BRUSSELS, July 29 (AFP) - Motorists wanting to make a killing on a new car should flock to Poland, which has the cheapest pre-tax auto prices in Europe, the European Commission said Thursday.
Germany meanwhile remains the most expensive country to buy a car, while Finland is the lowest with average prices 10 percent lower than in Germany, said the EU executive revealing the results of a Europe-wide survey.
"Substantial savings are thus still possible for cross-border shoppers," said the Commission.
The report showed that auto prices are generally lower in the 10 mostly ex-communist countries which joined the EU in May, expanding it from 15 to 25 member states.
But the differences in many cases are not huge. "I am pleased that, in general, prices in the new member states are not that different from those prevailing in the EU-15," said EU competition commissioner Mario Monti.
Car price rises are well below inflation, at some 0.9 percent compared to headline inflation of 2.4 percent. "This finding ... is a hopeful sign that competition is gaining a foothold in the car sector," added Monti.
His spokesman Tilman Lueder, commenting on the report which checked prices of some 90 car models, said the cheapest car in Europe was a Fiat Panda bought in Poland.
But he also pointed out that more expensive models, such as sports utility vehicles, were no cheaper in Poland, by far the biggest of the 10 EU newcomer states.
He also noted the most expensive and cheapest countries for car buyers have a common border. "We're going to see a lot of cross-border trade hopefuly between those two countries," he said.