Bentley, Rolls-Royce reach record sales in 2012
It's good business when a few thousand cars make billions of dollars.
Bentley and Rolls-Royce make so much off of so little that sometimes, we wonder if they're real-estate agents rather than automakers. Both German-owned British luxury brands posted record sales in 2012. Bentley, under the Volkswagen Group, sold 8,510 cars, a 22 percent increase over 2011. Rolls-Royce, owned by the BMW Group, sold 3,575 cars, just 37 cars more than in 2011.
Here's a better way to think about it. Taking an average sale price of $300,000 for Bentley and $400,000 for Rolls-Royce, the two automakers pulled in $2.5 billion and $1.4 billion in revenue last year, respectively. Likely, it's much more.
Considering that the best-selling Phantom and Continental GT, both of which were mildly updated for 2012, have not seen a thorough redesign since their 2003 introduction, the profits must be enormous by now. (We've overheard that Rolls-Royce was more profitable than BMW last year, but of course, no one will go on record to claim that.)
Most impressive is that Rolls-Royce more than tripled its sales in just three years. In 2009, sales were a hair over 1,000 cars, but with the introduction of the more "affordable" Ghost in 2010, sales shot to 2,711 that year. Still, Rolls-Royce has assured us they aren't interested in chasing sales like Bentley, which is pushing an SUV in an attempt to break the 10,000 barrier as it did in 2007.
It is, however, planning a 2-door Ghost that will be less expensive than the Phantom Drophead, likely to be revealed sometime this year. Rolls-Royce also opened and refurbished 30 dealerships worldwide last year, including opening the largest dealership in the U.S. on Long Island, N.Y.
Interesting still, the new Bentley Continental V8 and its lower base price captured fewer than 20 percent of all Continental sales. We thought it was more fun, but the 12-cylinder car was and likely will remain top dog.
Here are some more tidbits:
- Two-fifths of all Bentley Mulsanne models were shipped to China, which buys the most Bentley sedans of any region.
- Japan saw a 73 percent jump in Bentley sales to 190 cars.
- Nearly every Phantom and three out of four Ghost models were custom-ordered.
- Rolls-Royce sold 63 percent more cars to Saudi Arabia.
It's not bad work if you can get it.
[Source: Bentley via Newspress, Rolls-Royce]
I will admit that I ask this partly out of jealousy, but it is a valid question. Why do Rich people buy cars with really really big engines, to drive 15mph or more under the speed limit? The other day I was stuck behind a Porche Carrera GT4 Turbo. What i felt was not jealousy, it was pity, for the poor car, being driven in maybe second gear.
Not too long ago, i passed a dodge viper on the highway. Not because my car is so much faster, or because I break the law, but because the driver was going incredibly slow.
For people who claim to have worked really hard, they sure have a laid back driving style.
Brood 550 You are so wrong. You never have soooo much money that other people don't know what you should do with it. My spouse and I bought enough polio vacine to immunize 1,100,000 children back in the mid-1990's and desiginated it could only be used in Africa!
A tree was planted on a university lawn near a medical science building and our names were placed beside the tree on a plaque. You would be amazed at how many persons said that we only did the donation to show how wealthy we were and to get praise.....NO GOOD DEED EVER GOES UNPUNISHED!!!!!!!!
AND OH YES WE WERE ACCUSED OF BEING RACIST BECAUSE WE SPECIFIED ONLY AFRICAN CHILDREN!!!!!!! GO FIGURE!!!!!!!!
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