Should have known you'd take issue.
Like virtually all my 'calculations' these are done with a very broad brush...
No I didn't include the 2021 inflation rise, because my initial chart didn't include it. Yes I only used the 'one off' annual figure rather than trying to calculate it on a monthly or daily basis. And no I wasn't too worried about missing two months off. I forgot to mention in my post that the price for the latest model included the lighting and I hadn't appreciated it was quite so expensive, so lets deduct that.
So £1080 in August 2015 to £1390 in August 2021. Versus a predicted (via
annual inflation) price of £1,195 with your additional input.
Minus £74 for the lights is £1,316.
Let's
not subtract the carrier block as mine has one and was included in my final £1080 price. And no, that wasn't a discounted price for an end of line bike. I don't think I paid for any additional extras as I'm sure the extended seatpost and my colourway were no-cost options too.
ETA: I might have paid extra for the M+ tyres though, as well as the EZ wheels - how much of a difference did they make?
I don't think it's fair to subtract as much as you did for the C17 seat. That retails at £100, but the Brompton standard saddle retails at £37.50. So lets only subtract a further £62.50 to get to a figure of £1253.5.
So that seems about right - except that online, the lowest price I've seen for an H6L without the lights or C17 seat is £1275. Or about £80 over and above what you might otherwise have expected.
The other thing to consider, however, is that if Brompton are ONLY giving you the option to purchase one at £1,390, it's irrelevant if it includes the lights and upgraded seat or not. If they're not
optional, then that's now standard spec. Which means the price of the bike has gone up by that amount
and they're including a better spec. It's like saying it's not fair comparing the pre- and post-2017 bikes as the spec changed. It's not that I'm not comparing apples with apples, it's that apples are now oranges, and they're more expensive.
Pointless including houses in your counter argument as prices for exactly the same design of house on exactly the same street can vary massively due to multiple factors. Postcode, proximity to amenities/problems, view...
Watching a property programme several years ago, the houses on one side of the street were 50% more expensive than their counterparts on the other side.
Why? Because one side had a view of the Thames from their garden.
The opposite was true when watching a programme focussing on houses in West London where at one end of the street, houses were 'worth' several millions less than those at the other end because they were much nearer a dodgy block of council flats.
Now I never said that inflation should be used an an absolute measure, or that that I had an issue with Brompton charging whatever they like, but rather than being £30 more expensive when apples are compared to apples, it's £80. Or virtually double what you might have expected
if inflation applied to everything equally.
All that said - the price quoted on the Brompton website is for a bike that's out of stock. Try and find one for sale at that price and I think you'd struggle.
Here's an M6L same spec, for £1400:
(The pics shows standard seat, but description says Cambian C17 and battery lighting)
Here's an M6L with no additional kit for £1379
Here's a standard H6L for 1300