Foreign Carmakers Rapped for Overpriced Spare Parts

Imported cars cost up to three times more than Korean cars, but spare parts cost up to seven times more, Consumers Korea said Thursday. But what is worse is that imported spare parts cost up to 2.5 times more here than in other countries.

Consumers Korea compared the price tags of five imported cars and six major components.

The consumer rights group looked at bumpers, hoods, door panels and headlamps of the BMW 520d, Mercedes-Benz E300, Audi A6 3.0 TDI, Chrysler 300C and Lexus ES 300h and found that three quarters of the 30 components reviewed cost more in Korea than in other countries that also import them.

For example, a Lexus front fender costs W691,000 (US$1=W1,116) in Korea, but only W276,000 in Germany and W394,000 in the U.S.

The front door panel of the Chrysler costs W901,000 in the U.S. but a staggering W1.72 million here. And a Mercedes-Benz headlamp that costs W2.95 million here costs just W1.68 million in the U.S. -- even cheaper than the W2.3 million it costs in Germany, where the car is made.

A BMW 520d costs W64 million compared to the W22.5 million price tag of a Hyundai LF Sonata, supposing the two cars are roughly comparable. But when it comes to spare parts, the price difference was between 4.6 to seven times.

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Last Parts of MH17 Wreckage Cleared from Eastern Ukraine

Dutch air crash investigators have completed their recovery of the wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that was downed over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine four months ago.

Workers sent the last pieces of the airliner on a train Sunday from the area controlled by pro-Russian separatists to the Ukrainian government-held city of Kharkiv. From there, the pieces will be transported to the Netherlands, where authorities are reconstructing the aircraft as part of their investigation.

A crane transports a piece of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 wreckage at the crash site in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region on Nov. 20, 2014. /Reuters

All 298 people aboard the July 17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur -- two-thirds of them from the Netherlands -- were killed in the crash.

Authorities believe the aircraft was downed by a surface-to-air missile supplied by Russia and fired from rebel-held territory. Moscow has blamed Ukraine's air force for shooting down the jet.

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