cost of living is a big thing, American's do get taxed a lot, same with canadians.Canada does pay a higher mark up for vehicles but compare to the UK and Europe **** those guys pay almost double of the canadian mark up. But yes sometimes i think it has to associate with the cost of living demographically too.
at least in europe they have models like the CLA180 which will be much more attainable than say a CLA 250.