Big Gaudy Cars
Remember when I said it looked like it could rain any minute? It did. I got caught in the rain near the new BMW showroom that is currently under construction so I ducked inside. I wandered into the back to chat with the techs and saw them prepping a couple cars for the new showroom, but not BMWs – one was a new Rolls-Royce Phantom and the other was a Bentley. Ok. I work around the fancy shmancy import cars all the time but not quite on this level. Curiosity won over and I went over to take a closer look.First impressions of the Rolls: big and ugly. It has a large squared-off front end, which I later learned houses a very powerful engine. The price tag comes in around the $350k mark which seems way too crazy to me, but as far as a status symbol goes, I guess nothing beats a Rolls.
The Bentley on the other hand struck me as more elegant. It was much more comfortable to sit in and seemed geared more to the driver than the rear seat passengers. The burl wood interior was beautiful and the gadgetry was terrific. I can see me driving a Bentley. Yeah, right.
The competition for these two cars can be found at another of our campuses in Cary. The Maybach is the flagship luxury car of the Mercedes-Benz group and this thing is pretty wild too. There are full recliner seats in the back and it can be fitted with just about any gizmo you can think of. There is a private studio in which you build the virtual model of the car on a 50” plasma display before the order is placed and you are given a framed photo of your masterpiece to tide you over while it is being hand crafted in Germany. Depending on the options, the Maybach will set you back between $350k to $450k. Pocket change.
The Rolls-Royce and the Maybach have an estimated sales rate of approximately 1 vehicle per quarter. The Bentleys are a little bit higher. The Mercedes dealership that my company manages has outdone this estimate by a factor 2+ and it appears that the BMW dealership will also out pace their estimates as well as they have multiple pre-paid orders that will deliver as soon as the dealership opens.
The economy can’t be too bad in the US if there is still a solid market for this type of luxury item. You might think that the market would quiet down a little after the launch of a new dealership but the reality is that the market has actually grown in the last 2.5 years. Amazing. I need to learn how to tap this money tree. In the mean time, I’ll be driving my little Chevy S-10 pickup home tonight, and probably won’t give it a second thought.
posted by Bonzai @ 4:37 PM
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