Chinese buyers pay more for Audi, BMW, Mercedes

Luxury carmakers including Audi, BMW and Mercedes have witnessed rapidly growing sales on the Chinese mainland, and unreasonable premium prices.

Beijing Youth Daily made a comparison of prices for BMW X6, Audi A8 2013 and Mercedes S350 in Beijing, Hong Kong and Seattle. All three car models are imported to the three markets.

Yuan Guangyu has been living in the United States for 20 years. Yuan did the price research in Seattle, where the car price is in the medium range in the US.

Chen Xinyu has been living in Hong Kong for five years, and did the research in Hong Kong.

The research shows that the luxury cars cost much less in Seattle and Hong Kong. The details are below:

Mercedes S350: $93,000 (569,372 yuan) in Seattle, HK$1.2 million (947,149 yuan) in Hong Kong, and 1.39 million yuan in Beijing;

Audi A8 2013: $86,095 (527,091 yuan) in Seattle, HK$1.1 million (868,180 yuan) in Hong Kong, and 1.36 million yuan in Beijing;

BMW X6: $59,461 (364,033 yuan) in Seattle, HK$930,000 (734,007 yuan) in Hong Kong, 1.06 million yuan in Beijing.

Peopledaily.com.cn also found that the 1.6 million yuan Mercedes GL450 4 Matic is nearly five times more expensive than in the US, where it sells for $58,200 (356,220 yuan).

Moreover, several salespersons said when a customer wants to get the car delivered in several weeks, they have to pay extra after placing the order, because the car has been in short supply during the last two years.