July 1 price rises hit consumers

THE Ford Falcon has been slugged with its third price rise in a year amid a wave of July 1 price rises across the industry.

Several brands have given in to exchange rate pressures and introduced price rises ranging from $200 all the way up to $9695.

The highest profile increase comes from Ford Australia which introduced another round of increases for all models in its locally-made Falcon range.

Falcon sedans and Utes are now $1000 more expensive, while $1500 has been added to the price of the ancient BF III Falcon wagon.

The entry-level Falcon sedan, the XT, is not now not far from the $40,000 mark at $39,290.

This new price takes away any price advantage the car had over the Holden Commodore Omega, which is now the same price.

An XT Falcon wagon now costs $41,220 and a base Falcon Ute is now $30,295 for the cab chassis model.

The price increases follow the increased price of the factory fitted E-Gas single-fuel LPG option which rose from $1400 to $2000 last month when electronic stability control was introduced as standard on all LPG cars except for the XL and R6 utes.

From top: Mercedes-Benz CL, Subaru WRX STi and Peugeot 207 LeMans Edition.

Ford has not changed the specification of the Falcon despite the price increases, and curtain airbags are still not standard on XT, XR6 and G6, even though rival vehicles are equipped with the potentially life-saving feature.

The price increase comes as Falcon sales volumes steady compared with last year, despite a general market decline.

Just last month, Ford Australia was talking up the fact it had sold almost as many Falcon sedans as Holden had sold Commodore sedans.

Ford Australia said the increases were required, given exchange rate fluctuations that affected locally produced cars because substantial components were imported.

The company introduced a range of Falcon price increases in January and March, although the increases were not consistent across the range.

As an example the XT Falcon increased in price by $900 in January and a further $600 in March.

Other brands to announce July 1 price increases include Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault and Subaru, while some, including Toyota, upped prices in June.

The Mercedes price increases are the most dramatic and range from $810 to $9695.

C-class and CLC prices are up by between $810 and $4535, with the latter increase for the C63 AMG performance model.

S-class prices rise from between $3000 and $3095 and CLS and CL prices are up by between $2975 and $9695.

Prices for the SLK and SL roadsters have grown by between $1580 and $9669, while the R-class and GL-class models are now between $1844 and $3089.

The second most popular Mercedes model (behind C-class) is the M-class all-wheel-drive, and it hasn’t escaped an increase either, with prices up between $2500 and $4000.

That means the cheapest M-class is the ML280 CDI at $83,500 and the most expensive is the ML63 AMG at $171,500.

Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman David McCarthy told GoAuto that the price rise had been a long time coming.

“It was more than a year ago that we increased prices,” he said.

Mr McCarthy said the prices rises were simply representative of what it costs to buy a car.

“Currency rate movements played a role and there was also a desire to be more realistic about what it cost to produce the vehicles,” he said.

“We tried to average out the prices as much as possible, we still need some relativity to the vehicle’s cost.”

While some of the price rises come close to $10,000, Mr McCarthy said that they could well have been more.

‘There were arguments for the increase to be higher,” he said.

“We tried to keep them to a minimum.”

Subaru Australia has been able to weather most of the currency fluctuations so far this year thanks to some currency hedging, but it has also increased prices on most of its Impreza range.

All non-turbo Imprezas have been given a $500 price increase.

While the WRX has escaped a price rise, the top-of-the-tree STI model has been hit with a $2000 price rise which means it increases to $61,990 for the standard version and $66,990 for the Spec R model.

Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley said there was no way the company could put off the price rises.

“They really were unavoidable,” he said.

“We were able to actually reduce the price of some Impreza models in January (by between $1000 and $1500) thanks to the protection from our hedging, but it wasn’t going cover us forever.”

Mitsubishi Australia has increased the price of its popular Outlander VR and VR-X models between $500 and $2000.

The five-seat VR increases by $500 to $40,490 and the seven-seat VR increases by the same amount to $41,690.

Outlander VR-X customers will be hit with a $2000 price rise, which represents a 4.4 per cent increase and sees the price climb to $51,990.

Fellow Japanese importer Nissan is introducing price increases of between $200 and $1000 on X-Trail, Pathfinder and Navara D22 models.

The X-Trail prices have risen by $500 on all models except for the ST-L, while all Pathfinders will be $1000 more expensive. The Navara D22 workhorse costs $200 more.

French brand Renault has also raised the prices of some models from between $1000 and $1500.

A $1000 increase has been slapped on the Grand Scenic Dynamique wagon and Clio RS197, while a $1500 rise is applied to the Megane RS175 hatch and the Megane Exception Coupe-Cabriolet.

In a rare move, Peugeot has announced a price cut that came into effect on July 1.

The 207 LeMans Series three-door hatch is $3000 cheaper, which represents a 9 per cent fall. It now costs $29,990.