Rudeney

I know the discount MBZ dealers, like genuinemercedesparts.com, can only ship in the USA due to their franchise licenses with MB corporate. Places like Autohausaz and Pelican Parts can ship internationally if they want, but the shipping and possible import duties likely negate any savings. A lot of the high cost of parts (and cars) for Canada and Australia has to do with the value of their currency compared to Germany's.

mis3

Most US online stores do not ship to Canada and the ones who do, they charge hefty shipping. Then there are potential import and customer charges. On top of this, there is no easy way to return, even defective and wrong parts.

Not sure about the curreny part. Most Canadian dealerships are corporate owned so MB Canada controls all the prices. I guess they think if they can charge whatever they want, why not charge double, triple.... LOL.

Rudeney

This month's Consumer Reports magazine rates the Civic Si. If ever there was a doubt about CR being in bed with Toyota, this issue removed it all. The same issue also rated the Toyota C-HR. The Cvic Si is less than $1000 more, and (per CR) it gets better MPG, drives better, has a better interior, more room, etc., etc. The C-HR got dinged for nearly everything - cheap surface, poor ride, poor performance, small size, etc. But of course the C-HR is rated higher.

mis3

I have stopped reading CR reports for years. Even with reviews from other sources, I read them with a grain of salt.

Rudeney

They are obviously in some sort of torrid love affair with Toyota. Even when it comes to appliances and electronics, they lack technical experience needed to do proper reviews. But I still take it becasue i do like having the factual "specifications" on the products they review.

aleks001

Some yes some no, but these days most will ship internationally. The ones that wont you can just use a mail forwarding company. Australia's post office (like your USPS) even opend up their own mail forwarding company in the US and their rates are great, so the ones that wont ship outside of states you can just forward it to the US based company. Also in Australia anyway there are no taxes on car parts unless they exceed $1000 AUD per order.

Canadian prices are great compared to Australia's, I don't know if anyone gets ripped of as hard as we do here. I think the problem is Mercedes Australia/Asia Pacific, very greedy corporation. We're not talking here 2-3x price difference, some parts are close to 20X the price of the US, I really don't know how they sell anything here or if anyone is stupid enough to pay their prices and it's not just Mercedes everyone here is doing it from Toyota, nissan etc. That's why very few people here will keep a car past 5 years and used car prices are amazing, especially considering how small our used car market is.

mis3

Even if they ship internationally, they charge a hefty shipping fee. Then there are custom charges by the government. Worse is if I order the wrong parts or if the parts are defective, there is no easy way to return them.

aleks001

It's such a rip off here in Australia that even when they rip us of on shipping etc it still works out usually around 50% cheaper. I've never had to return anything as I always order by part number.

insame1

What are the charges when ordering from Europe?