I was going to add that NZ dumped the idea of a local car industry in the 1980s and relaxed its car import laws. As a result the average car age is much lower, and the average cost of a car is much lower - leaving large amounts of disposable income for NZ residents to spend on other things (ie, not Dealer/Manufacturer profit margins + Federal taxes). As you have shown - when people can import a vehicle from anywhere they like, they do, and no doubt that puts serious pressure on dealer + manufacturer margins and there would be very little price gouging going on.
You should hear Toyota Australia go on about parallell imports - they condemn the cars as unsafe - despite those cars being built in Toyota factories in Japan. It is mind boggling.
Meanwhile, the last round of Federal Government 'assistance' (or co-investment, as they now spin it) that was given to GM was mostly used for redundancy payouts for factory staff.
Support for the regulation + taxation + duty protection for the Australian car industry has bipartisan support - so it's not likely to go anywhere any time soon.
You should hear Toyota Australia go on about parallell imports - they condemn the cars as unsafe - despite those cars being built in Toyota factories in Japan. It is mind boggling.
Meanwhile, the last round of Federal Government 'assistance' (or co-investment, as they now spin it) that was given to GM was mostly used for redundancy payouts for factory staff.
Support for the regulation + taxation + duty protection for the Australian car industry has bipartisan support - so it's not likely to go anywhere any time soon.