Luxury Makes A Comeback
Remember 2009? Luxury vehicles were unsalable. People did not have to money to buy them. Those who did have the money did not want to be seen in one. Makers that were heavy on luxury were put on death watch. (Not by this site. It monitored the vital signs of more mundane makes and their makers.)
How things have changed.
Luxury car makers are prepping the press and the stock market for a very strong first quarter and record sales in 2011.
- BMW reiterated to the Wall Street Journal that they are expecting record sales this year.
- Audi reported a 23 percent rise in global sales to 95,400 cars in January. “Based on the current order situation, we expect a strong first quarter,” said Audi sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer.
- Mercedes-Benz reported global sales of 82,700 cars in January up 23 percent.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
More by Bertel Schmitt
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We are becoming a developing world economy, the rich get richer & everyone else gets poorer.
And here in the States, one of the networks did a spot with a Ferrari dealership in NY where they indicated a rather healthy spike in sales...guess the recovery hasn't hit me yet, as I'm not quite ready to move up to a new 458 from my 1997 Toyota Tercel...
Lessee here...in the world where Tiguan gets priced anywhere between 26K and 40K, and pos econoboxes push $25K once you spec a/c and auto, and any crappy SUV can hit 40K with options, and nice luxury cars have various models in low 30s range, of course people may go for luxo brands instead of another overpriced appliance vehicle. the margin used to be $10K for a Stanza, $15K for Golf and $35K for 3-series. Now they are much closer.
Bertel tells us that these are "global sales." Take away China, and I wonder...