Individual, GARO, the Great Australian Rip Off !

Hasbeen, not sure of your point.
I agree freight is a killer, but it is also erratic and inconsistent.
By that I mean sometimes it is so cheap to get things from China, it is unbelievable and yet it's true.
I have always known that Aussie freight has been excessive.
It must be when you consider the distances involved.
We have to accept that we are dearer than most other developed countries.
But not to the extent we are being gouged.
Wages must be frozen and not allowed to just keep heading North.
When Aussies get a wage rise, they actually don't, because when a business puts up their wages they offset by putting the costs of the products, so when you think you have more money, you actually don't because the company doesn't just increase the price by the extra they add a little to give themselves a bit of a lift, and that's why we must not push for a wage increase any more.

I was interested in a small , 33kg diesel engine from Perth for $650. Freight $450. I mean, why bother ? Another one from Sydney Ebay was $550, freight $1100. When I called them they said it's because my Post Code is not on their normal delivery list ! If I could pick it up in Cairns (700km drive) it'd only cost $135 ??

Anyhow, that's drifting away from the modern car dilemma. A driver should not have to fork out thousands just because a car manufacturer is allowed to hold us to ransom. In this day & age a car component should be pre-programmed & plug-in. This nonsense of having to get a vehicle transported for hundreds of kilometres costing thousands of Dollars just because of a tiny module has to be reviewed by Govt. If they can deliberately build a problem then they can also be forced to produce a solution !

My point ALTRAV is that it is totally ridiculous that it cost me 6 times the cost of the article to get it to a retailer. This made the total cost of selling the goods so high, that I needed an 8 times cost mark up just to break even with staff & warehouse costs.

The retailer than needed a 40% mark up on my highly inflated selling price. The public were paying about 20 times the manufacturing cost of the article, mostly to cover Australian freight costs.

We land cars off roll on roll off ships very cheaply, but you can bet there are some huge costs from there, that have to be covered. I'm sure there is profiteering, particularly with high price cars, but there are also huge costs in selling stuff in Oz

Hasbeen,

you are not wrong.
I have been importing cars for decades, and I don't need to tell you that between the freight component, the quarantine requirements and so on and so forth, we are being gouged, ripped off, taken advantage of, use whatever words you like, extortion and the list goes on.
We can't let this Grand Theft Auto continue, because it is wrong.
The reason they're doing it is because we are letting them.
Aussies are way too complacent and well off, otherwise they would follow my lead and write to ministers, complain to the govt officers in no uncertain terms, in other words, letting them know they are under scrutinee, and that we are not happy, which will lead to more than verbal attacks if they don't relent.