The most popular cars you may be driving in Australia in a few years

Australia is definitely one of the most diverse car markets in the world! However as the manufacturers who actually make or assemble cars in the country (GM – Holden and Ford)  decide to leave for whatever reason we will starting seeing many more brands and models arrive that we have only seen in the movies or TV.  Toyota is the only manufacturer left in the country and has met all the various government car industry plans but since they work on a different corporate model they may stay a little longer but for how long?

Anyway as a result I looked up the news releases to see what were the best of car class commonly called luxury cars in the US at this time. The results have been determined by KBB.com or Kelley Blue Book assessment : 

1 Cadilac ATS
2 BMW 3 Series
3 AUDI A5
4 Lexus IS
5 Infiniti Q5
6 Lexus ES
7 Mercedes Benz CLA Class
8 Acura RDX
9 Buick Enclave
10 Volvo S40

Considering that Australia will no longer manufacture cars and have free trade agreements everywhere I presume the existing importers are ripping us off as usual or is there truly some weird or unspoken tax or pricing issue that makes it so much more expensive here? I guess the principle is that the off shoot in the country must still earn its place by being profitable which by all accounts they are.

The car pricing chart below shows some comparative pricing information from the US that will make you question why cars are so expensive in Australia. Admittedly these prices here are for models without any options Eg. possibly with smaller wheels, crappy stereo and so forth but if you notice, they have got larger engines than for the same price here. 

The following chart is a screen shot of some pricing figures from KBB.com

kbb-bestcars-jan-2014