Sunday, Nov 17, 2019 at 13:48
Everything you buy from Europe has the following features as standard;
1. The "European Tax", whereby every single thing you purchase from Europe appears to have around 50% in taxes added to the purchase cost. This includes all parts and accessories.
2. The desire to have every feature imaginable, aided by the greatest complexity in design, aided by electronic and electrical devices of every type and sort available.
Of course, very few of those electrical components are available locally, they all have to be imported at excessive parts cost, and added freight cost.
3. The design is predicated on the fact that nowhere in Europe are you more than 30kms from a major service centre, with a slew of highly qualified technicians on hand - and they are all multilingual.
Compare that scenario with Australia, where you can rapidly be 1000kms from any service centre, and from any factory technician, with technical support. And the mechanic you do find, generally has about as much experience with the repair of your vehicle as you do.
4. European vehicles are built for European conditions, with features such as heated seats, and designed for snow and fog and high altitudes, and Air Cons designed to cope with occasional bouts of 35 to 38 deg temperatures.
They rarely see dust in Europe, it's probably banned by some EU law, originating from Brussels.
Compare that with Australia, where snow is quite rare, the average elevation is 330 metres, and dust and 40+ deg heat is a constant fact of life, in 90% of the country.
5. There are rarely any rough, unsealed, badly-corrugated roads in Europe. Any that exist, are about 3 kms long.
Compare that with Australia, where you can drive on bone-shaking, unsealed, badly-corrugated roads for days, hundreds and hundreds of kms at a time. This is a true
test of a vehicle, particularly when you get 40 deg heat with it, as
well.
6. Buy a "Brand Name" from Europe and you automatically incur a major financial penalty, just for the sheer pleasure of driving with a "Brand Name" badge on the bonnet.
Cheers, Ron.
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628692
Follow Up By: OzzieCruiser - Sunday, Nov 17, 2019 at 14:23
Sunday, Nov 17, 2019 at 14:23
Sounds exactly like a Toyota Landcruiser except no one buys them in Europe and sales are failing in the US where they will be discontinued soon.
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903166
Follow Up By: Ron N - Sunday, Nov 17, 2019 at 14:36
Sunday, Nov 17, 2019 at 14:36
The difference with Toyota Landcruisers is that they are everywhere, everyone knows how to fix them, and the "premium pricing" you pay to own them, is returned to you in used vehicle value - and you can sell them in heartbeat. Toyota must be doing something half right.
Compare that to values for used European vehicles, where no-one wants them when they reach 100,000kms, because the 100,000km factory service cost, runs to nearly the residual value of the vehicle.
Not to mention the myriads of special
tools you need to work on European equipment.
With BMW, you can't even utilise a standard OBD code reader, it has to be a special BMW OBD code reader.
I would imagine Mercedes aren't a lot different.
Wifes good friend (wealthy woman in her 60's) bought a Mercedes hatchback, kept it for 2 years on city driving, and reckoned it spent at least 6 mths of that 2 years in the Mercedes dealership with something wrong with it, every time.
She got thoroughly fed up with it, sold it, bought a Hyundai hatchback, and is over the moon with the Hyundai that just keeps going, and which came with a 7 yr warranty.
The day I see a European vehicle with a 7 yr warranty, will be a wondrous day.
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903167
Follow Up By: AlbyNSW - Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 at 17:51
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 at 17:51
Ron Porsche offer a 10 year factory warranty for its vehicles , you do have to pay for it though
Sure a Hyundai is a cheap and reliable vehicle but it is in no way of the caliber of the German makes. Yes we pay a premium for them due to our small economy but they are
well made
Warranty is not a measure of quality but more a marketing tool to sell product. Look at power
tools for instance and the best warranties are offered by the brands at bottom end of the quality market.
Same goes for many products were warranty is used as s tool to entice a consumer to purchase their product
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903216