Re: check out the profit margins made by our local car distributors.
louis said:
not entirely accurate. sometimes, dealers fit options locally instead, therefore the cost of those parts are not reflected in the OMV of the vehicle when customs does the calculations. for example, i was told that Alfa Romeos have locally fitted leather, so you're not gonna have that factored into the initial OMV. other pricey options fitted locally may include your navigation systems, internal trimmings, reverse sensors, rims, body kit, fogs, car alarms and i think sunroof for some jap cars, etc. i've heard abt locally fitted HID too, but i may be wrong.
lower OMV results in lower ARF, import tax and GST and thus seemingly lower cost of the car. aside from the locally fitted options, many dealers also factor in cost of servicing and warranty into the final sticker price as well.
nevertheless, no one's denying that dealers enjoy hefty margins.
hey
yes, you have a point. however, when we paid for our extra options on our cars, we had to fork out way more than the base price of the option overseas. when i asked my salesgirl about this, she said that this is because the hike of the omv is incorporated into the price.
maybe the fitting of sensors, sunroofs and xenon lights locally are applicable to japanese cars only. but then again, you'd notice that their profit margins are nominal, sometimes even less than $10,000 per car. take into account that they also provide a 3 year warranty, some even with free servicing. also, remember that companies like tan chong and borneo motors have a much larger salesforce, premises and network than pml, so their overheads must be higher.
but then again, i'd like to come back to the only point that matters; i wouldn't care how much they made if they provided top-notch service. unfortunately, that's not happening right now.
hopefully after the multitude of surveys pml is organizing (i've received two calls from them), they'll actually study their poor results and buck up.
with that in mind, i noticed that borneo makes about $100,000 on the ls430. makes me wonder why they've priced it that way. would it be just to place the car in a league closer to the s-class, 7er and xj? i suppose if they cut off $50,000 from that margin, and placed it in a range closer to the mid-sized executive sedans, they might be able to win over a good number of e-class buyers.
what do you guys think?
