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The USA prices are always without taxes while European prices usually contain VAT, which can be as high as 20%. On top of that there are import duties at least

by _ph_ 8y ago

The USA prices are always without taxes while European prices usually contain VAT, which can be as high as 20%. On top of that there are import duties at least into EU countries. Most importantly, the deliveries in Europe started with the AWD configurations which start at $50k in the US too.

zmodem 8y ago
> VAT, which can be as high as 20% 25% in Sweden
asdfuadirea 8y ago
8% in Switzerland.
rootusrootus 8y ago
It's not really practical to include taxes in US prices. Some of us don't pay any additional tax on car purchases.
- vsl 8y ago
  Some of us don’t pay VAT on business purchases either. It’s customary in US, and evil genius in EU, where consumer prices must be shown with VAT. It hides the tax (surprisingly many people, even those you would expect to be financially literate, aren’t aware of the sheer amount of it - see any online bitching about Apple’s EU prices). And that’s how you end up with 19-25% taxation of everything you buy in EU. US sales tax is acutely visible every time you buy something, it’s much harder to increase it, politically.
  - oblio 8y ago
    I like how you manage to turn this around so skillfully. The US sucks because you never see the actual price of something you buy: you just notice it at the counter. When you ask why they don't just label the product with the final price, they say: we can't, it's too complicated. I doubt that.
    - rootusrootus 8y ago
      The real reason is probably that the retailer wants to show the lowest price. Especially for people who might choose to cross-shop different stores. The legitimate reason is that sales tax in the US can vary by city, or county, or state. Personally I think they should include both prices on the tag. I suppose if you live somewhere that has sales tax you get used to doing the math on the fly. I live in a state with no sales tax so it always surprises me when I shop out of state.

by _ph_ 8y ago

zmodem 8y ago

> VAT, which can be as high as 20% 25% in Sweden

asdfuadirea 8y ago

8% in Switzerland.

rootusrootus 8y ago

It's not really practical to include taxes in US prices. Some of us don't pay any additional tax on car purchases.

vsl 8y ago
Some of us don’t pay VAT on business purchases either. It’s customary in US, and evil genius in EU, where consumer prices must be shown with VAT. It hides the tax (surprisingly many people, even those you would expect to be financially literate, aren’t aware of the sheer amount of it - see any online bitching about Apple’s EU prices). And that’s how you end up with 19-25% taxation of everything you buy in EU. US sales tax is acutely visible every time you buy something, it’s much harder to increase it, politically.
- oblio 8y ago
  I like how you manage to turn this around so skillfully. The US sucks because you never see the actual price of something you buy: you just notice it at the counter. When you ask why they don't just label the product with the final price, they say: we can't, it's too complicated. I doubt that.
  - rootusrootus 8y ago
    The real reason is probably that the retailer wants to show the lowest price. Especially for people who might choose to cross-shop different stores. The legitimate reason is that sales tax in the US can vary by city, or county, or state. Personally I think they should include both prices on the tag. I suppose if you live somewhere that has sales tax you get used to doing the math on the fly. I live in a state with no sales tax so it always surprises me when I shop out of state.