I'm working in Sao Paulo this week and there is a Mini dealership across the street. I went in to look at the new coupe. They had a well optioned Countryman S there for R$142,000 Reais or approx $80,000. They had a Justa for R$82,000 Reais or approx $46,000.

I only saw a few Minis on the road.

Thought you might be interested.

Chris

 

WOW - that'd be outta my range.

 

I wonder why so much? Seems it would be cheaper to buy one here and ship it to Brazil then buy one there.

 

We are spoiled with MINI prices in the US, which are by far the lowest. Look at the prices on worldwide MINI websites (even Canada and the UK). As for buying here and shipping to Brazil, their import tariff will probably bring it back up to the same price.

 

Never considered a tariff. Seems to me Brazilians would be better off with out an import tariff on cars. Maybe the tariff is only certain countries cars. I don't know. Anyway, Brazil doesn't produce cars that I know of so why a tariff on them?

I never got international trade stuff.

 

Brazil is currently the world's fifth largest auto producer, and predicted to become the third largest: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ricardog...auto-producer/. Almost all of the major brands have factories there.

Remember also that the engines for every 1st gen MINI came from Brazil.

 

WOW, thats crazy high ... i could not imagine spending 80,000 on a MINI ...

 

Oh. I should do research I see. So the tariffs are for cars brought into the country not cars produced there. I would have never figured Brazil produced cars. I knew the engines from R50/3 were from there, but thought that parts were made there, not whole cars. I learned something new. Thanks.

 

I work for a company that imports products into Brazil. By the time all the taxes, fees, tarriffs, etc. are added it almost doubles the cost of the product. We are opening a facility there soon which will drastically reduce the taxes and allow us to be competitive.

A Mini would be considered the typical size car there. Lots of Fiats and Renaults on the roads.