Booming Sales for the Brands Moguls Desire?

IF you want to stir things up at an Occupy Wall Street encampment, mention that Bentleys and Rolls-Royces are selling like truffle-infused hotcakes. But executives at those storied British brands say their success is not just a 1 percent solution; brisk sales of ultraluxury models, you see, bode well for the masses that drive Chevys.

The recession may have sidelined some buyers in the fund-manager class, but Bentley’s sales around the world zoomed roughly 30 percent in 2011. And over at Rolls-Royce, the new Ghost — a mere $250,000, but hardly downscale — paced the brand to a global sales record, said David Archibald, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North America. That total, some 3,500 cars, follows a record 2,711 sales in 2010.

The first decade of the millennium brought roughly a tenfold explosion in popularity for Bentley and Rolls, which shared the British luxury throne before being conquered, separated and modernized by German automakers. It may have been a blow to national pride, but Bentley and Rolls, backed by the deep pockets of Volkswagen and BMWrespectively, at last had the resources to develop new models that reached showrooms as the sales drought abated.

More help from Germany, if somewhat less direct, arrived with Daimler’s recent decision to wind down its white-elephant Maybach brand. Despite some notoriety — the rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West dissected a Maybach as a lark in the music video for this year’s “Otis” — the $350,000 Maybach limousines never caught on with movers and shakers.

Christophe Georges, Bentley’s North American president, said that rising luxury-car sales showed that consumers were regaining faith in the economy. That connection is stronger for cars than for other luxury goods because they are such visible symbols of wealth.

“If you collect art, no one sees it outside your home,” he said. “But when people are losing jobs, you don’t want to show off a new Bentley. So when luxury cars move up, it’s a real expression of confidence.”

Rolls-Royce’s growing popularity in China and in Chinese expatriate communities like Vancouver, British Columbia, sparked a commemorative Year of the Dragon Collection, a 2012 Phantom whose bespoke features include dragon-embroidered headrests and dragon inlays.

But even if — or when — China becomes the leading buyer of high six-figure cars, the high-profile United States market will continue to dictate the competitive terms, Mr. Archibald said.

“The North American market is still our most important,” he said.

source: http://www.nytimes.com

thank you for your visit

Posted in: Bentley,BMW,Rolls-Royce,Rolls-Royce Motor Cars,Vancouver