More than anything, buyers today don’t want to wait.
“It’s about having the right curation of cars in the showroom,” David said. Many of the cars currently on show at Prestige Imports are not actually owned by David at all—they’re offered on consignment, while others are privately owned outright and just kept in his space. But it’s important to keep the show floor full and the options for sale (in theory at least) high.
“I’ll have a guy walk in and point and say, ‘I need that one for this weekend, that one for my wife, and I want that one shipped back to my other house in New York or L.A.,’” David said. “Knowing which cars to carry is a risk. You’ve got to have some balls to get it right.”
6. Play Hard to Get
The other facet of cultivating the modern luxury buyer is fostering a sense of ultra exclusivity, both on the automaker level and on the dealer level. Production numbers must remain low—one-off models, ideally. Like red-carpet starlets in haute couture, the modern wealthy car enthusiast would never be so crude as to be seen in the same car as someone else.
“These cars are always instantly judged by their performance credentials, price tag, and ultimately, exclusivity,” explained Jonathan Klinger, the spokesman for Hagerty, which insures blue-chip collectible cars. “These exotic brands are basically sold and spoken for before the first production one is even ready, so that you have instant pent-up demand.”
Bugatti will make fewer than 500 cars this year, Koenigsegg fewer than 40. Pagani will make just a little more than 40. Only half will go to the U.S., even though the company could sell all its inventory here if it wanted to, Horacio Pagani said. That’s by design. He wants even the ultra-rich to dream about his cars.
“The most important thing for all the human beings is to evoke a feeling,” Pagani said. “I don’t make any differences between a customer, someone who will eventually own the car, or someone else who can just dream about it. We are selling cars, but at the same time we want to give our fans the car of their dreams.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.