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      09-13-2019, 06:50 AM   #1
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Uber rich supercar sales soar

Motor Mouth: And the rich keep getting richer
Imagine what the uber-exotic market will look like when Ferrari finally builds an SUV

by DAVID BOOTH

https://driving.ca/ferrari/features/...getting-richer

With talk of recession on seemingly everyone’s lips, the threat of negative interest rates being bandied about by President Trump and the bond yield curve well and truly inverted – if you don’t know what that means, I suggest you make a quick perusal of Investopedia to find out how deep in the doo-doo we really are – we can at least find some comfort in the fact the rich are becoming, well, spectacularly richer.

Call it unfair. Call it unjust. Call it #CarInequality, if you’re looking to start a hashtag. No matter what you label it, however, it doesn’t change the fact that, while you and I are buying fewer and less expensive cars – overall Canadian sales were down 1.9 per cent last year, the first time sales have declined since 2009 – the rich continue to challenge luxury automakers to create ever more hedonistic rides.

To wit: Ferrari sales were up a not-at-all-insignificant 10.2 per cent in 2018. That’s 9,251 Prancing Horses, precariously close to the 10,000 units Maranello once considered making an artificial cap so as to retain its exclusivity. Revenues, meanwhile, were up to 3.42 billion-with-a-b Euros. Do the math and that works out to, at current currency exchange rates, $540,480 for every 488, California and 812 Superfast sold.

Now, to be fair, that includes merchandising – basically the Prancing Horse-branded trinkets that are the only Ferrari-badged thing we proles can afford to buy – but if you’re getting the idea that Maranello spins off profits like Timmie’s does doughnuts, you’re getting the picture.

Even newcomers to the exotic segment are having banner years. Upstart McLaren, for instance, is already up 5.4 per cent for the first half of the year – and yes, that’s despite the war drums of recession beating ever stronger lo these last few months – with 2,640 units sold so far in 2019. And, as the rest of the industry is finding out, although the mid-priced – that’s me being cynical, calling a $300,000 supercar “mid-priced” – Sport and Super series cars are selling very well, it is the company’s “Ultimate” Series that’s in highest demand.

Neither the Senna nor the Senna GTR will give back much change from US$1 million, and the Speedtail hybrid is reputed to cost US$2.5 million. Yet McLaren’s entire production of Ultimates are all spoken for until at least the end of the year. The investment tip to be gleaned? The über-rich – the 0.1-per-cent of high-income earners that so incur the wrath of “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders – will soon be running out of garage space; buy car condo space.

And, it’s not just wealthy boy-racers that are spending like it’s Two-buck Tuesday at Dollarama. Not to be kept down, old money is dipping into its trust funds in its quest for ever more sybaritic metal. Rolls-Royce, those hoary old purveyors of faux starlight roofliners made of 12,000 individually placed LED lights, grew 22.2 per cent last year.

In fact, its 2018 sales of 4,107 Phantoms, Ghosts and, of course, the new Cullinan mark the first time Goodwood has ever moved than 4,000 units. When Rolls-Royce is back-ordered in “all-terrain” vehicles *– don’t you dare call it a sport utility – that start at $370,500, you know a paradigm has shifted that completely passed you and I by.

Other brands, even more niched – that’s how rich people say “expensive” – supercars are thriving as well. Pagani sold four more Huayras in 2018 than they did 2017. That may not sound like much, but when you only sell 40 cars a year, that’s a 10-per-cent increase, and another record year. Remember this is a company that doesn’t sell a car for below a million bucks, and Modena’s boutique supercar maker recently sold three Zonda HP Barchettas for US$17.5 million apiece, making them the most expensive new cars ever to fly off a showroom floor.

The list goes on. Bugatti? Up almost 50 per cent. Only Bentley is seemingly letting down the side, and that’s only because its cars are so old – as in dated, not historic – the Bentayga (yet another SUV that was never supposed to see the light of day) making its 2018 10-per-cent dip in sales at least manageable.

Rolls-Royce sees record sales in 2018, customized cars on the rise
But the Mac Daddy of luxury segment sales growth is Lamborghini, the Italian-cum-German (it is owned by Audi) company increasing sales in 2018 by a whopping 51 per cent. Yup, Lamborghini, once the problem child of Italian exotics, moved 5,750 cars last year, the U.S.A. being its primary market. Sales grew across the board, all regions reporting banner sales, and all models – both V10- and V12-powered supercars – having record years.

The real difference was, of course, the new Urus. Lamborghini’s second SUV – you do remember the LM002, the Rambo Lambo, right? – found 1,761 customers, most of them new to the brand. According to Stefano Domenicali, chairman and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini, “in 2018, Lamborghini entered new dimensions,” allowing the Sant’Agata Bolgonese-based company to “quadruple our sales numbers since 2010 [when it sold 1,302 units].” Jesus, what’s going happen if – when? – Ferrari builds its super-SUV?

So never mind income inequality – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos are now worth more than the bottom half of all Americans – car inequality is most definitely upon us. If I am reading this right, while the rest of us are trying to stretch out our car loans to 80 months to make the payment palatable, the super-rich are trying to find someone to gold-plate their spark plugs. God help us all when this bubble bursts.
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      09-13-2019, 08:22 AM   #2
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I don't get it. More luxury/high end sports cars are being purchased than ever before, and somehow that equates to income inequality. Appears to me like there's more wealthy people than before, so more expensive toys are being purchased.

Isn't this a good thing, and idk, the point of Capitalism? The wealthy made decisions that got them to their wealth and success. I'm sure not all of it is rosy, but for the most part, I'm sure everything wasn't just laid out to them in their laps. They must have done something to get there.

As for the people "getting by": I don't understand how their (or my) situation is somehow the rich's fault. We all agree to work for a salary/wage, or collect handouts. If we don't like it, we make decisions to push ourselves forward (or backwards), or we pound sand and complain about it. Some people start out with more or are just smarter than others in the ways of making money, and some of us need to put in more time to make more or less than others. Not everyone has the same opportunity to accrue wealth, but that's just life, and will never change. Some of us get farther in life than others, but it would be naive to think that everyone can become rich enough to afford these high end cars. Everyone can be poor though, and that's most easily accomplished through Socialism.

Fortunately for the poor, only they themselves or other rich people can make them rich. I've never heard of a poor person creating jobs or making another poor person rich. It's either you work your way to the top yourself, or you work for somebody else long enough to accrue your fortune, hopefully with hard work and good decisions. But that isn't guaranteed, nor should it be.


So in the end, I think it's a good thing more high end cars are being purchased. That means more people "made it", and we should all want to be able to do that ourselves, if that's what we desire out of life. Doesn't mean we will get it or are owed any of it though, and it doesn't mean those who have made it haven't earned to be where they are, either. Exceptions always exist, but it is hardly the norm.
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      09-13-2019, 08:27 AM   #3
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Exactly right those fast cars arent making other cars slower
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      09-13-2019, 08:29 AM   #4
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The gap widens & soon we will be in a huge pile of crap. It's coming, buckle up...
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      09-13-2019, 08:46 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ntgarage44 View Post
So in the end, I think it's a good thing more high end cars are being purchased. That means more people "made it", and we should all want to be able to do that ourselves, if that's what we desire out of life. Doesn't mean we will get it or are owed any of it though, and it doesn't mean those who have made it haven't earned to be where they are, either. Exceptions always exist, but it is hardly the norm.
It doesn't mean more people "made it", it means that the people that already had made it have collected even more wealth than before and are spending some of it on cars.

No one crossed the gap. The gap just got bigger by a couple thousand hyper cars.
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      09-13-2019, 09:17 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Soterios View Post
It doesn't mean more people "made it", it means that the people that already had made it have collected even more wealth than before and are spending some of it on cars.

No one crossed the gap. The gap just got bigger by a couple thousand hyper cars.

I'd love to see where you came up with that conclusion other than your own opinion based on the source material above. Personally, I find it hard to believe that there are less wealthy people than there were 10 years ago. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not going to say you're correct either. I made a hypothesis based on the sales figures of what I think the reason is, but your counter argument was stated as fact, in which case, you must have found the statistics somewhere to back up the claim that there aren't any more wealthy people today than there used to be. If you happen to remember where you found those stats, please share it. I'm genuinely interested in reading it.
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      09-13-2019, 09:47 AM   #7
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This is shocking. Here I was for the past decade now thinking endless QE and zero percent interest rates were done on behalf of the middle and lower classes. Boy do I feel stupid! Who ever would have thought a massive wealth inequality gap was going to widen!
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      09-13-2019, 10:05 AM   #8
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The gap doesnt matter everyone being equally poor is better for you? That's jealousy. Poor people dont gain upward mobility thru other poor people.
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      09-13-2019, 10:32 AM   #9
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I don't like the duck beak
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      09-13-2019, 02:17 PM   #10
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Keep in mind that high end cars make a great way to launder money, along with jewelry, art, and other luxury goods.
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      09-13-2019, 02:55 PM   #11
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I don't like the duck beak
And the Land Rover rear end.
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      09-13-2019, 03:03 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ntgarage44 View Post
I'd love to see where you came up with that conclusion other than your own opinion based on the source material above. Personally, I find it hard to believe that there are less wealthy people than there were 10 years ago. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not going to say you're correct either. I made a hypothesis based on the sales figures of what I think the reason is, but your counter argument was stated as fact, in which case, you must have found the statistics somewhere to back up the claim that there aren't any more wealthy people today than there used to be. If you happen to remember where you found those stats, please share it. I'm genuinely interested in reading it.
To be fair, my statement was a bit hyperbolic. I'm sure SOME people have crossed the gap. I still contest that the uptick in sales isn't those people. As to my statement, that's just based on the distribution of resources. The wealthiest 1% is increasing their total share of the countries resources, not decreasing. So in general. The 1% is absorbing the economic growth at a rate that's an order of magnitude higher. I believe the number was around 22% of the nations income is going to the top 1%. This is also coming off of the recent recession saw the top income earners falling 4%, while the bottom 99% fell over 20%. ( https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/h...inequality.pdf )

It's speculation, but I don't think it's crazy to suggest that rich people buying higher quantities of expensive cars doesn't help the majority of folks.
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      09-13-2019, 03:11 PM   #13
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And the Land Rover rear end.
Yeah . I saw it as well . Side-rear end design looks like it comes from the *Evoque*
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      09-13-2019, 03:17 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Soterios View Post
To be fair, my statement was a bit hyperbolic. I'm sure SOME people have crossed the gap. I still contest that the uptick in sales isn't those people. As to my statement, that's just based on the distribution of resources. The wealthiest 1% is increasing their total share of the countries resources, not decreasing. So in general. The 1% is absorbing the economic growth at a rate that's an order of magnitude higher. I believe the number was around 22% of the nations income is going to the top 1%. This is also coming off of the recent recession saw the top income earners falling 4%, while the bottom 99% fell over 20%. ( https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/h...inequality.pdf )

It's speculation, but I don't think it's crazy to suggest that rich people buying higher quantities of expensive cars doesn't help the majority of folks.

You were neither being hyperbolic nor controversial (nor wrong) by asserting that increased super/hypercar sales were not generally a good indicator of overall wealth increasing for the vast majority of people.
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      09-13-2019, 03:33 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Man View Post
while the rest of us are trying to stretch out our car loans to 80 months to make the payment palatable, the super-rich are trying to find someone to gold-plate their spark plugs. God help us all when this bubble bursts.
I'm going to try and not get on a high horse here, but there are MANY assumptions being made and the author of the article sounds like part of the problem, not the solution.

Yes the income gap is widening, that is a fact. But it's asinine to assume that only the rich are getting richer. The last 10 years was the most prosperous period of economic expansion perhaps ever. People were able to make smart decisions and take advantage.

The person stretching his/her car payment via 80 month loans probably didn't achieve much during that expansion, because that's the person who's stretching themself thin financially instead of taking a long-term view of their finances. THAT is the problem, people who live beyond their means and then want to blame everyone else. Ironic that the author decided to use this as an example of who the "victim" in today's income gap is, when in reality that person has only themself to blame.

Now if that person is driving a 1990 honda civic and doing his/her best then fine, but I think we all know there are plenty of people out there in brand new M4s on a 96 month loan living way beyond their means that are then scratching their heads when they can't afford a down payment on a home.
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      09-13-2019, 03:37 PM   #16
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If the rich buy more expensive cars it works its way down. Ferrari and the like will have to hire more employees to build and maintain the cars. More dealerships and distribution center will be built. That all equates to more jobs created. Lets not forget about taxes they all pay also.
The more cars made should mean in 5-20 years more people will be able to buy some nice used cars that more can afford.
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      09-13-2019, 07:00 PM   #17
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https://www.thedrive.com/news/28645/...ded-to-auction
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      09-13-2019, 09:40 PM   #18
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Rich people got more rich during a 10 year economic boom? And they have the nerve to buy uber expensive luxury items? Well I for one don't believe it.
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      09-18-2019, 03:53 PM   #19
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lols thank you money printing ... errr I meant quantitative easing.
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      09-18-2019, 04:02 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Man View Post

So never mind income inequality – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos.
Fcking stealing legally.
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      09-18-2019, 04:05 PM   #21
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lols thank you money printing ... errr I meant quantitative easing.
It's never ending either, they almost printed another $40 billion today. It's mind boggling.
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      09-18-2019, 05:04 PM   #22
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It's never ending either, they almost printed another $40 billion today. It's mind boggling.
Fcking Buffet net worth in recent years was almost parabolic. Other two fckers got rich due to the so called "safety trade" thanks to QE. I mean them three fckers can still be in their own respective death beds and still getting more rich while dying.

edit: lols what if these fckers all dead? then put their funerals on pay per view lols.

Last edited by WestRace; 09-18-2019 at 11:09 PM..
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