Luxury car segment takes a dive as financial crisis bites

Hamburg - The Aston Martin, Maserati, Lamborghini Gallardo or Bentley was once a natural accessory for the successful trader in London or New York but the financial crisis is taking its toll with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over some of the famous marques as sales in the luxury sports car segment fall dramatically. Repeated changes of ownership, lack of funds for investment in new technology and debts have always been risk factors for the niche sports car manufacturers with a with a price range of up to 150,000 euros (225,000 dollars).

With a clientele coming mainly from the financial sector pampered by a bonus culture, it is the segment hit hardest by the global economic crisis. Bentley has seen its sales fall by 53 per cent during the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. Maserati sales are down 49 per cent and Lamborghini 37 per cent.

Aston Martin is facing tough times. A Kuwaiti investor, who bought the majority stake from Ford in 2007, is in trouble. Both BMW and Daimler gave the legendary British sports car the cold shoulder after taking a close look a the books, according to several reports. Sales are down by nearly a third compared to last year when 6,200 cars were sold.

Tata, the Indian owner of Jaguar, in September announced a new business plan for ailing Jaguar and Land Rover after conceding in a press statement that manufacturing capacity was at less than 60 per cent with the financial crisis exposing "fundamental weaknesses in the structure of the business."

Tata said it was investing 800 million pounds (1.3 billion dollars), in part supported by the European Investment Bank, to build "a new generation of lightweight sedans, sports cars and premium SUVs, with hybrids and electrification technology." Until those cars are produced in the next couple of years, the company will have to get by with its present model range.

Lotus, another famous British marque, is also in trouble. After making a 2.18-million-euro (3.25 million dollars) profit last year it turned a 15.91-million-euro loss in the year to March this year. Only 2,202 Lotus cars were made this year compared to 2,649 last year. Kept afloat by the Malaysian car company Proton, it is now looking for new markets in Indonesia, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia.

While big car concerns such as Volkswagen can utilise many Audi parts for its Lamborghini subsidiary and BMW can install its engines in a Rolls-Royce, the smaller manufacturers are forced to spend scarce resources on research and development for a car with a production run of only several thousand.

Experts therefore predict a new round of possible ownership changes in the sports car segment, coupled with cheaper production methods and new technology such as hybrid or electric.

Meanwhile the upper end of the super sports car segment is unperturbed by the financial crisis. The annual production run of 70 units for the Bugatti Veyron, owned by VW, is sold out with each car selling at 1.2 million euros without the extras.

These buyers are obviously seeing the top-end super cars or rare classics as an investment. At a Gooding & Company auction in Pebble Beach in August this year a 1962 model Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider fetched a price of 3.58 million euros. Copyright DPA