How the super-rich go car shopping
When it comes to buying cars, people with millions in the bank really aren't like the rest of us.
April 6, 2006; Posted: 3:20 p.m. EDT (1920 GMT)
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Here's a sales pitch I'll bet you'd never expect for a 20-foot-long $390,000 luxury sedan: "It makes a great gift."
A great gift?
Really, Joseph Horneman, the Maybach Relationship Manager at Manhattan's Mercedes-Benz and Maybach dealership, makes a pretty good case. For busy, stressed out people, the time they can spend in the back of a Maybach 62, swaddled in comfort in their fully reclining -- with footrests -- ventilated leather seats, sipping chilled wine from the built-in refrigerator and basking in the gentle glow of sunlight filtered through the electroluminescent roof....Those moments are precious. Just precious.
Where most people might think "gift certificate for a day spa," others think "Maybach" or maybe "Rolls-Royce." Where some people think "I need a new look. Maybe a new pair of Steve Maddens," others think "Maybe a couple of V-8 Ferraris."
These sorts of cars are considerably more expensive than even Bentley GTs or Maserati Quattroportes. With sticker prices starting well below $200,000 those are cars the working wealthy can afford.
"Those are considered almost consumable prices," said Thomas duPont, publisher of the duPont Registry magazine. "Then you get into $350,000 or $400,000. Those cars take a whole different rationale to sell.
For sedans like the Rolls-Royce Phantom, that means incredible levels of opulence and attention to detail that borders on the bizarrely obsessive. ("Notice how the wood grain is perfectly matched, end to end, throughout the vehicle?") For performance car buyers it means levels of performance approachable only on a race track. In either case, it means extreme levels of exclusivity.
Maybach sold 152 cars in the U.S. last year. Rolls-Royce did considerably better, selling 445. Ferrari sold about 1,200.
To further enhance the exclusivity, just about everything on these cars is optional.
"We give a lot of importance to the process of ordering the car," said Maurizio Parlato, president of Ferrari North America.
The typical Ferrari customer, for example orders $20,000 to $30,000 of options, he said. Ferrari customers happily wait a year or two for their cars.
In the Maybach "commissioning studio" Horneman opened a drawer with 17 colored tiles showing the brand's standard paint options. Another drawer was filled with leather and carpet samples and another with different types of wood trim. Certain rare woods can add as much as $12,000 to the cost of the car.
Many customers, however, impatient to get a car, will buy floor models. Both Maybach and Rolls-Royce say their American customers are often averse to waiting for custom-built cars. One buyer recently negotiated the purchase of a Maybach demonstrator -- and handed over a check -- within 10 minutes of entering the dealership.
Read the rest here.
When it comes to buying cars, people with millions in the bank really aren't like the rest of us.
April 6, 2006; Posted: 3:20 p.m. EDT (1920 GMT)
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Here's a sales pitch I'll bet you'd never expect for a 20-foot-long $390,000 luxury sedan: "It makes a great gift."
A great gift?
Really, Joseph Horneman, the Maybach Relationship Manager at Manhattan's Mercedes-Benz and Maybach dealership, makes a pretty good case. For busy, stressed out people, the time they can spend in the back of a Maybach 62, swaddled in comfort in their fully reclining -- with footrests -- ventilated leather seats, sipping chilled wine from the built-in refrigerator and basking in the gentle glow of sunlight filtered through the electroluminescent roof....Those moments are precious. Just precious.
Where most people might think "gift certificate for a day spa," others think "Maybach" or maybe "Rolls-Royce." Where some people think "I need a new look. Maybe a new pair of Steve Maddens," others think "Maybe a couple of V-8 Ferraris."
These sorts of cars are considerably more expensive than even Bentley GTs or Maserati Quattroportes. With sticker prices starting well below $200,000 those are cars the working wealthy can afford.
"Those are considered almost consumable prices," said Thomas duPont, publisher of the duPont Registry magazine. "Then you get into $350,000 or $400,000. Those cars take a whole different rationale to sell.
For sedans like the Rolls-Royce Phantom, that means incredible levels of opulence and attention to detail that borders on the bizarrely obsessive. ("Notice how the wood grain is perfectly matched, end to end, throughout the vehicle?") For performance car buyers it means levels of performance approachable only on a race track. In either case, it means extreme levels of exclusivity.
Maybach sold 152 cars in the U.S. last year. Rolls-Royce did considerably better, selling 445. Ferrari sold about 1,200.
To further enhance the exclusivity, just about everything on these cars is optional.
"We give a lot of importance to the process of ordering the car," said Maurizio Parlato, president of Ferrari North America.
The typical Ferrari customer, for example orders $20,000 to $30,000 of options, he said. Ferrari customers happily wait a year or two for their cars.
In the Maybach "commissioning studio" Horneman opened a drawer with 17 colored tiles showing the brand's standard paint options. Another drawer was filled with leather and carpet samples and another with different types of wood trim. Certain rare woods can add as much as $12,000 to the cost of the car.
Many customers, however, impatient to get a car, will buy floor models. Both Maybach and Rolls-Royce say their American customers are often averse to waiting for custom-built cars. One buyer recently negotiated the purchase of a Maybach demonstrator -- and handed over a check -- within 10 minutes of entering the dealership.
Read the rest here.
You might think that linking the words "sporty" and "Maybach" creates the ultimate automotive oxymoron, but a sporty Maybach is exactly what American buyers—who account for 50 percent of the car’s world market—want, the automaker says.
It's not as if the regular Maybach is mechanically underendowed, but the 57S (for Spezial) is positively John Holmes–ian. Its 6.0-liter, twin-turbo V-12 makes 603 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque, versus 543 hp and 664 lb-ft for the stock 57, enough to spear this 6000-pound behemoth from 0 to 62 mph in 5.0 seconds and on to a top speed of 171 mph. Maybach also retuned the air suspension, lowered the ride height by 0.6 inch, and fitted thicker antiroll bars and twenty-inch wheels.
Cosmetic changes include a revised grille and rear bumper plus unique monotone black or silver paint schemes. The cabin gets made over, too, with available piano black trim and even more gorgeous leather.
The 57S drives remarkably well, although its considerable mass eventually overpowers the outside tires when cornering, even with the air springs in the sportiest setting. The road-crushing ride is unperturbed by the stiffer suspension, and the lack of noise from the 275/45 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s is amazing.
We still don't quite get the Maybach, though. If you want to flaunt your wealth, the Rolls-Royce Phantom does it better: about 2000 have been sold worldwide, compared with 1500 Maybachs. The 57S is better to drive than the standard Maybach 57 or 62 or the Rolls, but the Audi A8 and the Mercedes S-class are more entertaining. Still, if you like to drive fast and terrify three cossetted passengers and also need to telegraph your status, the Maybach is the only game in town.
2007 Maybach
It's not as if the regular Maybach is mechanically underendowed, but the 57S (for Spezial) is positively John Holmes–ian. Its 6.0-liter, twin-turbo V-12 makes 603 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque, versus 543 hp and 664 lb-ft for the stock 57, enough to spear this 6000-pound behemoth from 0 to 62 mph in 5.0 seconds and on to a top speed of 171 mph. Maybach also retuned the air suspension, lowered the ride height by 0.6 inch, and fitted thicker antiroll bars and twenty-inch wheels.
Cosmetic changes include a revised grille and rear bumper plus unique monotone black or silver paint schemes. The cabin gets made over, too, with available piano black trim and even more gorgeous leather.
The 57S drives remarkably well, although its considerable mass eventually overpowers the outside tires when cornering, even with the air springs in the sportiest setting. The road-crushing ride is unperturbed by the stiffer suspension, and the lack of noise from the 275/45 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s is amazing.
We still don't quite get the Maybach, though. If you want to flaunt your wealth, the Rolls-Royce Phantom does it better: about 2000 have been sold worldwide, compared with 1500 Maybachs. The 57S is better to drive than the standard Maybach 57 or 62 or the Rolls, but the Audi A8 and the Mercedes S-class are more entertaining. Still, if you like to drive fast and terrify three cossetted passengers and also need to telegraph your status, the Maybach is the only game in town.
2007 Maybach
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