If that is the next big thing that will happen soon with the growing power of social media platforms? Like Facebook? Let's consider my example.I am considering the purchase on the latest quad bike by Honda.Selling here in Australia at $12.500 but the same could be bought in the USA at $6500 retail.
Taking into account shipping, GST, and port cost, it is still 30% cheaper than here.What if similar enthusiasts could organize bulk purchases in the USA and bring the whole containers of 30 units (?)I think that in nearest future something like that happens, on social media and the internet that people will organize themselves in order to beat the excessive prices we pay here in Australia on everything.

TRX420.
I imagine that in the nearest future company, an organization here will be formed to streamline bulk community orders.
Website or applet where people could combine their interest in specific items in order to reach bulk size orders, then can be processed by this parallel import organizer.IN this example all is needed - 30 people willing to risk parral importing at a discounted price.

I'm not an expert but you may want to check what that means for your insurance: for example if you have some sort of disability or income protection insurance and you injure yourself on it. What will your insurer do?
What if you damage someone's property using one of those? Will your insurance cover it or will you be liable?
I'm not saying don't do it. Just be informed

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gs12 said..
I'm not an expert but you may want to check what that means for your insurance: for example if you have some sort of disability or income protection insurance and you injure yourself on it. What will your insurer do?
What if you damage someone's property using one of those? Will your insurance cover it or will you be liable?
I'm not saying don't do it. Just be informed

This is typically farming equipment. same as all machinery available already here.
Off-road, so not compliance required. The only difference is that similar / the same exactly is sold in the USA at 2/3 of our price and that applies to almost all farming machinery. Made in Japan, sold in USA.Tractors, bobcats, etc.
This is why there is not even a second-hand market for quads in Australia - as most of the stuff for sale is 20- 30 years old at the prices on the new ones in the USA.In a nowadays global economy, we could no longer explain such differences in prices of common goods by shipping costs or buying power of the country.
Just it seems that US government is paying much more attention to get the best deal for their citizens since our is more interested to rip them off all.We could hear constant complaints from our farmers about lack of hands for farming work. The truth is that our farms and possibly the rest of the economy is lacking terribly modern machinery and equipment/
That work that is mechanized even in China is still hand-made in Australia due to lack of machines and excessive prices on those.

Think you are out on your pricing. 2020 model $7,699 plus taxes would make it over $8k US so $10495.94 AU before you added freight and import duties. US economy is massive compared to our tiny economy. We just get the leftovers especially in the Covid era. If it were so easy to bring cheap stuff in from the US people would be on to it. People I know used to go to the US and buy Harley's and break them down and ship them over as "parts". Demanding work to get a few bucks.

I thought new quads had to have roll over protection and a host of other safety things from late last year - and that most manufacturers said they would stop selling in Australia because of it. There was a big spike in sales before the new requirements came in as everyone rushed to secure a quad prior to them being unobtainable, no doubt sending prices high.

Not sure, but can you even still get a Honda quad ? Pretty certain it wouldn't look like the photo, it would have a roll bar / roll post of some sort, even if it is a non-genuine Honda bar.

And I suspect that if you import any Quad, new or secondhand, it would have to meet the current standards. So 30% less to buy something that can't be bought here or imported anyway ?

Might as well ask why cocaine is half the price in Bogota than it is in Broken Hill.

Unobtanium

I struggle to see the benefit of a quad over a UTV these days.

You can get some pretty small UTVs that go through narrow gaps, but also carry two people side by side and more gear, same ease to get in and out (if not easier than stepping over).

Plus you can also get some pretty massive UTVs. And some pretty fast UTVs. And some pretty comfy UTVs. And some dedicate kids safe UTVs.

What's the advantage of a quad ? I reckon they will go the same way as the old Honda three wheeler. Just designed out of existence by something better.

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Carantoc said..
I thought new quads had to have roll over protection and a host of other safety things from late last year - and that most manufacturers said they would stop selling in Australia because of it. There was a big spike in sales before the new requirements came in as everyone rushed to secure a quad prior to them being unobtainable, no doubt sending prices high.

Not sure, but can you even still get a Honda quad ? Pretty certain it wouldn't look like the photo, it would have a roll bar / roll post of some sort, even if it is a non-genuine Honda bar.

And I suspect that if you import any Quad, new or secondhand, it would have to meet the current standards. So 30% less to buy something that can't be bought here or imported anyway ?

Might as well ask why cocaine is half the price in Bogota than it is in Broken Hill.

You are perfectly right.New Australian law requires roll bars for all-new ATV.Honda, Suzuki, Canam, and many other said it is nonsense! because roll bar kills as many people as it saves!
So they all big brands stops selling their ATV in Australia this year - as they don;t want to comply with stupid AUS law and modify their vehicles to comply with our Australian stupid requirements.The question is easy: Why do we need to pay 30% more for everything as USA on exactly the same thing made in Japan ?

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hilly said..
Unobtanium

I have this dilemma.
Which one should I buy? 420 of course but in
Manual or Automatic version????
I need to traverse very uneven terrain with rocks climbing etc. Which one is better for off-road uneven terrain?so far I used my old TRX250 2WD , already did all I need to do.I think 420 4WD will be nice upgrade but I don't know if really needed?So if anybody has some experience: what is the difference between automatic and manual while climbing uneven tracks?

There is an interesting story about my newly renovated Barefoot motors ATV.
This is a completely electric ATV made in the USA that I recently upgraded with a new Lithium battery.
My new Barefoot ATV with new 120 AH lithium battery seems to be very powerfully quad able to tow and climb everything.
But for everyday travel is just to big and too powerful.25k USA ATV is just not made to explore new tracks, too heavy, too strong.
That is why I am considering one that could explore new track effortlessly
Honda TRX ?? looks ideal

This is just most recenent story when I was driving my ATV quad down hill. IN the last second i saw enormous spider web across my down hill track.
So I stop just few cm off that.
Apply brakes and stop.
Then apply reverse.
2wd UP hill .
No luckyl
Wheels spinning.
4WD on this unlimited power EV monster !! Still no lucky !!!

300amp x 80v !!

I have to stop on hand brakes, take a spider down with sticks than drive down.
It seems that ATV , quads are designed to climb forward and hill but very poor reversin uphill!!!

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Macroscien said..
This is just most recenent story when I was driving my ATV quad down hill. IN the last second i saw enormous spider web across my down hill track.
So I stop just few cm off that.
Apply brakes and stop.
Then apply reverse.
2wd UP hill .
No luckyl
Wheels spinning.
4WD on this unlimited power EV monster !! Still no lucky !!!

300amp x 80v !!

I have to stop on hand brakes, take a spider down with sticks than drive down.
It seems that ATV , quads are designed to climb forward and hill but very poor reversin uphill!!!

How do you go slow enough to stop before a web? I cannot do that on a mtb let alone a motorcycle

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hilly said..

Macroscien said..
This is just most recenent story when I was driving my ATV quad down hill. IN the last second i saw enormous spider web across my down hill track.
So I stop just few cm off that.
Apply brakes and stop.
Then apply reverse.
2wd UP hill .
No luckyl
Wheels spinning.
4WD on this unlimited power EV monster !! Still no lucky !!!

300amp x 80v !!

I have to stop on hand brakes, take a spider down with sticks than drive down.
It seems that ATV , quads are designed to climb forward and hill but very poor reversin uphill!!!

How do you go slow enough to stop before a web? I cannot do that on a mtb let alone a motorcycle

think rather how big was that spider sitting in the middle of the web, if you see him from such distance!

The worst example of this was when General Motors decided to sell Holden Commodores in the USA. They were being sold over there cheaper than what they could be bought for here. To put the cherry on the cake GM pocketed a billion dollars or so of taxpayers money when they closed shop here.

We bought a second hand UTV for our farm last year. Its powered by a diesel motor and is very handy. It is effectively a little 4wd ute. Its made in America, but with a Kubota engine. New I think they cost around $20K which is damn expensive for what they are but all farm machinery seems to be really expensive.

Possibly the cheapest way to get a farm vehicle is to buy a statutory written off vehicle that can never be road registered again. So it would be fine to drive on a farm.

Bought a 44 inch z3200 Hp printer over in the US back when the Aussie was around parity , at the time selling for 12k here and 5k in the US , think it costed all up 6k to land in Esperance. Well worth the effort back then to order overseas for same product.

There is already a very effective way to source very cheap stuff from Asia.on eBay possibly every second item comes directly from China, which will free or very little freight costs.Why can't we import privately high-quality items from the USA? The shipping cost charged by Amazon, eBay on freight from America do not encourage any purchase other than books.POssibly Australian market is also too small for Americans to even bother to organize bulk shipping.But in the nearest future when printing money will not be enough to fill government coffers, they may seek alternative solutions and send into world material products.By streamlining and automating international shipping- prices could be equal to those charged on domestic freight.Do we really need to wait for another financial genius like Elon Must or Bezos be born to find out that America could be healthy by selling already what have to offer? ( other than weapons. movies and web services) Instead of promoting another war to contain China and Russia, they could rather spend a bit of money to streamline postage for the rest of the world. This is what is needed to contain China - provide a real alternative in the global economy by delivering material goods to everybody.They could for example establish central processing hubs - one in the USA and another in Australia that does combine all retail parcels orders in one country and send them to the other.I am sure that having leverage over countries USA could force them to cooperate ( streamlining the shipping procedures between USA and Australia)

As another illustration could serve a similar example.
For my other project, I need an electric clutch.To convert my Kubota ride-on mower PTO from simple but not reliable tensioning belts to a modern electromagnetic switch.Quality electric clutch available in USA $170 but in Australia similar cost $400.


Why shipping from US is so expensive, since similar to China cost maybe $5? Can't the USA use all their power, a fleet of ships to undercut shipping costs, even with unfair subsidies from government printing money machines?

Macro, China is setup with a cheap postal system to get stuff out of the country. Cheap wages every step of the way means cheap costs to post things. With such a volume of exports, no doubt they have economies of scale to help them.

With the post system there is an obligation for the receiving country to deliver the item at their cost. Chinapost will pay Australia nothing once it gets here which is why they can post items for ridiculously cheap prices. When they post something for $1 in China, the $2 it probably costs to deliver when in Australia is paid for by us.

On the other hand, posting something from the USA probably means sending it via a courier, or at the very least the cost to get through customs. High wages compared to China means high costs for postage the whole way. Posting a single item from the US to Aus has no economies of scale and you pay for it.

You are a smart man. Buy up in bulk in the US and ship it here and then sell the items. If you can find the right item you won't need to stock it and can just send it out without the costs of storage or finance.

If it helps you, there are already people that have setup businesses where you can ship to a USA local address, they will combine the items and then send it to you as one package, presumably saving on postage this way.

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FormulaNova said..
Macro, China is setup with a cheap postal system to get stuff out of the country. Cheap wages every step of the way means cheap costs to post things. With such a volume of exports, no doubt they have economies of scale to help them.

With the post system there is an obligation for the receiving country to deliver the item at their cost. Chinapost will pay Australia nothing once it gets here which is why they can post items for ridiculously cheap prices. When they post something for $1 in China, the $2 it probably costs to deliver when in Australia is paid for by us.

On the other hand, posting something from the USA probably means sending it via a courier, or at the very least the cost to get through customs. High wages compared to China means high costs for postage the whole way. Posting a single item from the US to Aus has no economies of scale and you pay for it.

You are a smart man. Buy up in bulk in the US and ship it here and then sell the items. If you can find the right item you won't need to stock it and can just send it out without the costs of storage or finance.

If it helps you, there are already people that have setup businesses where you can ship to a USA local address, they will combine the items and then send it to you as one package, presumably saving on postage this way.

The USA is selling us 250 bln worth of weapons recently. This stuff will never see any use/action in a lifetime at all,
To make use we need to go on some war with somebody.
Why they could not sell us some tools, machinery, parts, and appliances? They have plenty on offer as we could see, at good prices and much better quality than Chinese.If Chinese post could organize cheap shipping, while US can not do similar to compete with Chinese on the same field? Lower labor cost in China is a myth. They have very well-organized structures to lower costs and mechanization, automatization. streamlining processes.If the Chinese could send something using post and the USA need a special courier service for the same item - who's faults is that?

Task you are talking about is not for one small individual to bring 20 ATV, keep one, sell the rest.
We need complete modernization of our business structures, a system of international goods exchange.
If the Chinese are able to organize cheap shipping, why the USA can not do similar?> They have also plenty of jobs, hands ready for work, get paid doing something instead of free money handouts.
I can not believe that two senior strategists; One from the USA and another here in Australia could not find a better way to ship my electric clutch at costs lower than $143 ( per 1 kg !!!)Why goods from China could be delivered to our post box for free, and the same item from the USA requires personalized courier delivery by limo driver and champagne?

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Macroscien said..

Why would you even think about buying one of those imports when you can buy local.


theedgeproducts.com/

These guys export them by the container load to the Arabs.

The Australian Army should get them to design a military version with a 50 cal machine gun mounted on it. Would be a lot more economical than those million dollar Bushmasters they have.





Which is being replaced by these.

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cisco said..

Macroscien said..

Why would you even think about buying one of those imports when you can buy local.


theedgeproducts.com/

These guys export them by the container load to the Arabs.

The Australian Army should get them to design a military version with a 50 cal machine gun mounted on it. Would be a lot more economical than those million dollar Bushmasters they have.





Which is being replaced by these.

Great vehicle for dunes, but most likely fail on my farm where you need to traverse dense bush, high grass that could hide everything from stumps, broken trees, rocks, and snakes.On another hand I wish to have one of those ex-military cheap tanks to tramp all Lantana bushes in one go.

on another occasion, I have been looking to bring one of those mini bulldozers. Just a 3 tone machinery costs the same as a small quad here.
But again, bringing one is not cost-effective and the Chinese build may RUD in a minute like Elon's rockets recently.

Obviously USA-made CAT you could trust to last, but somehow entry price will be around zillion dollars for one of those.

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cwamit said..
Bought a 44 inch z3200 Hp printer over in the US back when the Aussie was around parity , at the time selling for 12k here and 5k in the US , think it costed all up 6k to land in Esperance. Well worth the effort back then to order overseas for same product.

what do u use a 44 inch printer for?

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cisco said..

Macroscien said..

Why would you even think about buying one of those imports when you can buy local.


theedgeproducts.com/

These guys export them by the container load to the Arabs.

The Australian Army should get them to design a military version with a 50 cal machine gun mounted on it. Would be a lot more economical than those million dollar Bushmasters they have.





Which is being replaced by these.

On a second thought, you could be right.Dune buggy or SideBySide with low gravity center, big wheel, strong frame, the soft suspension could be quite good and safe to use.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance yet to try one on my rough tracks.
So the question is:
Buggy, SidebySide versus quad.
How they do compare?

"Quads the only way, I'd never have a side-by-side" - says anyone who has a quad and has never had a side-by-side

"I'd never go back to a quad" - says anyone who used to have a quad and now has a side-by-side.

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Macroscien said..

.If Chinese post could organize cheap shipping, while US can not do similar to compete with Chinese on the same field? Lower labor cost in China is a myth. They have very well-organized structures to lower costs and mechanization, automatization. streamlining processes.If the Chinese could send something using post and the USA need a special courier service for the same item - who's faults is that?
...

Why goods from China could be delivered to our post box for free, and the same item from the USA requires personalized courier delivery by limo driver and champagne?

I explained to you why China can do this and you are comparing it against an individual company that charges premium amounts for international shipping.

You have clearly identified a unique business adventure and I wish you well on your trip to the USA to setup your export business to Australia at cut-price shipping rates.

You could always copy Amazon's model and get things shipped to distribution centres in bulk and then fulfilled on demand. All you need is a ginormous warehouse and automation and internet presence. Other than that, its easy. Good luck.

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FormulaNova said..

Macroscien said..

.If Chinese post could organize cheap shipping, while US can not do similar to compete with Chinese on the same field? Lower labor cost in China is a myth. They have very well-organized structures to lower costs and mechanization, automatization. streamlining processes.If the Chinese could send something using post and the USA need a special courier service for the same item - who's faults is that?
...

Why goods from China could be delivered to our post box for free, and the same item from the USA requires personalized courier delivery by limo driver and champagne?

I explained to you why China can do this and you are comparing it against an individual company that charges premium amounts for international shipping.

You have clearly identified a unique business adventure and I wish you well on your trip to the USA to setup your export business to Australia at cut-price shipping rates.

You could always copy Amazon's model and get things shipped to distribution centres in bulk and then fulfilled on demand. All you need is a ginormous warehouse and automation and internet presence. Other than that, its easy. Good luck.

Not exactly.
We and the USA need to go to war with China because we could not build an efficient postage system.So we better load our aircraft carriers, with bombs and bullets and ruin Chinese competition.I am guessing that for those few trillions, zillion dollars now spend on war preparation we could build one solid warehouse for a postage distribution center. Maybe even two.
Maybe even a few people could find a job, driving forklift there. Always a bit safer than doing mines and boms.The future global economy will be won by those that could deliver something, goods, and products.US people could produce a lot to be sold to the newly developed African market even to China but need means to pack and send.Maybe this is the third wave of investment in infrastructure Pres, Biden is talking about.

This bloke likes his cheap Chinese loader.



He gets a lot of metal for his money. I think when buying farm machinery you pay for the support. Cheap machines don't have support. However the loader in this video seems to be well supported.

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myusernam said..

cwamit said..
Bought a 44 inch z3200 Hp printer over in the US back when the Aussie was around parity , at the time selling for 12k here and 5k in the US , think it costed all up 6k to land in Esperance. Well worth the effort back then to order overseas for same product.

what do u use a 44 inch printer for?

My partner and mine landscape Photography and giclee prints for our gallery shop in town. I shoot a Pentax 645z medium format camera so enlarging to 41 inch print isn't an issue with image quality.

nice

I bought a Honda motorbike muffler from the USA years ago. Even with the expensive shipping, it cost me half around the price than buying it in AUS.