Speaking for myself here, I've just bought a new car but I delayed buying it for about three years. However, I didn't delay because of the cost of taxes, tariffs, fees and what not but because of the rate of technological improvement. I deliberately waited because cars are improving so fast and becoming cheaper at the same time that by waiting just a few years I have bought a vastly superior car. My new car even drives itself (level 3 automation) something that didn't exist 3 years ago!

If today I owned a car that was say 8 years old I would wait for 7 or so years before buying a new one, because by then level 5 automation (ie: completely self driving) will be commonly available and coming rapidly down in cost also electric cars may finally make economic sense. (At the moment electric cars are just token symbolic gestures for people who want to display green credentials- they currently don't make economic sense. Trust me on this- I know because I personally did the numbers for this just a couple of months ago.)

People need to realise that its mostly only wage and salary owners who most of these taxes. Business may pay them upfront but many taxes are deductible at the end of the financial year.

We also need to ask ourselves where are all these taxes going?

Is it a case of the nations tax burden is being moved away from business while the welfare system is being moved away from individuals to the corporate sector?

Its common knowledge that business pays only token levels of tax.

Are we paying more because they are paying less?

We need to demand the commonwealth govt publish figures showing tax paid by wage and salary earners, by small business and the amount of tax paid by big business.

Referendumdrivensociety, I'm up with all of these comments and sentiments and I would like to tweek your question about us knowing who pays what tax. That is not the immediate problem/issue. The question should be; where is all this tax revenue really going. I realise we are one of the smallest countries in the world and therefore we should not be penalised so harshly. But then I see all these noisy insignificant minorities that somehow convince the powers that be to fund their pathetic and selfish agenda at the expense of the rest of us. Being in the auto design/engineering industry, I was buoyed by the news that car production in Australia was ending. I immediately began emailing ministers and later when they had a review about the car import legislation, I was quick to submit reasons for completely removing any and all import restrictions. Only to find out that the damn used car and spare parts industry lobbied like hell not to remove the restrictions. And of course as usual they have come up with a totally unworkable scenario. Bloody politics is just not needed and I explained why we can remove restrictions. We have the most moronic pedantic laws in the world, so any fears of importing a 'dangerous' car will be picked up at point of registration. I argued that the govt would in fact make more money doing it my way. But you see they are not interested in how much the govt will make, but how much their campaign contributors will make. And so we, the people lose again.

Thinkabit; the price of electric cars is set by GARO !

The Great Australian Ripoff.

Take the Nissan Leaf for example, sells in the US for under US$30k.
Sells in the UK for around A$35k hard to get accurate figure.
It is the largest selling car in Norway, don't know the price.
Must be reasonable or they would not sell in such numbers.

In 2013 it was selling in Australia for $51500, I know because I
canceled an order on one when I heard the price.
Some dealers are still trying to sell them.
They had difficulty at that price.
So when the latest model became available the price was set at $57500 !

Hyundai's iO will be available later this year so it will be
interesting to see if any lessons have been learnt.

Bazz, not a chance. Unless people actually start caring about not wanting to get ripped off anymore, you and I must be the only two people in Aus to actually give a damn. I don't know why people are so lax and just plain not interested. Are they all so wealthy that they can afford to throw away money? I am continually hearing people say how the price of cars has dropped over the years. Compared to what? I can in fact confirm , as you have done, that we are paying waaaaaaay too much for our cars and we are denied the choice of cars as well. The govt only allows imports of cars THEY deem safe. So this must mean that Aus knows more about cars than the rest of the world. What a bunch of hypocrites. We are being treated like mushrooms, fed sh!t and kept in the dark. If that's what the morons of this country want, that's their choice. I don't and demand to be allowed to live my life, free of govt interference. Unfortunately it would require these people to actually rebel once in a while and that would mean they would have to put down that beer and stop watching bloody sports all day. That ain't gonna happen so you and I have to bend over and cop it sweet because the rest of the country are too stupid and lazy to get off their arse to do anything about it. What are they going to do when they've maxed out their cards and run out of money because they've had to pay so much more for everything and either have to cut back or take a cut in lifestyle. Mark my words, at this rate we are heading for a big shift in status. From first world country to second and God forbid, even third world country level. But that's ok these mongrels have got our backs, right?

My new car is huge and phallic.

Like me :)