I just check and the Mercedes GLE I just ordered (well through the company) was roughly the same price as the it would have been in the UK give or take. Sweden has a car industry so really wants people to buy Volvos which they mostly do. Denmark has no car industry so has an insane luxury tax on cars. Many people use a loop hole and take out the back seats so it can be taxed as a van.
Swedish and Norwegian currencies are very weak at the moment historically, so new cars are cheaper in comparison to the UK a decade ago, when the currencies were stronger, albeit still more expensive. Think Denmark has much higher taxes on car purchases, plus their currency is tied to the Euro, so together these factors make the prices much higher. I was in Portugal a couple of years ago, with work, and for a relatively lower salary economy, their cars were very expensive to buy. I'm guessing the RHD aspect of UK cars means that the export market to eastern Europe doesn't exist, pushing down second hand prices.
I seem to remember that years ago Sweden had a complex system of tax relief on their very high income tax rates where you got a higher relief for running an old car. Good job their cars from Volvo and Saab were built to last.
Before my time here. Not now though. You rarely see an old banger. They do love classic cars mind, lots of those.
Funny, relatively low wage economy yet by far the most GPs per 100,000 citizens in the EU. Remarkably more. Maybe we should look at how they fund their health service as we only have around 60. These figures are from 2018 but I doubt there is much of a difference now. please log in to view this image
Cars in Portugal are ridiculously expensive, the average price of a second hand car is the equivalent of two years earnings (it would be like the U.K. having an average second hand car price of £65k). Doctors and hospitals are incredible though, a completely different league to the U.K.
In general things cost what they cost wherever they are, they don't sell cars for less in Portugal because the average wage is lower than that of say Denmark, any differences are normally tax revenue. Much the same for TVs and white goods etc.
What are the prices like at charging points in the UK? I've had a Hybrid for 3 years, and am about to replace it with another one, and I've charged it about 4 or 5 times and then only because I couldn't find another parking space. I live in central Stockholm in an apartment building so my only option to charge it would be on street charging points. There a loads of them but to charge the car costs me about twice as much per km as it does to fill it with diesel. Despite this they are replacing more and more of the parking spots with charging spots you can only sit on for a max of 3 hours and only if you are charging. Friends who live out of town in houses and charge at home can obviously charge for next to nothing with a smart charger.
Funny, some posts seem to have disappeared for mentioning a subject others do. Is that just random, or inconsistent modding?
Makes you wonder why some disappear and others don’t doesn’t it ? As someone else on the other side of the country might put it when his posts disappear, cliques and chums.
There's a huge hole in UK public finances.. tax collected per head of adult population is far lower than rest of West Europe. You can't have Scandinavian/Portuguese public services on US tax rates. Something has to give.
Which raises the question on how the lack of revenue from petrol and diesel tax will be recaptured with a shift to EV's.
