European cars have already gotten more expensive since last year. You just don't realize it first, because what use to be included in the price is no longer. For example, BMW and Mercedes and Audi use to provide free maintanence for 4 years/50k. Mercedes and Audi has dropped this.
The gap in price with the japanese luxury brand is smaller only because the japanese manufacturers raised prices thinking they could command a them. With the exception of Lexus, this is not working. If you look at the latest numbers from Infiniti and Acura for example, sales are drastically down. For example, the Acura MDX which, my is my wife's car, use to b e considerably less than an BMW X5 and Volvo XC90. If you try to price the latest Acura MDX with compariable options, it get's considerably closer to the X5 and XC90. Give any average designer brand label buyer, and given the two choices, I would say fewer people would buy the MDX. That's why MDX sales are down relative to the other makes and brands (ok, it can also because of the weird styling).
The Yuan is NOT completely pegged to the $. It has a slight float (albeit still somewhat pegged).
If the European cars gets 10-20k more expensive, would you buy a base 3-series/C-class or a loaded GS460/M45 etc?
