Look at these ads and then look at who is buying them at these prices. The "ridiculous" priced cars are not being sold to local customers. You'll find these cars if they do sell are finding their way to Europe and Australia. I know because I have bought one.
My car I first saw advertised for US$14,000 on consignment and eventually came down to US$12,000 before I started making serious enquiries about it. I had done some research and knew that privately sold cars were going for half this so made a "low" offer around what I figured would still be considered high by some. Eventually we met in the middle and I got the car for US$8,500 plus around US$500 in fees.
To you guys this would have been a lot of money but when you are buying a car sight unseen from the other side of the world the additional price paid by going through a dealer or consignment agent is more than offset by the hassle of travelling to buy a car in person. All the shipping is normally handled by the seller as well, again saving massively in time. The car was also prepared for export and all the requirements met regarding degassing the air con and storage before the car can be shipped. It can take weeks or even months to get approval to import a car to Australia and if it is put on a ship before this is obtained our customs can put it on the next ship back to the USA at my cost.
Landed my car still cost me less than AUD$15,000 where buying locally from an importer would cost me $20,000 or more. At the time I bought the US and Australian dollars were at parity so considering our higher average wages the cost as a percentage of income meant I would be paying about the same in relative terms as you would be for a good driver.
I would love to buy my next car personally for the same prices as you do but once you add the $5,000 to $6,000 in travel costs and after shipping the savings would be minimal compared to how I bought my New Yorker. You would spend half your time running around getting things done for shipping.
