Comments on: Used Car Prices

By: Zonky

Zonky — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:06:02 +0000

Regardless of Toyota’s reputation 20 years ago, the idea that Ford Australia & or Holden have a quality reputation then or now is hilarious!

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:08:28 +0000

I should have put it differently: someone trading a Commodore to a Corolla is getting more than lower fuel bills; they also get lower repair & maintenance costs.

By: etbe

etbe — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:36:35 +0000

Tim: 20 years ago a “larger Toyota” was not a really popular car. It’s only in the last few years that the Camry marque has been fighting with Falcon and Commodore for the highest sales in the “family car” market. Also AFAIK there has never been a V8 Camry (at least not a stock one from Toyota ;).

Also my recollection was that Toyota didn’t have a quality reputation 20 years ago. In fact in the 80′s Japanese products were widely regarded as being inferior. Whether the recent reputation of Japanese products for being high quality extended to older products is something that I’m not sure of.

As for the 10% tariff, it’s much better to prevent tariffs via taxes than subsidies. The Australian government gives billions of dollars to foreign car companies as a form of dole payment to Australian workers.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:45:17 +0000

Perhaps it would be fairer to compare selling a larger Toyota to move to a smaller Toyota. With the tremendous quality reputation of Toyotas, I assume there is less decline in price than for Holdens.
However, I suppose the point of the article is what can the average “working family” do.
It’s too bad the article didn’t mention the 10% tariff on imported cars in Australia, justified to reduce the competition on locally-produced cars. Government policy asks car buyers to pay more in order to protect profits and jobs in Australia. The mix of imported cars is different to the mix of domestically produced cars. It is very difficult to buy a 4 cylinder version of the two dominant domestically cars, the Commodore and the Falcon. In fact, I think it is impossible. The 10% tariff increases the price of foreign small cars to protect the production of domestic large cars (a crude approximation, but more true than not).