I can only speak from my experience of recambios in various shops / Talleres for both trade and consumer pricing etc.
I have spoken to several Spanish people in the trade who have said that they know that prices in Spain are much more expensive than the UK as they have worked at autospares etc in the UK and seen for themselves. They had no idea why there was such a disparity, but I can assure you there is - at least in the area I live in (and Valencia isn't exactly a small place)
That doesn't JUST apply to autospares, but quite a few other markets as well.
Personally I think part of it was due to a hangover from Francos days - there were much higher tariffs for imports then to encourage buying locally (not necessarily such a bad thing !)
Once tariffs dropped the savings should be passed on to consumers, but I guess some companies took the attitude that punters were used to paying price x. Why change ?
I know this attitude extends elsewhere in the world. Why do you pay such high rates on Credit Cards for instance ? As my friend who is seriously high up in an unnamed card company replied "Because you are stupid enough to pay them....."
Spanish are much more used to buying locally in any event - shopping online, and shopping outside of the Spain are still pretty new for most. They are starting to wake up, albeit slowly.
New cars are very similar in price to elsewhere. Second hand are much more expensive usually.
B. Rgds
John
I have spoken to several Spanish people in the trade who have said that they know that prices in Spain are much more expensive than the UK as they have worked at autospares etc in the UK and seen for themselves. They had no idea why there was such a disparity, but I can assure you there is - at least in the area I live in (and Valencia isn't exactly a small place)
That doesn't JUST apply to autospares, but quite a few other markets as well.
Personally I think part of it was due to a hangover from Francos days - there were much higher tariffs for imports then to encourage buying locally (not necessarily such a bad thing !)
Once tariffs dropped the savings should be passed on to consumers, but I guess some companies took the attitude that punters were used to paying price x. Why change ?
I know this attitude extends elsewhere in the world. Why do you pay such high rates on Credit Cards for instance ? As my friend who is seriously high up in an unnamed card company replied "Because you are stupid enough to pay them....."
Spanish are much more used to buying locally in any event - shopping online, and shopping outside of the Spain are still pretty new for most. They are starting to wake up, albeit slowly.
New cars are very similar in price to elsewhere. Second hand are much more expensive usually.
B. Rgds
John
