Does this suck or what?

[VTLS1]

Was chatting to a bloke earlier who lives in the good ol' USA where nitrous is legal,carbon firbre bonnets arent an problem & where cars are made to go really fast. He just bought a 2005 Pontiac GTO,our great Monaros rebadged for those who dont know,with real minor damage(needs a door skin or another door) for approx $4000 AU. Is it me,or does this really suck donkey knobs?? Worse still,he knows of several others with little to no damage that are around the same price, Why the heck are we still charged so much for the same vehicle here,it sucks big time as far as i am concerned,anyone else agree???
If you hunted around & were a shrewd cookie you could probably have one of these GTO'S landed here,converted to RHD with parts from a wrecker & registered for under $10000,which is still cheaper than buying the same thing here
is this sucky or what,what you peoples reckon

[vtssgen3]

Oh my god that does suck you carn't get a motor for that price over here.

[LthlThrt]

that does suck, i paid more for my vt v6. damn.

[SSbeast]

Well for starters there's no import tax remember everything is made there. Its always going to be cheaper.

[VTLS1]

Well for starters there's no import tax remember everything is made there. Its always going to be cheaper.

last i heard though was all the pontiac gto'vehicles were made in oz. i could be wrong though. if they are made here then its worse that you can a car made here cheaper overseas than in your own backyard

[ausrs]

interesting
4 k for a damaged GTO then approx 4k to re import the car THEN find donor parts to convert to rhd and repair damage .........wonder how hard it would be to get import approval .normal practice is to get a nominated RAWS registered workshop that can do compliance on a particular car ...guess in the long run it would cost more than buying one here in aus

[VTLS1]

interesting
4 k for a damaged GTO then approx 4k to re import the car THEN find donor parts to convert to rhd and repair damage .........wonder how hard it would be to get import approval .normal practice is to get a nominated RAWS registered workshop that can do compliance on a particular car ...guess in the long run it would cost more than buying one here in aus

the car in question he ended up buying came with a replacement door & the panel damage was very minor.any handy person could fix it & do the conversion themselves but with the conversion,there should be no mod cert needed,after all arent you basically bolting in all bits from in aus vehicle. as long as you can prove that you have done nothing that the factory hadnt meant to be there etc & they can physically see that. my understanding of the law is if you mod a vehicle from one thing to another as long as the factory made it that way no mod cert needed.
so to my way of thinking it still would work out cheaper,but thats just my thought

[Vt_vic]

the gto there is only about 30 something grand anyway and with their economy down the shitter a lot of people would be selling them cheap i know when a lot of the miners here in wa lost their jobs a mate of mine picked up a vz clubby for 15k

[s_ikari2015]

Import approval is gonna be damn near impossible. Unless the GTO came in an engine or driveline configuration not available for sale in Australia then chances are it won't be approved for import.

You don't need to convert to RHD, either, not here in WA anyway. So, technically, I guess you COULD import it IF you imported it as a LHD Pontiac???

[VTLS1]

I'm not 100% but i think would come under a low import vehicle permit or somesuch. It would still be classed as a pontiact gto because thats what it was registered as in the us,not a monaro. also the engine driveline combo would have slight differences if that was necessary but i dont think it is. from memory,here in qld a vehicle has to be over a certain age before it doesnt have to be converted,i think its 10 or 20 yrs. but it would be simple enough to convert your self using aus parts from a sedan or similar if you had some basic skills

[STEALTHY™]

Supply and demand. People will sell a car for what someone will pay for it. Over hear, people will still pay 20k for a damged GTO, which is why there so expensive. I guess over there (albeit a CV8 to be a close example) the GTO's just aren't popular/common enough to warrant big dollars.