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Tunisa sell off ex-dictator’s luxury cars

 

THE luxury car collection of Tunisian former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali went on pre-auction display this week in Tunis, more than three years after his ouster.

Sixteen of the 39 cars, seized by authorities after Ben Ali was ousted in January 2011 in the first of the Arab Spring revolutions, were shown off at a casino on Wednesday and Thursday in the suburb of Gammarth. Thirteen other vehicles were displayed in a barracks.

The collection, which has yet to be valued, includes a Porsche, a Cadillac and a top-of-the-range Mercedes.

“Every member of the Ben Ali family owned between four and six cars,” Mohamed Lassaad Hmaied, director of Cruise Tour, the company mandated by the government to sell the vehicles, told DPA.

One of the factors that drove Tunisians into the street in protest was the way Ben Ali’s family used his 23 years in power to amass fabulous wealth.

Among Ben Ali’s wheels was a 1962 super-luxury Maybach, Germany’s equivalent of a Rolls-Royce. That car is to be left off the auction catalogue. The culture ministry has asked it be parked in the Museum of National Memory for posterity.

Would-be buyers have until May 21 to register for the sale, the proceeds of which will be paid into a account used to settle the former regime’s debts.

Tunisia’s cash-strapped technocratic government is hoping to raise millions of euros.

Source http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/tunisian-ex-dictators-luxury-cars-on-sale/story-fn3dxix6-1226920208093

Why you should invest in a luxury car

The luxury car market is growing and changing every day to suit the needs of prospective clientele. Where once before you could only dream of owning one, now luxury car manufacturers are looking at ways to make their brands open to more people.

Sales of luxury vehicles will continue to grow for many years to come, according to Jaguar and Land Rover.

The group marketing director for the British brands, Phil Popham, says there is plenty of growth potential for brands that produce premium vehicles and sell them at a premium price.

“We believe that the premium segments have got significant growth in future,” said Popham, who was in Australia this week as part of a visit to the Asia Pacific region.

“The world has and is becoming a more affluent place, there’s more and more affluent people. They are becoming increasingly brand savvy.”

He said success relied on the desirability of the brand being matched by unique and attractive products.

Popham said the growth would be a mix the arrival of new models and organic growth as buyers aspired to owning a luxury vehicle and wealth increased.

He also said emerging markets such as China and India brought potential for significant growth, while markets such as South Korea presented opportunities due to the greater acceptance of imported vehicles.

Sales of luxury cars have been steadily growing for more than a decade, with most manufacturers selling in market segments they haven’t traditionally competed in.

The bulk of that growth has been from intense competition from German brands Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi.

Whereas in the 1990s they produced a selection of luxury sedans and a sports car or two each now produces dozens of body styles covering SUVs, hatchbacks, coupes and the traditional luxury fare.

Much of the sales growth for those German brands has been at the lower end of the market, with each now selling city cars priced below many mainstream offerings.

But Jaguar says it will not follow the German brands as far down the price scale, saying it was too difficult to compete.

“We have no aspirations to be a volume brand, because that’s not our experience, that’s not our expertise.

Popham said the margins and investments required meant it did not make sense.

“[We’re not going to be] getting down into the smaller segments, where we haven’t got the economies of scale, we haven’t got the expertise, it would cost an incredible amount to invest,” he said.

“We’re not going to be a 2 million car company like BMW.”

“But we do want to be seen as a benchmark, we do want to be considered as one of the big players in the premium segment, a benchmark in terms of a our product attributes, in terms of our credibility and in terms of our geographical coverage.

“We have got ambitions to be a substantial player in the segments in which we compete, which is the premium segment.”

Popham said that could mean producing small cars.

“I wouldn’t say we would never introduce smaller cars … it really depends upon the trends,” said Popham.

“We’ll always look around our portfolio of products in terms of trends, where are the growth segments, where do we think we can have a credible product that will make money.”

Source http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/luxury-cars-have-significant-growth-potential-20140514-389ss.html

What cars are the Mothers of the world choosing to drive?

Mothers day may be over but they are still in our minds when it comes to the cars they drive. What is the car of choice when it comes to Moms? Is the minivan still the favourite or are Mothers opting for a bit more luxury these days?

In honour of Mother’s Day, AL.com is turning the spotlight on moms — and their driving habits.

Auto website Edmunds.com recently conducted a poll of 1,000 moms, which showed that they spend more time driving their children around than they do helping with homework.

More than 66 percent of moms also consider themselves to be better drivers than their spouses, and 37 percent of them would choose pampering for their car over pampering for themselves.

So what they drive must be pretty important, right?

Edmunds also compiled a list of the top 10 coolest vehicles for soccer moms. The website’s choices range widely, from pricey options like a Tesla Model S and BMW X3, to more economical offerings such as a Kia Soul and Ford Flex.

See a photo gallery of the full list.

“If you’re a parent who thinks that family life means your days of driving a genuinely eye-catching vehicle are behind you, think again,” Edmunds says. “There’s a good selection of choices out there that allow you to responsibly pilot your brood without losing cool points in the process.”

Meanwhile, no minivans made the list. In fact, the survey showed 70 percent of moms flatly refused to drive one of these quintessential “mom-mobiles.”

Not so fast, says Honda, which builds its Odyssey minivan here in Alabama. So far this year, Honda has sold nearly 40,000 Odysseys, a 4 percent improvement over last year.

The Odyssey currently ranks No. 3 in market share in its segment, behind the Dodge Caravan and the Chrysler Town & Country, which also have posted sales gains over 2013, according to Kelley Blue Book data.

So the bottom line is, some folks — moms included — really do like their minivans.

And the Odyssey in particular gets cool points for being driven by Indy racer Simon Pagenaud in the rigorous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Race, said Honda spokeswoman Sara Pines.

“The Honda Odyssey is a mom’s best friend,” she said. “Smart and busy moms know the Odyssey gives them the ease of  power sliding doors, a power tailgate, a rear view camera, available ultra wide rear entertainment system, and the amazing HondaVAC built in vacuum — everything needed to juggle a typical day with kids in style and comfort.”

For all those moms out there that want and deserve a bit of luxury, why not treat yourself by hiring one of our luxury cars for the day.

Source http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2014/05/mothers_day_on_wheels_the_cool.html

 

All aboard! Luxury trains in private collections

I thought I would bring you something different today. Obviously we all love the cars that are featured here, but there is always room to appreciate other forms of luxury travel and bask in the glory of what they have to offer! If you want to kick back and relax on your journey, trains can be just as luxurious and impressive as some of the cars we have written about.

Plenty of people across the globe – typically those with considerable means – have things like private planes and private yachts. But a private train? That’s unique – but there is still a collection of train enthusiasts who own their own, private rail cars.

These aren’t your typical rail cars, though – in many cases, they’re gaudy, ornate luxury cars with bells and whistles similar to those found on some of the priciest private yachts in the world.

Saturday was National Train Day, and to honor the occasion photos of some of the fanciest, private rail cars in America were splashed across social media websites – and these rail cars make Amtrak’s big, cushiony seats seem like a plastic bench at a bus stop. 

Many of the owners of these ornate rail cars put their luxurious rides on display in places like Miami, Tampa and Washington D.C. to celebrate National Train Day.

‘People forget that that’s what built this country,’ Borden Black,  the executive director of the American Association of Private Railroad  Car Owners, told Wired.com.

Black reportedly saw more than 10,000 people walk through her own private rail car when it was on display during a previous National Train Day in Chicago.

‘It’s great to watch  the kids who have never seen anything like the insides of these rail  cars.’

Glimpse of the past: Many private rail cars are an homage to classic luxury trains from the beginning of the 20th century

Glimpse of the past: Many private rail cars are an homage to classic luxury trains from the beginning of the 20th century
Rail Car One: Before presidents traveled by air, presidential train cars were the equivalent of Air Force One with all the luxuries of a fancy home

Rail Car One: Before presidents traveled by air, presidential train cars were the equivalent of Air Force One with all the luxuries of a fancy home
First class: At the turn of the 20th Century, the extremely rich flaunted their wealth by making their rail cars as luxurious as possible

First class: At the turn of the 20th Century, the extremely rich flaunted their wealth by making their rail cars as luxurious as possible
Shut eye: Many private rail cars have sleeping compartments for long, overnight trips

Shut eye: Many private rail cars have sleeping compartments for long, overnight trips
History: Many rail stations welcomed private cars that people could visit and get a feel for the history of rail industry

 History: Many rail stations welcomed private cars that people could visit and get a feel for the history of rail industry
National Train Day: On Saturday, private rail car owners across the U.S. put their cars on display to teach the public about the history of the railroad in America

National Train Day: On Saturday, private rail car owners across the U.S. put their cars on display to teach the public about the history of the railroad in America
Bring friends: One of the many benefits of having a private rail car is there's plenty of room for guests

  Bring friends: One of the many benefits of having a private rail car is there’s plenty of room for guests
Who needs a hotel? During cross-country travel, those lucky enough to travel in a private rail car have no need for hotel rooms - everything they need is on board

Who needs a hotel? During cross-country travel, those lucky enough to travel in a private rail car have no need for hotel rooms – everything they need is on board.

If you need some cars in your day, now we have filled your mind with trains, come and check out what we can offer you on our website 

Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625423/Pictured-Inside-luxurious-private-trains-America.html

Carmony to target the Luxury Car market

With the internet being the first place we all look for everything and anything, it is no surprise that companies are moving forward and making sure they cater for all potential clientele.

Carmony is an innovative company, owned by the same corporation as Motors.co.uk. Manheim Europe turn out some unique ideas about selling cars, and it is set to pay off for them, as Carmony begins its move into a unique position which could bring about a major change in the way we buy cars.

The people behind Carmony have identified that there is a certain type of customer which has been frozen out of online car sales, but who are these elusive customers? The company was established in 2008, and while it has remained one of the major car sales sites in the UK, it has yet to play the card which will set it apart from other car selling websites.

Like Autotrader, Carmony also contains daily news updates, encompassing new releases, worldwide events and breaking news about the world of auto trading. Like Arnoldclark.com, Carmony allows buyers to search for a suitable dealer or franchise, but unlike any other site in the UK, Carmony plans to put an emphasis on the sale of premium cars on the site.

Premium cars such as the Lexus and Audi will feature on the rebranded Carmony siteBrands such as Audi and Lexus, and cars worth more than £25,000, will feature on the site – and as all the cars for sale on Carmony are approved by dealers, buyers can rest assured that the car they have bought is of forecourt standard.

There is no shortage of cars on the website which will help buyers to find the right car for them, and sellers to offload their old motor – however, most of the market is for low-cost cars which are in an acceptable condition. People who buy cars online usually don’t expect to come away with a luxury product, meaning that there is a large section of the market which is not covered by any of the websites that sell cars, specific or otherwise.

If Carmony can be the first to begin putting high end clients in touch with dealers, or using the site to buy luxury cars directly, then it will put the company in a very powerful position.

That’s not to say that people who want to buy a middle of the range, or even very cheap car, can’t use Carmony. Carmony shows the minimum price for each type of car on the home page, and the price of a hatchback usually starts at around £500 – what’s great about this is that young people and students, or those who want to downsize, can get a dealer approved car at very reasonable prices.

Source http://swns.com/news/carmony-rebrands-to-target-luxury-car-market-48604/

The latest craze for the rich in China

If you suddenly won the lottery and could afford a life of luxury, what would your first purchase be? A house, a holiday, maybe some exquisite jewellery? Well people in China are shunning these ideas and going for a more extreme and extravagant buy!

People act very strangely when they suddenly come into money.  Think of all the lottery winners who are famous for half a second and then mysteriously disappear.  If you ask any of them, they almost all say the same thing, “My life was actually more manageable before the money”.  For men and women in countries that have been poor for decades, but have suddenly reaped the rewards of globalization, the shift in fortune is even more dramatic.  When an entire country is seemingly wealthy overnight, people do some weird things.  Case in point – China.  A generation of men and women have made their fortunes by producing goods and parts more cheaply than anywhere else in the world.  They have been amassing their fortunes long enough that their children are now reaping the benefits of their business savvy.  As countless E! True Hollywood Stories have shown, there is little more dangerous, or ridiculous, than a rich child with no limits.  Such is the case in China, where immensely rich twenty and thirty-something’s are constantly on the lookout for new ways to both show off their wealth and entertain themselves.

A recent trend has been to paint or wrap luxury cars in gold.  Yep.  You read that correctly – gold.  It doesn’t really matter what car as long as the car is high-end.  This list seems to include anything by Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Infiniti, or BMW.  Oh!  Limousines count, too.  The general population seems to take these ostentatious displays of wealth in stride.  The bright gold cars are parked at malls and movie theatres like any other vehicle and nobody really bats an eye.  However, the cops have been known to confiscate one or two of the vehicles for being just too, too eye-popping.  It is hard to tell what constitutes too much versus all right when looking at a luxury vehicle wrapped entirely in gold, but apparently China’s police force has it figured out.

Source http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity-cars/gold-cars-the-chinese-noveau-riche-flaunt-their-wealth/

Here are the 10 optional extras on a luxury car that you DO NOT need!

Knowing what optional extras to go for on any luxury car can be daunting, but we have listed below the ones that you should reconsider or just stay away from and save your money!

We’ve all splashed out just a bit too much at one time or another. Did your TV really need gesture control, and have you ever actually used it? Why have you got a 750gb hard drive when all you use your computer for is YouTube and Facebook? And did you absolutely have to have the extra large onion rings with that sandwich?

Mind you, these personal excesses pale into insignificance compared to what some people are prepared to shell out for. Buying any luxury car is in and of itself excessive (after all, you could get around just as easily and comfortably in a Ford Mondeo…) but some buyers take it just that stage extra, and the car makers and tuning companies are more than happy to indulge their expensive, profitable whims…

10. Audi Design Selection leather

Ah, Audi. The company that gave us four wheel drive performance cars and utter domination at Le Mans. The company that says you can find advancement through technology. The company that created Audi Ultra – a rigorous programme to shed the weight and fight the flab to make its cars more efficient. The company that offers you leather seats that cost as much as an entire other car.

Seriously. If you buy an Audi A8 (and, as Barry Norman never actually said, why not?) and tick the box for Design Selection package in either Balao Brown or Marble Grey, you’re going to add €19,254 to the price of your car. That’s enough to buy an entire extra Octavia or Leon. Or two Ups. All that for some leather seats (they are made of nice leather, right enough) and some extra climate control buttons.

Sublime or ridiculous? Both at the same time.

Or you could have bought: A 1.2 TSI Seat Leon S.

9. Gold leaf paint

Carlsson, in spite of the rather Swedish-sounding name, is actually a German tuning company founded in 1989 by brothers Rolf and Andreas Hartge. The firm specialises in tweaking and modifying Mercedes-Benz models and will happily bling up, to your spec, anything from an A-Class all the way to a seven-seat R-Class. They even do kits for the Vito van. For the 2014 Geneva motor show, Carlsson really decided to push the boat out and presented a modified version of the new Mercedes S-Class. Only 25 of the CS50 Versailles model will be made, and all will come with modified 700hp V8 engines. And gold, lots of gold, so much gold that Auric Goldfinger would think it was a bit over the top. This isn’t just faux-gold trimming either, this is the real, weighty metal stuff, hand-beaten and applied to the instrument panel, the door cards, the window switches, even the cupholders. There’s even gold in the paint, just in case you were worried that you weren’t quite pulling off the South American tinpot dictator look. Cost? At least €800,000 to land one in Ireland, and that’s before Revenue create a special VRT category for gold leaf…

Sublime or ridiculous? Neither; just unbearably naff.

Or you could have bought: A 5-bed mansion on two-thirds of an acre just a stone’s throw from Adare Manor.

8. The Aston Martin Cygnet

Now, this is, strictly speaking, an entire car and not an option. However the original plan was for Aston Martin to offer its smallest, most efficient car ever only to those buyers who were already signing up for a new Vanquish, DB9 or whatever. At a price of around STG£30,000, it was certainly not cheap but hey, it was an extra car with an Aston Martin badge on the bonnet so bargain, right?

Not so fast. The Cygnet was nothing more than a tiny Toyota iQ tarted up with an Aston-style grille and some nasty-looking quilted leather seats. Aston suggested that it would make the ideal in-town runabout for those Aston customers who didn’t want to risk parking dings on their precious V12 Grand Tourers. A fair point, but then a normal Toyota iQ which cost about a third as much to buy would have done the same job. The whole idea was cooked up when Aston boss Ulrich Bez bumped into Toyota boss Akio Toyoda in the back of a garage at the Nurburgring 24hrs race. Both must have been inhaling a few too many tyre fumes that day. Essentially, buyers were being asked to pay way over the odds for a tiny car whose real purpose was simply to drag down Aston’s profligate corporate Co2 emissions. It was quietly taken out back for a meeting with the vet late last year.

Sublime or ridiculous? Utterly ridiculous.

Or you could have bought: An actually Toyota iQ (a brilliant little car) and pocketed the change.

7. Ferrari F12 Berlinetta carbon fibre filter box cover

While we often castigate the big German car companies for their skill in separating buyers from their money via the means of an extensive and expensive options list, let’s not forget that the Italians are just as keen on burrowing into your bank account and no more so than when you’ve signed up for a Ferrari. There are many silly and frivolous options you can spec on your Fezzer, but the cake must surely be taken by this, the STG£3,072 carbon-fibre silted box cover. That’s right, a lid for the bit that holds the air filter made from the same space age material that Formula One cars are built from. Surely, you would think, this is excellent. It must reduce the weight of the car, lower the centre of gravity, make it FASTER! Nope. It’s just silly. The standard plastic cover is just as light, and any potential weight saving could just as easily be made by leaving your watch at home. Or hitting the gym for a week.

Sublime or ridiculous? Ridiculous.

Or you could have bought: A Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Titanium watch, which would probably save the same amount of weight.

6. Porsche’s leather air vents

Sorry, having just said that the Italians were close to matching the Germans when it came to fleecing their customers, the Germans have nipped in with a last-minute equaliser – Porsche’s leather air vents. More and more car makers have been taking advantage of the fact that allowing customers to personalise and customise their cars means chunkier profit margins. Ford arguably started the trend with the original Mustang but everyone’s at it now. No-one more so than Porsche. Clearly, there are Porsche options that are aimed at actually improving the performance of the car. You can spec your 911 with a lighter lithium-ion battery for instance, or increase its grunt with the Power Kit option. Or you can spend STG£1,173 on having the air vent slats of your Panamera covered in leather. Yes, that’s right, the air vent slats. The little wiggly bits that direct the airflow either to your perma-tanned face or your diamond-encrusted jeans. In leather. It can even be in a different colour leather to the rest of the interior, if you like.

Sublime or ridiculous? Pointless…

Or you could have bought: Four Dyson Air Multiplyer fans.

5. Bentley furniture

You can buy just about anything branded with your favourite car logo these days. Porsche is the past master at this; everything from kettles to sunglasses to watches to wallets logo’ed up with the Porsche crest. Ferrari makes more money from licensing its Prancing Horse logo out to the makers of various jackets, t-shirts, baseball caps and pens while this very author still has a pair of Land Rover-badged boots gifted to him some years ago and very nice they are too. So how about a king0sized bed? Or a sideboard? Yup, really, you can buy these but only if your disposable income levels are on the disgusting side of plentiful. Bentley has been branching out into branded goods lately (its aftershave is surprisingly nice…) but surely the cake is been thoroughly taken by these outrageously expensive home furnishings. The ‘Canterbury’ bed will cost you STG£15,000 while the metal and veneer sideboard is a staggering STG£22,000. They aren’t strictly, we suppose, vehicular options but doubtless your Bentley dealer will happily include them on the invoice for your Mulsanne.

Sublime or ridiculous? Probably depends on the size and/or location of your house.

Or you could have bought: An Opel Meriva (bed) or a Ford Fiesta ST (sideboard).

4. Ferrari’s passenger-side speedo

You buy a Ferrari for two primary reasons; to look good when going slowly, and to feel good when going quickly. Both are pretty much the core competencies of any Ferrari and as we all know, there’s nothing a member of the opposite sex prefers than to see an attractive version of the other gender driving one. Ferraris are the wheeled version of dopamine, in that sense. However, one of the other points of driving a Ferrari is to demonstrate what a terrific driver you are; taming your Italian stallion as you go. The idea of putting a digital speedo (and rev-counter) in front of your passenger then is a little odd. Surely you don’t actually want anyone sitting in the other seat to know exactly how fast you were just going? They’ll either squeal and shout at you to slow down or shrug insouciantly and point out just how slow and unskilled you really are. The art of being a wannabe Fangio is in not letting people see how hard you are trying. This doesn’t help…

Sublime of ridiculous? Ridiculously unhelpful.

Or you could have bought: It’s a STG£2,400 option on the FF so, a lifetime subscription to The Irish Times for your passenger to look at instead.

3. Bentley’s iPod drawer

Bentley can offer you an entirely kitted-out mobile office in the back of your Mulsanne or Flying Spur. With multiple screens, a 4G internet connection and a Mac Mini stashed in the boot, it turns your sybaritic limo into a full-on den for deals on wheels. Buy. Sell. Buy. Long, Short. Etcetera. Still, that’s not entirely frivolous – after all, if you’re being driven around in the back of your Bentley you’re probably worth a bit and probably want to be worth a bit more, so being able to work and communicate on the move is actually quite a useful thing. However, Bentley can offer you a cutting-edge connectivity option that’s so utterly frivolous it almost defies description. It’s a drawer, inset into the dash of your Mulsanne, made of the same polished walnut veneer and lined with the same Connolly leather as the seats. And it’s for your iPod or iPhone. Most car companies make you stick your Pod into a handy cupholder, Some, Skoda chief amongst them, can offer you a handy custom-made slot to leave it in. Not Bentley though. Bentley reckons your iPhone needs to be pampered.

Sublime or ridiculous? iRidiculous.

Or you could have bought: A 64gb iPod Touch.

2. Hyundai Equus

We think of Hyundais as affordable, well-specified and possessed of a long warranty. They are rivals to the likes of Ford, VW and Opel. They are not luxury cars. Well, that’s not what Hyundai really wants you to think, or at least, if you’re in the United States, that’s not what they really want you to think. They want you to think of Hyundai as capable of mixing it with the likes of BMW and Mercedes as easily as it does with Ford and Opel. That’s why, in the US, you can buy cars like the Equus – a big, luxurious, imposing, rear-drive V8 saloon. It’s not half bad either; good to drive, refined and very, very comfy. And it’s got a champagne cooler in the back. Now, a mini-fridge in a Hyundai we could understand, but a specific champagne cooler? That’s the sort of thing you find in Commander Bond’s Aston, not a Korean-built exec saloon. Maybe it’s just a question of perspective, but even so, don’t expect to see this on a Santa Fe any time soon.

Sublime or ridiculous? Ridiculous.

Or you could have bought: Well, an Equus costs USD$62,000 so quite a lot of other things, really…

1. Rolls-Royce Starlight headlining

This is kind of a charming one. A few years back, Rolls-Royce decided to offer as an option a roof liner that replicated the night sky. It was originally offered on the first generation Phantom Coupe and seemed to be of similar provenance to the decision to fit the Phantom Drophead with a cloth roof instead of a folding steel item – because it’s more romantic to hear the patter of soft summer rain on a cloth hood. Similarly, the idea of feeding tiny fibre-optic lights into the headlining to replicate the night sky from within seems rather romantically lovely. A nice touch. It all gets a bit undermined when you dig a little deeper though. You see, for a fee, Rolls-Royce can layout the ‘stars’ to replicate the view of the night sky from a chosen point on the Earth on a chosen date. Your birthday, perhaps. Or the night you bought the winning Lotto ticket that led to you buying a Rolls. It makes the romanticism of the original idea start to seem needlessly narcissistic. Besides, you can now have a similar option on a lowly Opel Adam, which rather spoils the whole effect…

Sublime or ridiculous? Sublimely ridiculous.

Or you could have bought: An actual star, probably.

Source http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/10-most-ridiculous-optional-extras-on-a-luxury-car-1.1783389?page=3

BMW and Lexus over take Mercedes-Benz in Luxury Car ranking

Lexus and BMW have showed impressive growth figures and have taken over from Mercedes-Benz in the ranking of overall Luxury Car brands in the US.

Luxury automakers have been exceptionally busy over the past year: new designs, new vehicles, new agencies, new advertising, new marketing executives. In spite of the activity, posturing and jabbing in the ring, Lexus and BMW — Floyd Mayweather-like — seem to have taken the purchase-consideration lead in the late rounds so far this year, at least among the 1,200 or so consumers polled by marketing firm YouGov BrandIndex in an online survey.

The firm says Mercedes-Benz, which has consistently ranked among the top three luxury car brands in overall brand health this year, hasn’t gotten commensurate purchase consideration and is behind among all luxury brands.

By contrast, Lexus started the year behind Infiniti, Audi and Mercedes Benz, with only 6% of U.S. car buyers saying they would consider the brand in February. That metric is up to 16% now for the Toyota Motor luxury brand.

BMW’s purchase consideration surge with potential buyers began two weeks before Lexus, rising from a 9% in early February to a virtual tie with Lexus at 16% now, per YouGov BrandIndex, which reported that the lift happened around the time of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Perhaps not coincidentally, BMW had a big presence on the U.S. Bobsled sled team, having helped design the sleds and getting branding on the sleds and racewear and gear.

Sales have been strong for both brands. In April Lexus saw a 23% gain and BMW was up 8.5%, year-over-year. Year-to-date through April, Lexus was up 20.8% for its cars and 14.3% for its trucks; and BMW was up 10.7%.

“Lexus and BMW really separate from the pack,” says YouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli. “That’s about three full months in the lead for BMW and about five to six weeks for Lexus.”

The firm’s study suggests that Infiniti, which has totally revamped its marketing and product, has the opposite challenge as Mercedes: while Infiniti is beginning to see a resurgence of purchase consideration, which has taken them from the bottom of the YouGov ranking to around the middle, their brand health has been near or at the bottom of the luxury car group for the year so far.

Marzilli tells Marketing Daily that BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz all scored well in advertising awareness, and that this awareness metric also indexes strongly (no surprise) for people who are in the market to buy a car.

But advertising alone doesn’t account for BMW and Lexus’ pole position. Perceived value, he says, plays a major role. He says that metric boils down to “A preconceived notion that it’s either too expensive or reasonable for what you get. Or they could be responding to a TV ad they saw this weekend, or new models. That may be what resonates.”

In the study, whose data is garnered from a poll of consumers who are in market to purchase a car over the next 12 months, Acura, Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz were measured on “Index,” the research firm’s score of brand health based on the firm’s component scores of quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation, and willingness to recommend; and on purchase consideration.

Source – http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/225119/bmw-lexus-lead-in-luxury-auto-consideration.html

The right image for SME’s could start with the right company car

Image and style mean everything to any business, but SMEs, who want to portray themselves to be professional and capable, are using fleet cars to send the message.

Choosing the right company car for your SME can prove a difficult balancing act between portraying the right level of professionalism and minimising running costs.This is particularly the case for SMEs who have tighter budgets and yet want to put forward a positive image of their company and its employees.

What do the experts rate as the top three best value prestige company cars?

 Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon – £26,855-£32,855

Mercedes-Benz is a brand synonymous with high-end luxury, and is a popular choice of company car for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon is no exception.

Offering a combination of the typical luxury and performance you’d expect from a Mercedes with low CO2 emissions and reasonable running costs, the C-Class is an ideal company car for any SME that wants to give a great first impression without breaking the bank.

The lower-end engine has CO2 emissions of just 103g/km ensuring company car tax bills that are pleasing on the eye, while fuel economy is also impressive. Performance doesn’t suffer as a result either, and the C220 Bluetec engine pulls strongly from low revs – complemented by quick acceleration beyond the 4000rpm mark.

BMW 3-Series – £23,555-£43,685

Winner of the 2014 CarBuyer Best Executive Car Award, the BMW 3-Series is an impressive car for all kinds of reasons.

Impressive engine performance? Check. Expert engineering that delivers genuine reliability? Check. Plenty of interior and boot space to provide that all-important practicality? Check and check.

With this much power under the bonnet, you might expect the 3-Series to fall down in terms of fuel efficiency, however the 320d 181bhp 2.0-litre returns an impressive 61.4mpg, while BMW’s EfficientDynamics technology restricts CO2 emissions to no more than 120g/km.

CarBuyer described the 3-Series as “one of the best compact executive cars money can buy” – and we’d have to say we agree.

Audi A3 Saloon – £22,825-£33,245

Unsurprisingly the third and final car in our round-up of the best value prestige company cars comes from yet another German automotive giant.

The Audi A3 Saloon offers strong and efficient engines, providing some of the lowest CO2 emissions for its class as well as impressive fuel efficiency.

Reliability is also an important issue for business car owners, and this is an area in which the A3 excels having been manufactured with the very best high-grade materials.

The combination of aluminium and high-strength steel helps to keep weight down to a minimum without compromising on durability, while the cabin is also built to an exceptionally high standard to deliver the kind of interior you’d expect to find in a luxury vehicle from one of the world’s leading brands.

source http://www.businesscarmanager.co.uk/best-value-prestige-company-cars-smes/3/

BMW believe the face of luxury is changing

With the growing demand for more digital technology and style, it is no surprise that BMW have recently made a bold statement about what defines a luxury car today. The car manufacturer believes that premium manufacturers will have to focus more on details if they want to continue to charge premium prices.

The German luxury giant’s senior vice president product management, Hildegard Wortmann, said luxury car makers such as BMW would have to evolve to reflect changing tastes and expectations by buyers of luxury vehicles.

“There’s a new understanding of what luxury stands for, which is a strong evolution or revolution of where we are today,” Wortmann told Drive at the 2014 New York motor show.

“Being a leader, we think we need to be there progressing as well and doing different things.”

Speaking at this month’s New York motor show Wortmann pointed to the recently unveiled BMW Future Luxury Concept car that is a pointer to the upcoming sixth generation 7-Series luxury flagship. She said it was evidence of the lengths BMW would be going to in an effort to further build its image and sales.

“We had a lot of discussions about it internally,” she said. “Luxury is no longer adding chrome and bits and pieces to a car … there is a new generation coming up where you have to deliver luxury in a different way, which is more about innovation, about craftsmanship, about the materials you use, etcetera.”

Wortmann said while BMW would be focussing more on materials and attention to detail the digital era meant it was more important than ever for luxury brands to maintain pace with new developments.

“If you look at all the consumer electronics in the car, we cannot offer old stuff when the world around is moving fast.”

Wortmann said there was no danger of the luxury market drying up, with increasing demand prompting major players such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi to increase the number of cars they offer.

“There will always be a market for luxury, top-end models,” she said. “There will always be customers going for the ultimate luxury experience and that’s certainly something we will deliver, but the definition of luxury has got to be at least evolving if not changing.”
Source: http://www.watoday.com.au/executive-style/motors/face-of-luxury-is-changing-says-bmw-20140430-37gtg.html#ixzz30XZTI9P3