Oh another story, my Volvo had a variable airflow device for the engine
intake. The butterfly valve had a carbon potentiometer to feed back to
the engine computer. Well it appears these units gave lots of trouble
causing erratic engine speeds.
When I described my trouble over coffee at the end of the local radio
club meeting, they all laughed when I mentioned the carbon potentiometer !
We all knew how stupid it was to use a carbon pot in a job like that.
Why didn't Boshe know that ?
Local dealer wanted $1200 to fit a new one.
Google put up a Canadian Company that would sell me a rebuilt one
with a Hall Effect transducer instead of a carbon pot.
Sent it out with a return documentation for my old one for AU$300.
One hour job to swap them over.

I just would like to know why things are so expensive here when the freight is only a few Dollars to come to these shores ? Who's really ripping us off ? The Govt or the middle men ?
If it's not produced here than don't penalise us if we get it from overseas !
I hope this Govt shows some decency & puts a stop to these rorts. Alternatively, re-start the Australian car industry by building basic, affordable cars. If people want fancy cars to show off how much they managed to borrow, they can pay import duties but leave us out of it !

Local freight is one of our real problems individual. To match competition I had to switch from local production of a number of water/energy saving chrome plated brass items to Taiwan production.

Some of these items, costing about $10 to make in Brisbane, I could land into my store for as little as $2.00. Surely they should have been cheap in the shops. No way, distribution costs saw to that.

My average delivery cost of these items, considering it would sometimes be a single item, & others part of a multi item delivery made the manufacturing price look silly.

Average delivery cost.
Local store, $6
Sydney store.$8
Vic Store...$12
Perth store &18

Why can they keep costs down in NZ ? I bought a video camera there for $2160AUS several years ago. The same model was over $4000 here, Why ?

Indy, the answer is in the people.
Aussies have been riding a very big high for many years, with a lot of disposable cash, and the govt, the importers, the bureau of stats, in other words everyone who stands to gouge money off the public, do an assessment of what they can reasonably get out of us, and then price it accordingly.
All it means is that Kiwi's are more discerning and more diligent than Aussies.
If the Aussie public was a little more aggressive in their attitude we might get a better deal all round, as it is Aussie guys are turning into snags and neuters, and this is showing in everyday decisions and lifestyle.
Don't kid yourselves, marketing companies and sales departments are forever studying people and social demographics, always thinking up new ways to con and gouge us.
So if the public does not drop this lax, lay back, she'll be right attitude and actually start kicking these guys around, they are going to get screwed even more and still not get it.
And even worse, the govt applauds it.

Not necessarily so ALTRAV.

I buy a number of hobby items from Oz, Hong Kong & the US. Hong Kong does have access to a cheep freight system, organised I believe by their government to help exports. Many of their goods are freight free. Even with this, & Oz suppliers saddled with our very high freight costs, most things are cheaper delivered to my door from the local companies.

US companies sell most things cheaper than either Oz or Hong Kong companies, but often freight to Oz exceeds the cost of the items by a long way.