Hi everyone!!

Here I am surfing around investigating on my next purchase which may be an SL55 AMG, and I’ve come across your Forum. I’m kind of curious regarding prices and Tax.

I writing from Spain and the current price for a SL55 AMG from my local Mercedes dealer is around 170.000 Euros this includes all the toys & buttons you can possible have.

Now while reading through various posts I see that in the US the SL55 AMG costs around 132.000 USD. I have a question I would like to ask… Is this final price on the road or am I missing any taxes?

You see here in Spain we pay 16% tax on the vehicle and another 12% tax on registration of the new car. In all 28% Tax which is damm high in my opinion. The car as I mention above costs 170.000 Euros on the road, which is in 208.000 USD an interesting sum of cash.

I would appreciate is somebody could tell me what kind of taxes you pay on your new cars, I just wonder if that’s why the car is much cheaper or maybe the Germans have different prices for the US market.

Thanks to you all!!!

Dom

 

I don't think 132 is out the door, I paid around 134-135 out the door(only had a couple options), including the gas guzzler tax which was 1700, transportation 720, and MI sales tax was around 7500-7600...

 

this is about same price in australia, converted it is about 216,760.78 Euro. Add 6% stamp duty and $600 delivery fee.
our USA friends very got a good deal ..... from what i can see their cars are always far cheaper than anywhere else in the world !

cheers !

 

But wouldn’t there be import tax when you bring the car into Spain?

When I got my CLK soon after they came out, I had to sign a statement that I wouldn’t be able to export the car for a year. I don’t know if it was because of being a new model, MB policy, or if my dealer has the same restrictions today, but I don’t see how they could enforce it.

Maybe you could arrange a European delivery from a stateside dealer, drive it around some, register it as a used car, and just keep it there.

Check out MBUSA.com to get your car priced correctly. If you can export it, there shouldn’t be any state sales tax...only the gas guzzler.

 

Hello MB World Members .......

There are different reasons for different prices of MB cars.

1) the local taxes in Europe are different
2) the accessories are different (keyless go, command, leather, etc.. )

My SL65 was priced in Germany at 201.000 € - in France the "list price" was 220.000€ ( sales tax in Germany 16% - in France 19,6 %) BUT the list of available goodies is limited to FOUR items in France - in Germany you have the full list - (items which are standard in France).

Other European countries are even more expensive .... ( Netherlands, Denmark ..... ).

If you Re-Import a car from US to Europe you have to pay at least the local European VAT when you import the car (depends on the State) --- but I think this will not be a good deal at all.

Kind regards from France

Walter

 

I'm glad that I dont' have to live in Europe. We American's get a better deal. I've got a question, though, do salaries in Europe have to be much different then salaries of the same jobs in the US?

 

Hi everybody,

I’m very pleased with all your reply’s, thanks!!

There’s no doubt that you boys in the US get a much better deal than us European, Its true that taxes vary from each European country and this influences much on the final price, but even by this if we bring the price to the bone with no tax, the US SL55 AMG is still cheaper.

There is however a way to get a new car cheaper by bending the rules a bit. There’s a bit of a Mafia in the car industry in Europe and what’s done in order to get a new car cheaper is for example, an SL55 AMG is ready for the road from MB dealer in Germany, they pay their 16% on the new car and it has its registration, the car never moves from the showroom, then a dealer non official MB from Spain comes along and buys the car with out tax, as the German company will get a 16% tax return for exporting the vehicle. When this car arrives to Spain it’s already has a first registration so when the car has to pay its tax which is 16% plus the 12% its evaluated as a second hand car and pays much less tax, even though the car may not even have even 1 mile on the clock. And then these guys sell the car around 10% to 20% cheaper than the official MB garage.

Its fair play, even though the law says its illegal, but there are many luxury car dealers that work in this way in this country, and you can get lower prices on brand new Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, BMW etc. The only down side to this is that you can’t really enjoy choosing your car to your own spec, meaning that have to shop around to get the car as you wish, and this spoils part of choosing all the options and having the car the way you really want it.

As for salary’s this also depend in which country and city you live, average for Spain is around 19.000 USD per year, not good, but everybody gets up to something and makes a little extra. Even though the other day they said on the news here that officially there is around 110.000 millionaires in this country, but that’s counting all that one person owns, like property’s savings, cash in the bank. The population here is 40 million.

Look likes will have to keep on doing a few things on the side to keep income high, hahaha

Regards to all!!

Dom

 

Thanks for the extra info, Dom. I'm sure you'll be very happy with the SL55 once you get it. It is a wonderful vehicle.

Take Care,
Navika