Jon the reason the daiwa made this decision was that a lot of the tackle stores was complaing about people buy saltiga's over seas or ebay alot cheaper compared to aust prices. Daiwa didnt want to know about, where as shimano in some cases that i had experience with, was that they matched E store's prices, so people would support their local shop.
Mind u the current aust$ vs the the us$ is way down and that daiwa had something like a 20% rise in cost price early this year or late last year. The shop that i did work at, sold dogfights for $1600.
To me the S-6500Z is the same as the expedishion when u compare weight, drag pressure, BB's and gear ratio.
hope this helps a bit.
cheers
Ash