One Europe, 19 prices - The results

First, the good news. For the majority of the cars we looked at, the UK's pre-tax prices compare favourably with the rest of Europe's. In fact, in many cases we pay thousands less - we wouldn't want to buy in the Czech Republic, Poland or Slovakia, for example.

The Land Rover Freelander, for instance, was cheaper in Denmark alone, and by just £125. It's £5809 more expensive in the Czech Republic.

Two countries were cheaper for the Ford Mondeo - Denmark, again, by £721, and Greece, by £1231. We wouldn't be tempted to import for this saving: apart from the language divide, the extra distance would raise transport costs.

Motorists in the UK usually pay less for the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes S-Class, Renault Clio and Vauxhall Zafira.

It's about even if you want a Peugeot 207, however, while the Mazda MX-5 is cheaper in 10 of the 18 EU countries we compared, with Denmark posting the biggest saving: £1825.

Then we come to the UK's best-selling model, the Ford Focus: it's cheaper in 13 countries. Savings ranged from an insignificant £260 in Germany, to £2811 in Denmark.

Eight of the savings are worth more than £1000; Finland, Hungary and Slovenia join Denmark in offering savings worth more than £2000.

Only four countries have higher pre-tax Focus prices than we do - France (by just 0.63%), Austria (3.87%), Poland (7.3%) and the Czech Republic (9.43%).