Whoa!
According to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (2001) all
items in Heading 8801 (the category that includes aircraft and aircraft
parts) are free of duty (except parachutes, which are charged 3% duty)
unless arriving from Afghanistan, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, or Vietnam.
While I agree that we pay about US$1,000 for GROUND transportation from FL
to CA, the container rate by sea will be lower, not higher, for the entire
trip from UK to the US west coast.
A better explanation for the difference is that it usually costs a
manufacturer more to service business in another country, and this includes
the risk associated with exchange rate fluctuations. Let's be realistic:
are the folks in Lakeland working for free? All of Lakeland's costs are (or
should be) attached to the US price of the kit. Sure, we could argue that
the increased size of the market that results from sales in North America
reduces the average cost of the kit for the entire world, but not by enough
to cover the local costs associated with marketing and distribution of the
kits in North America. Take a wild guess at the cost to maintain the
Lakeland operation (I'm guessing between $250K and $500K annually) and
divide that by the number of kits sold here (is it 200 total, not annually,
yet?) and the price differential looks about right, or maybe even a bit of a
bargain.
Let's be glad that Europa's pricing does not parallel the practices of the
German car makers. It was not too long ago that the US price of a Porsche
or Mercedes Benz in US$ was approximately the same as the domestic price in
DM (current rate is DM2.31 per US$, but the rate had been around 2.50).
Best regards,
Rob Housman
A070
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shaun Simpkins" <shauns@hevanet.com>
Subject: Re: US vs UK prices
> You have to consider several items.
>
> 1. Import duties. This can easily amount to 10%. Consider how much you
had
> to pay when you brought that Swiss watch back with you on your last
European
> trip.
>
> 2. Transatlantic shipping. As a point of reference, the shipping costs
for
> US domestic to the West Coast for a full kit is on the order of $1K when
> containerized with others, so I could see a transatlantic ship cost of $2K
> or more.
>
> 3. Is the UK price inclusive of VAT? If it isn't, that's 15% right there
> (this is very unlikely).
>
> Now, what's amusing -or painful- is that a lot of the stuff in the kit is
> made in the US.
>
> Shaun
> A207
>
> Original Message -----
> From: <lvackerman@telocity.com>
> Subject: US vs UK prices
>
>
> > Just a note of interest about UK and US prices.
> >
> > Today the exchange rate is 1.407 US $ = 1 UK L.
> >
> > Looking at the prices for a monowheel with a 914 turbo
> > engine:
> >
> > Kit 16380 UK L
> > engine 11920 UK L
> > Total converted to US $ = $39818
> > or
> >
> > Kit 26250 US $
> > Engine 19072 US $
> > Total in SU $ = $45322
> >
> > Which results in a difference of $6504 US.
> > Which is about a 16% difference in price.
> > The Europa costs that much more in the US vs the UK.
> > Does this happen because of transportation costs...
> > Why the large difference?
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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