Most of you would've heard about Rip-off Ireland but you'd think with this recession going on, some of the people around here would've copped on to the whole economic downturn thing but obviously, not the usual suspects...
I was over at Ireland's sole distributor of the beloved Vespa recently and as I had been eyeing the GTS 300 Super for a while now, I finally decided to go see how much it actually costs in the first place. Not that I was thinking of buying the scooter, it was just good to know who much I'd have to spend if I ever had the money to buy the thing in the first place.
A quick look at the price list and I was astounded. Well, not really considering I was in Ireland. €6,000 for a brand new GTS 300. That was the price. Oh, and they do throw in a few hundred quid in vouchers to soften the blow.
That's all well and good but how does that compare to prices over in the UK or even further up the M1. A quick look at the Vespa UK site shows that the same scooter goes on sale for £3,899 which at today's rate would translate to just over €4,600. That's a conservative €1,400 more than the price over here!
OK, it'll cost a bit more to get the scooter across the body of water between England and Ireland so, let's throw in an extra €150 for transport costs. Then there's the VAT but, considering the UK also have VAT charged on goods, the difference would be negligible. On the other hand, that negligible amount would also amount to another €150 so, for fairness' sake we'll throw it in. Last but not least, one would need to add on the dreaded VRT. That'll make you almost €600 poorer, of course.
So, there you go. There's €900 of the €1,400 justified but there's still the mystery of the other €500. Where'd that money go, eh? I don't know but, the thing I do know for sure is that the other half a grand of my hard-earned money won't be handed over to the dealers over here, no matter how supportive it's meant to be to the local economy...
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