[Shawn]

No offense but I don't give a rat's bum if you can import Skylines and Stageas and other F&F models like that into Canada. I'd much prefer if we got cars like the awesome and cheap GTO. Heck I'd rather have the option to buy a new Scion or even a Neon SRT-4 over some 15 year old Skyline that's gonna cost me an arm and two legs.

Originally Posted by I'm not Takumi

I'm looking at one canadian importers site now....

You can get Keicars, Trucks, heck, even a Nissan Stagea!! Yeah "we get the good stuff" sarcasm....

[3Colin]

Originally Posted by Shawn

A lot of people go to the US to work since there's nothing that lucrative over here.

That is wrong. Was right, but is wrong.

Unless you're a welder or a metalworker or something, but even then...

I have no idea about wages though, so I'm not going to argue it. I would reckon that wages are higher here, since there's very little difference in standard of living, but numbers can be damned tricky sometimes.

[I'm not Takumi]

Originally Posted by Shawn

No offense but I don't give a rat's bum if you can import Skylines and Stageas and other F&F models like that into Canada. I'd much prefer if we got cars like the awesome and cheap GTO. Heck I'd rather have the option to buy a new Scion or even a Neon SRT-4 over some 15 year old Skyline that's gonna cost me an arm and two legs.

Tell you what: You tell our NHTSA to stuff it, and we'll see about shoving the wannabe Mopar Muscle with the fail-wheel-drive across the border line.

[Shawn]

The point here is, being able to import a Skyline for a lot of money isn't going to appeal to that many buyers. Being able to go to a dealership and buy a new car like the ones we don't get here in Canada would appeal to a lot more people... or just even getting the same cars but at the same cheap prices.

But whatever... nothing is gonna change for either Canada or the US so we're both screwed.

Originally Posted by I'm not Takumi

Tell you what: You tell our NHTSA to stuff it, and we'll see about shoving the wannabe Mopar Muscle with the fail-wheel-drive across the border line.

[I'm not Takumi]

Originally Posted by Shawn

The point here is, being able to import a Skyline for a lot of money isn't going to appeal to that many buyers. Being able to go to a dealership and buy a new car like the ones we don't get here in Canada would appeal to a lot more people... or just even getting the same cars but at the same cheap prices.

But whatever... nothing is gonna change for either Canada or the US so we're both screwed.

The point is that you can get cars that are what, 15 years old or more, and we have to wait 25 years. And it's not all about performance; with the high gas prices, not everyone has $20K to get a fuel-sipping Scion or Hybrid, or desires a $500 80's tercel with 200,000 on the odometer and enough duct tape holding it together and covering rust spots bigger than the Red Spot on Jupiter to make Red Green proud. What if you had a second option in the way of getting maybe a Toyota Sera or a Honda Today? You can't, because of numerous factors from government red tape to businesses afraid of their bottom line.

[thedguy]

Originally Posted by I'm not Takumi

The point is that you can get cars that are what, 15 years old or more, and we have to wait 25 years. And it's not all about performance; with the high gas prices, not everyone has $20K to get a fuel-sipping Scion or Hybrid, or desires a $500 80's tercel with 200,000 on the odometer and enough duct tape holding it together and covering rust spots bigger than the Red Spot on Jupiter to make Red Green proud. What if you had a second option in the way of getting maybe a Toyota Sera or a Honda Today? You can't, because of numerous factors from government red tape to businesses afraid of their bottom line.

The difference is they are getting screwed over by greedy companies, we are getting screwed by our elected officials (who are being convinced by those same greedy companies that those cars are unsafe).

[Ventura6]

This lawsuit sounds anti-capitalist to me. Where am I wrong?

[I'm not Takumi]

Originally Posted by Ventura6

This lawsuit sounds anti-capitalist to me. Where am I wrong?

It's more simply consumer backlash than anti-capitalism. Why should our Canadian neighbors get screwed in the huge discrepancies between car prices?

[3Colin]

Originally Posted by I'm not Takumi

It's more simply consumer backlash than anti-capitalism. Why should our Canadian neighbors get screwed in the huge discrepancies between car prices?

I should be supporting this lawsuit as much as any of my fellow Canadian consumers, but I have my reservations. The reasoning behind it is that the purchasing power of the Canadian dollar is now lower in Canada than it is in the US. A good example is the UK; the pound is worth a lot more in the US than it is in Britain, even for British-made products.

Geography is surprisingly irrelevant nowadays. It's economic forces, mostly within a country, that drives pricing and inflation.

[Ventura6]

Originally Posted by I'm not Takumi

It's more simply consumer backlash than anti-capitalism. Why should our Canadian neighbors get screwed in the huge discrepancies between car prices?

Why should we not let the market set the price?

[Ilpav]

I just calculated (according to the rates at 09.30.07) that if you buy a brand new, 2008 Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG in the US, rather than Canada, you save a whopping $62,000

And to be a little bit more realistic with the Porsche 911 Turbo (the SL65 AMG isn't what you'd call a "common") you would save a simply disgusting $50,000 if you buy it in the US instead of Canada.

Now that is fucked up.