Billionaires may have shed wealth during the global financial meltdown but they’re snapping up models from the world’s most expensive luxury car brand in record numbers.
Despite the million-dollar-plus price tags, Rolls-Royce last year posted its best sales in 18 years, selling 1212 cars globally.
And the BMW-owned British brand could triple sales next year with the arrival of a new model.
The biggest challenge for Rolls-Royce, though, is not the recession but other luxury items.
“There are so many competitors for RR that are not necessarily cars; a second car, a helicopter, replacing the yacht,” says Rolls-Royce chief executive Tom Purves. “In our customers’ minds those are all things that could prevail.”
Or in the case of Rolls-Royce’s new $700,000 baby limousine, the Ghost, it could be a watch or piece of jewellery.
Rolls-Royce’s director of sales and marketing, Graeme Grieve, says the car, due early next year, will attract new buyers, with 85 per cent of prospects new to the brand.
“[A car like this] is pocket change,” he says. “Most of our customers will have something on their wrist that’s more expensive than this.”
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