When i mentioned $150k that was for a newish 550 or a second hand M5.

Traditionally the exchange rate has been c.$2.5-3. = £1 and so pricing has reflected this and hasn't shifted now we are down to $1.50 - £1.

Oh and don't forget here you will pay stamp duty on a car purchase, I paid $2,400 on my Falcon. Try $18k on a new M5 in sales tax alone....

No can do.

Need to own the car for a minimum of 12 months and need to show usage of that car for those 12 months.

And you can now only do that once every 5 years.

Plus import duties, cost of converting to Australian spec etc etc etc

Falcon, rear wheel drive, fast and fun. The XR6 turbo is superb value for money.

IMHO Auto companies are giving up on rwd, and so are customers. The UK is just ahead of the game. Why would you want rwd, when you can half auto parking and in car twitter to speech updates. That's real technology! Even on PH, many say they are not bothered which axle is driven, that the fundamental ride/steering/handling advantages of rwd are no longer a priority.

See below for BMW M5, 550i, M3 prices

About £30k.

About 3 times it's UK value. Excellent

USA isn't exactly an average country and their choice of cars... well... let's just say mentioned F150 isn't the best made car on the planet.
Then you should take into account the fact that in Europe most SUVs run diesels.

Plus I did mention EUAsia, not USA. USA isn't a benchmark or majority figure of any kind - If in doubt : USA 311mil people, Europe alone over 700 mil.

USA is in its own little world where petrol is so cheap (even today compared to the old continent) that developing smaller engines or diesels didn't make sense. Hence all those V8.

Personally, no. Just want a simple pushrod, long-stroke V8 at a reasonable price, as long as engineering is sound - live axle or not!

Engine is one thing. Its not the only part of the car. Fords, well most US cars I've seen, don't seem to be very well put together when it comes to interior trim.

If Toyota is "struggling" then why all insurgent groups in world's harshest climates run Toyota pickups, not Fords?

USA might be good at building simple, utility vehicles (like a pickup) but lag behind on everything else.

And you're still missing the point. USA is a specific market because they have access to cheap fuel. Majority of the world doesn't. Even USA over the past few decades has learned to appreciate small (mostly Japanese) cars with smaller engines.

Depends entirely on the car in my experiance, traditionally chryler products have lagged behind GM and Ford, but remember that Americans like their cars big and cheap, so the "quality" of the materials used for interiors reflects this. It has nothing to do with the actual durability though.

They run whatever they can get their hands on. Seen any video's from recent wars? they are even driving Chinese pick-up trucks.

They are on a par with pretty much anyone else in the world TBH. Car companies are pretty global these days and it's more complicated than simply branding a car as "american" when it's parts have been sourced from all over the world and it's designers/engineers were as well.

American cars are doing pretty well in China right now, which is the largest and most important market, and will continue to be so.

The Japanese cars in america still come with V6 power as standard for the most part.

As for the comment on fuel. I would say the majority of the world DOES have access to cheap fuel, but Europeans typically tax it very heavily.

... because anyone can stick a hifi system and lcd screens into a car? That's hardly the most important part of the car and surely had nothing to do with reliability. I can stick top end hifi into rusting Citroen but it won't make it into a great car (possibly into rat-style tuned one tho)

... because US is good at research with huge budgets and their Unis like to play that sort of thing. Problem is last I looked none of those were anywhere near production and US isn't the only country that plays with that tech. They just organise the desert competition for automatons.