American car prices

[tom2019]

Why do car prices in America seem so much cheaper..it seems that for most Porsches for example, the prices in dollars is the same as pounds, why is it cheaper? Is it simply tax?

[MadmanO/T People]

Advertised car prices in the US do not include taxes and registration fees, which makes new cars appear cheaper than they really are.

You may be surprised to know that secondhand car prices in the US are actually much HIGHER in America than they are in Britain. Want something under 10 years old with less than 100,000 miles on the clock? Plan on spending a bare minimum of $8,000. Anything even mildly tasty will run into five digits.

This goes a long way to explaining why the average car on American roads is now between 11 and 12 years old.

[cib24]

Yes, you are exactly correct. Cars in America have a much longer average life than cars in Britain. In America 100,000 miles is not considered very much in most cases and residuals at that type of mileage will still be about half of the initial value of the vehicle when it was new.

When buying new you have to remember the taxes, registration and delivery fees. Everything you buy in the USA (doesn't matter the product) is advertised as pre-VAT because each State and sometimes county/city (for example LA has a different tax rate to San Francisco) has a different tax rate which is applied post sale. It's always so frustrating when you buy a candy bar for let's say $0.99 and after tax it's like $1.08.