Import car
Imported car refers to a motor vehicle in which the country of purchase is different from the country of first registration . The motivation for the import is usually the lower sales price in the respective country of purchase.
The history of the import car
In the 20th century, automobiles were an expensive commodity that had to be imported from the respective country of origin. The import of such a vehicle has been costly and time consuming. For this reason, mostly only cars for high demands were imported. Automobiles for the masses were therefore mostly used where they were produced. This was especially true for mass products such as those made by Henry Ford . The very successful sale of his T-model took place almost exclusively in the USA . Global trade in imported cars began with the development of the VW Beetle . First successes with imported cars were achieved by VW in the USA in the 1950s. With the entry of the Japanese into the automotive industry and their first successes in the 70s and 80s, the imported car finally became the norm.
The change
The global automotive industry recognized the economic importance of imported cars relatively early and began to adjust the prices of their products to the income level of the individual countries. As a result, for example, a large number of vehicles in Great Britain cost the most money, while they were offered relatively cheaply in southern European countries. In order to avoid the high transport costs and tariffs of the imported cars, car factories were built in some locations, which produced for the domestic market. Resourceful car dealers recognized this price differential and began to re-import the exported cars. A brisk trade arose, which the automobile companies wanted to prevent with all their might. These practices have been banned by the EU . Some manufacturers have had to pay substantial fines for obstructing free trade.
Current situation
Every citizen can buy his car anywhere in the EU and take advantage of the current price advantages. The European Commission even provides a list with the relatively current prices so that the consumer has an overview of the price differences in each country. Germany turns out to be a rather expensive country to buy a new car, which favors the trend towards EU car imports. The car manufacturers have taken the following measures in order to be able to maintain the price differences in high-price countries as far as possible:
- In principle, they only sell their vehicles to end customers through authorized dealers.
- These dealers are allowed to resell to foreign end customers (EU law did not allow manufacturers to prohibit this option as well). The authorized dealers are also allowed to resell to domestic and foreign dealers of the same brand, but may not deliver to non-brand dealers.
- The route of each vehicle to the retailer can be precisely tracked using a specific code number system. On the basis of a digit code, the specialist can see exactly for which country or for which market the manufacturer originally intended the vehicle in question.
- In order to prevent the trade in imported cars, the car manufacturers have also started to limit the number of units per country. The number of new vehicles is set so that a local car dealer can just meet the needs of its domestic regular customers.
Case study
Due to the different taxation of new cars by the individual countries, there are considerable differences in the net prices. So that a new car remains affordable in a high-tax country like Denmark , which charges a registration fee of 180% per car, some manufacturers offer their vehicles at a very low net price. Citizens of other countries can now buy this car at the net price and pay tax in their home country. Since the net prices for Audi or Alfa Romeo, for example , are very different between Germany and Denmark, savings of up to 30% can be achieved. Often, however, the acquisition of an import car fails due to availability, as, for example, Danish dealers are only supplied with small numbers and prefer to sell their cars to domestic customers, as they can then usually serve the cars for years.
There are now big price differences, especially between Europe and the USA, which are also due to the high taxes (especially in Austria). A VW Passat in Europe (32,000 euros) costs on average 50% more than in the USA (21,000 euros). In Austria, NOVA is levied in addition to the 25% sales tax. The price differences in the luxury car segment are even more extreme. Here the price differences are up to 80%.