In today’s economy, AU$1.0 will get you US$1.06, but it seems Australia’s overseas automakers have yet to acknowledge this. A Lamborghini Aventador, for example, costs a hefty AU$754,600 – or more than twice the price you would pay for one in the U.S. of A. And its 51% pricier than a V12 powered Lamborghini Diablo was ten years ago. This was tolerable when the Aussie dollar was worth 64 U.S. cents a few years ago, but those days are over.

While TV’s, computers and mobile phones have all become more affordable, supercars have not. It’s so bad that one prospective Lamborghini buyer, businessman Ra Hazouri, has flat out refused to pay.

“I was considering buying a Lamborghini Aventador but I’ve given up because I’ve discovered the dealers are blaming Italy [for the pricing] and the people in Italy are saying they have the right to rip us off because everyone else does it,” Hazoori told the Brisbanetimes. “They are doing it because they can – and they told me in an email that the price is ‘locally positioned relative to competitors, product features and brand values’.”

In other words, Australia is a supercar backwater, and if you want one of these fine Italian thoroughbreds, you will need to wear an AU$380,000 suit. Lamborghini’s South East Asia and Oceania sales manager Andrea Baldi argues that supercar prices cannot move along with exchange rates:

“We have to ensure the price is fair compared with Porsche, Maserati, Aston Martin, Ferrari and other competitors. It’s always a difficult balance. There are markets where you can be fairly profitable … Australia and the UK are opposite [in profitability] at this moment. It’s difficult to finds a solution so that everybody’s happy. We cannot simply play with the price [depending on currency changes] each year.”

And it’s not just Lamborghini: the Ferrari 458 Italia was 14% – or a wallet-scrunching AU$70,000 – pricier than the outgoing F430. Meanwhile the luxury car tax is up, import tariffs are down and inflation has reduced the price of more mainstream models by as much as AU$4,000. Scroll down for a breakdown of the price fluctuations over the past ten years.

By Tirstan Hankins

Source: Brisbanetimes