German Car Zone

Although similar Bentley do differ from RR. Bentley earn pretty much all their money from the CGT, Flying Spur and CGTC which are all upper middle class product on the gray line between mass production and the world of limited production. RR on the other hand have a portfolio of elite products which are purchased by people who don't have all their wealth tied into real estate or shares, and are in that way remotely affected by the credit crunch. The typical Continental GT customer on the other hand might just be a well paid upper middle real estate agent who doesn't have any decent amount of cash to speak off. More so the RR production is very low as well.

^ yes that is probably quite true to some degree.

With regards to the trends around high-status luxury products, I guess it depends on the particular type of client we are talking about. In a large diverse metropolis like Manhatten you might be much more accutely aware of general social trends (and influenced by them) more than if you lived in a place like Santa Barbara or Monaco.

It is wrong to assume that wealthy people are not also influenced by general social concerns -- just look at the number of Hollywood people who drive Hybrids for example. There are likely to be many wealthy individuals who would consider a Rolls-Royce Phantom to be a way of attracting unwanted attention -- some people love to be noticed -- but many prefer to be more discreet.

^^
True. But Hollywood example wasn't a valid one since you're probably aware of that Hollywood rich folks like Cameron Diaz drove the Prius just to be politically correct. The Hollywood Prius bandwagon did actually exist But there are those people who generally live with discretion and I see many of them here in London actually which is contrary to Sweden where those who think they've got money like to look they're rich. I'm still impressed by the fact that I've yet to see anyone in central London drive around in a hot car blasting music out of the windows. I saw a lot of that in Sweden and California.


House prices in London have, as with any other place, fallen. The ultra high end segment of properties here(we're talking <£10-30 milli) is surprisingly the only segment that is experiencing increases in value, a 8-15% increase in fact. Obviously the people we're talking about are ultra rich and live a bubble we'll never get to know off.