I saw your e-mail address and simply had to reply, from one gil to
another!
The price differential is caused by two things. One is the number of
MGs that were sold in the US compared with anywhere else, let alone
Australia. I don't have figures for the B but of the 101,081 MGAs
produced, 81,401 were for export to North America (per Clausager,
Original MGA). I think Bs followed a similar pattern.
Secondly, car prices generally are much lower in the US. Check out BMW
or Honda prices for new cars let alone second hand (depreciation is much
quicker in the US than in Aus) and weep! There is therefore more
competition for car dollars.
There are a number of people importing Bs from the US and selling them
here. For some reason I can't understand, the importers with
interesting deals seem to be in South Australia! Don't forget
production here stopped in 1972 so all the rubber bumpers and all the
GTs for that matter are imports, mostly from the US. A lot of US cars
are a lot more rusty than Aus ones though.
Welcome to the group!
--
Keith Morris
1957 MGA roadster
>Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 12:59:14 +1000
>From: wkchapm@gil.com.au
>Subject: mg prices.
>Hi all,
>I am a relatively new mg owner, my wife and I purchased our first, a '64 mgb
>only two months ago. Since that I have joined this group and find it really
>interesting and informative.
>I am however, completely spun out by the price of mgb's as quoted in these
>pages. You would be flat out getting 1/3 of an mgb in parts and rusty for
>the money that you all seem to be able to buy them at, well those discussed
>anyway. We payed 8000 for ours which is an absolute rock bottom price... a
>steal in fact. I wonder why these cars are so much cheaper up there than
>down here in Australia! Would be a very lucrative business proposition to
>import and sell here. Any way here's cheers from OZ,
>chappo,
>'64b
|