Why are NZ cars so expensive?

[gtivr4]

Or maybe I should ask why US cars are so cheap. Obviously the strong NZ dollar makes NZ prices look larger than they have been in the past, but that can't be the whole story. And how much tax is built in to the price?

Anyways, I was doing some comparisons, and found the following comparable cars and their prices:

Ford Focus 2L 5 door
$NZ price: $32,490
Converted to US dollars: $22,970
US cost (without tax): $14,615
Converted to $NZ $20,651.00
Thats a NZ$12k difference

VW Passat V6 4-Motion
$NZ price: $65,490
Converted to US dollars: $46,301
US cost (without tax): $27,205
Converted to $NZ $38,440.67
Thats a NZ$11k difference

VW Touareg V8
$NZ price: $129,900
Converted to US dollars: $91,839
US cost (without tax): $44,915
Converted to $NZ $63,464.90
Thats a whopping NZ$66k difference

Porsche 911 (997) Carrera 2
$NZ price: $200,000
Converted to US dollars: $141,400
US cost (without tax): $69,300
Converted to $NZ $97,920.90
Thats an even more whopping NZ$103k difference


So what gives? It looks like cars over a certain price ($100k?) are taxed even more?

Its all especially odd when you consider what cheap and good cars you can get on the used market.

[gtivr4]

Wait, you mean you expect to give a company all your money and NOT pay for the priveledge? Come on now!