Looking at dishwashers in the Ikea Espana brochure the same dishwasher in the UK brochure is 196 GBP and in the Spanish one is 299 euros.

Thats life I'm afraid

I was looking at buying a new bike when I was in the UK. I asked the cycle shop if they could ship to Spain, and they explained that they were unable to send certain bikes to Spain because the price of them was higher in Spain, and therefore the manufacturer stops them to ensure they get more for their bikes here.

Whatever happened to the EU

Whatever happened to the EU [/QUOTE]

I don't think that the EU we voted on in the 1974 referendum ever was or even intended!

I had a run in with Ikea at Malaga
I ordered some furniture and was told that they could deliver to my home in the next few days . I duly paid for the furniture and delivery charge, only to be told that the delivery people were in fact not connected with IKEA. They said that they could not deliver to my area for about 3 weeks. which was no good as I would end up back in the UK by that time. I eventually had to hire a van and deliver it myself than return to the store to pick up my car! Plus have an argument to get my delivery charges back.

I remember 6 years ago, you could buy energy saving bulbs in Spain for less than two quid, when they were 10 in the uk.

These things come and go.

I am looking for an electric cooker and having exactly the same problem £200 quid in argos, the cheapest here I have found so far is 450 euros!

I know a place

Hope you don't mean my local basura hut.
Theres already a queue there at seven every morning.

Amazing how car prices have changed around as well.
A few years back new ones were only about two thirds the price of the UK, now they're more expensive.

Possibly due to fall in the value of Sterling!!

I would have thought it would work two ways.
For instance new cars brought into the UK are surely costing many more pounds sterling, than when the pound was much stronger.

I bet, if you looked at that same dishwasher in the Australian Ikea brochure, you would have have a bloody heart attack.

It may be due to competition. I went to Canada in 1987 and the cost of living was half of what is was in the UK. Now, it is possibly more expensive or at least on a par. Living in the UK, I find it nowhere near as expensive as people make out. That is overall of course, you can always pick differences in selected items.

It's swings and roundabouts....
Your dishwasher or cooker may be more expensive here...but how much less is your council tax, heating,water,petrol, wine and beer to name but a few?

This is a fair point and you don't buy appliances every week. However, when I speak to my friends and relations scattered around the World, it seems that anywhere worth living is not cheap these days. People often perceive places such as Mexico as cheap to live but they are not if you want to live a North American/European lifestyle.

Yes, but that is not the point. What I object to is that this is exactly the same machine sold by exactly the same company. Costing I presume exactly the same to manufacture but yet sold at 100 euros mas or menos more.

I can buy a Bosch, Whirlpool, Hoover for more or less the same price at Media Markt than an unknown make in Ikea where I would have thought it would be cheaper.