Price and cost are entirely unrelated. If someone came up to you in the street and offered to give you £10-million cash for the newspaper you just bought for 50p you might be worried that there was some catch in the deal, but you'd be insane to turn it down on the basis that it only cost you 50p and a bit of wear on your shoe leather. Someone out there is willing to pay, so that's what they sell at. The TT Australia reply is customer service BS.

I used to be responsible for a certain Ford part. Ford bought it from us for €10. Both my employer and Ford sold it as a spare for £150 through their dealer network and independent garages. Halfords (UK walk in parts supplier for the DIY market) wanted £450. I know a garage that charged £1700 to fit one (less than 2 hours labour). As a brake part the owner might not be too happy paying that to keep his £5000 van on the road, but he wasn't going to risk a crash. Now the vehicle is out of production they are £200 on e-bay as NOS. I doubt the Transit will ever be a classic, but if they were I'd be buying them up, they fail and you can't drive without one.

The spares pricing strategy of the manufacturers will vary through the life of the vehicle and legislation. A German for example can't fit a pattern part for some bits. Where they have to supply more they somethimes pass on the savings to keep the market sweet, where they can make more money overall they do.

A lot of manufacturers actually give away cars and trucks. They sell service parts and finance.

For metal boxes TT Germany face stiff competition even with a TUV cert. Australia I would guess is awash with welders making their own. TT buyers want the logo, so the price is boutique.

Andy

Pricing in Australia for anything imported by a business has about a minimum of 24% (in price) disadvantage due to duty and taxes, which the private importer does not pay as long as the item arrives by Post and has a declared value of less than AU$1000 including the freight cost. For a business there are also profit requirements, inventory costs, local transport costs, etc etc. Australian distributors dont get the same purchase prices as the larger markets such as the USA, UK, etc.

When I worked for Isuzu, we used to joke that the total Australian vehicle demand was produced by Japanese vehicle manufacturers on a Saturday afternoon. Pricing was not about what it cost, more about what the market will pay - especially with large multi nationals that can produce things at very low prices, you can see examples driving around any Asian country - they dont pay the equivalent of AU$80,000 for a Landcruiser.

One of the options the government is considering at present is to limit the quantity of items in a parcel to one, so that the private importer of multiple items is forced to pay a lot of additional freight costs and thus the local businesses are "protected" from so called unfair private importation of goods. Better write to your MP if you want to retain the right to import of multiple items upto $1000 per package.

Isn't that typical of GovThinking!
Let's change the law to "protect" the VCR industry, or stop music CDs from becoming redundant, or save bookstores from closing.

The game has changed - adapt or move over.

I talk a lot to the local motorcycle shops who whinge and complain that the customers are buying online and they are hanging on desperately to the "old" ways. "The Government should do something" they cry! What would you like them to do - stop technological development?

__________________
Postie Notes - "you're not seriously going around Australia on a postie bike??"

RogerM has it correct. When you live on a continent that imports substantially vice manufacturing your own consumer products (with a market size to support it) then shipping costs go to you. Boat or plane, somebody has to pay for the fuel oil to get you your stuff. And oil isn't cheap, don't you know.

Governments must have a constant cash flow (duties / tax / tariffs / rego fees ) to provide for the "services" the collective "You" demand. RogerM is right, write your government representative (or get a new one!) if you want to change how things are done.

Start making your own stuff or keep paying outrageous taxes and shipping costs. Good luck with that!

__________________

Buy from here - motorcycle-luggage-shop.com
Excellent service and including delivery to Australia about 50% 0f the price.