The price of some goods...

The price of some goods in electrical stores has fallen by 90 per cent. When can we expect to see similar cuts in car showrooms?

Before I, or anybody else, jumps on the bandwagon and starts banging on about rip-off prices at dealerships, bear in mind a few indisputable home truths would you? First, most car makers cannot be accused of charging too much for new motors. Their products may look expensive after official or unofficial importers have added their margins, dealers have taken their cut, and the British Government has added 17.5 per cent VAT.

But even after taking all these piece-of-the-action middle men into consideration, many cars are still inexpensive by the time the motorist takes delivery. Sure, a Bristol Blenheim at чЈ149,225 is not one of them. But the Audi TT starting at around 25 grand is. Same goes for the Nissan 350Z for similar money, Mazda"s RX-8 at about чЈ20,000 and the Honda Accord (around чЈ17,000). Citroen"s C4 and the Nissan Note (well under чЈ10K if you shop around), the Volkswagen Fox (чЈ6,600) and Kia Picanto (чЈ5,700) are genuine bargains, too.

However, there is a big pricing revolution taking place in electrical and computer outlets, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, clothes stores and shoe shops. The price of taking a car ferry, photograph or flight has dropped dramatically, too. I"m talking - in the case of televisions and recording devices - of products reduced by 90 per cent. So why no reductions of similar magnitude in car showrooms? The vehicle manufacturing industry could do it. More specifically, clever, wealthy car companies - with their brilliant engineers and factories in low-labour-cost countries - could do it.

Take, for instance, the world"s wealthiest motor manufacturer, Toyota. True, it"s based in Japan, which is one of the most expensive places on the planet to build cars. Yet its Daihatsu division manages to knock out some fine little Charade sub-superminis in Osaka for about чЈ3,000 each. But you can double that by the time the shipping company is paid to sail them here, the port gets its fee, the importer, International Motors, takes a cut, trucking companies are paid, dealers grab their profit and the Government nicks the VAT.

Could Daihatsu (or, for legal reasons, another arm of the colossal Toyota empire) contract out the manufacture of low-spec, possibly even previous-generation Daihatsus to Chinese workers earning 30 to 40p an hour? Can such modest, rough-around-the-edges motors thrown together by poorly paid but grateful men and women in rural China be sold direct to the UK public, thereby bypassing the normal importer, traditional dealer network and other middle men? Might these crude but inherently safe cars be delivered, via slow boat from China, to a quayside where customers could sign for them then drive or tow them home from the docks for an all-in price of чЈ2,000 to чЈ3,000?

Or may it even be possible to order and pick up still cheaper, unpainted, part-built, semi-DIY kit versions which you"d have to finish yourself by spraying them (or maybe not!) before fitting trim, plastic floor coverings, windscreen wipers, mirrors etc, all conveniently bubble-wrapped and stored in the boot?

The answers to these four questions are: Yes, yes, yes... and yes. Young drivers and people on limited budgets would welcome them as warmly as they welcome the 50 quid portable TVs, digital cameras and bikes we currently enjoy, courtesy of the willing, able and consumer-friendly Chinese. It"s time the big players realised that.

Mike Rutherford writes for The Times, Daily Telegraph and Independent, presents ITV"s Pulling Power and is founder member of the Motorists" Association