High End Luxury Cars

24697 messages, Last post on Nov 28, 2009 at 3:09 PM

You are in the Sedans Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens

What is this discussion about? Audi A8, BMW 7 Series, Jaguar XJ-Series, Lexus LS 460, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Volkswagen Phaeton, Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, Sedan

Let's try to define this forum as being limited to luxury performance vehicles where the mainstream version in a typical configuration has an MSRP of at least $60k.

A luxury vehicle with a base price of $59k qualifies because it would typically be bought with some additional equipment, bringing the MSRP over $60k.

Vehicles like the E, 5, A6, M, or GS, even if available in certain versions over $60k, don't qualify because they are cars from companies that have higher end cars in their lineups.

Outline

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#3957 of 24697 Retention Rates: Can anyone explain? by blockislandguy Jan 19, 2004 (7:30 pm)
Anyone want to guess why three brands with supposedly bad reliability problems (Jag, LR, and Audi) have significantly higher retention than Volvo?? Caddy even has retention? ( I thought that when you bought a Caddy it was your last new car?) Chevy out ranks Toyota?? Kia is 10 points above Accura?? I think JD Power got himself into some Christmas eggnog when he wrote this December report.
#3958 of 24697 Retention by JBaumgart Jan 19, 2004 (8:47 pm)
No doubt Chevy and Ford's numbers are heavily influenced by their trucks, where buyers tend to be very loyal. I know a number of people who would own nothing but a Suburban; others have owned a long series of F150's. To the extent brand loyalty is influenced by reliability, I'm surprised by the low numbers for Acura and Infiniti, which are always rated towards the top by J.D. Power. Probably more a reflection of "near luxury" buyers wanting to move up to "true luxury" models as they can afford it - each brand has had relatively unattractive top end models to keep buyers in the fold. That and the fact that the near-luxury segment has become very competitive as of late, with buyers having many attractive alternatives from which to choose.
#3961 of 24697 Phaeton News by lenscap Jan 20, 2004 (11:19 am)
I just read an article in Automotive News stating that VW dealers were upset only 330 Phaeton W-12s were offered for sale in the U.S. (all black with ivory interiors). So it seems VW will make more of these cars for the U.S., but with a steep price increase. The car is going up from $83,515 to a whopping $95,215. This is puzzling considering the car is not selling well in the U.S. (or Europe either). VW sold 343 Phaetons in November and December (only 225 of 607 dealers sell the Phaeton). The article gives no explanation for the huge price increase.
#3962 of 24697 Exchange Rate? by shipo Jan 20, 2004 (11:24 am)
Or better yet, using the exchange rate as an excuse to pad the bottom line/gouge the buying public? Best Regards, Shipo
#3963 of 24697 by pat HOST Jan 20, 2004 (12:39 pm)
Among other things, vwguild (VW salesguy) and some others have talked about the price increase over in Volkswagen Phaeton, in case anyone here is interested in that discussion.
#3964 of 24697 VW pricing by ljflx Jan 20, 2004 (1:03 pm)
Maybe the exchange rate is the cause as it is killing them. There was a story in the NY Times about how well hedged against the currency variations the Euro car makers were. VW was poorly hedged. MB was pretty well hedged and easily in the best position with a hedge factor in the 90's (having Chrysler helps them as well and is a natural hedge) and BMW was somewhere in the middle but lacks the further protection of owning a US make ala MB. The strength of the Euro is so high that you can actually buy a Porsche Carrera and a Cayenne in the US for the price of a Carrera in Europe. VW and Porsche were ony about 70% hedged if I remember right, so work the math on 30% of a Cayenne on each sale a Carrera makes. Ouch! But that is the profit hit they are taking on unit sales in the US due to the strength of the Euro. I don't know if that puts them in a loss position or not on their US unit sales but it certainly cuts heavily into the estimated profits they made for the financial community. They probably have some room to raise Phaeton prices (given they were low to begin with and the sales projections were also quite low) but I don't know if they can do so on anything else without taking a volume hit. Their treasurer must be in a heep of trouble.
#3965 of 24697 hedges by syswei Jan 20, 2004 (1:55 pm)
Currency hedges, when put in place, are typically not for multi-year time horizons...as old hedges expire new ones will be at prevailing rates...and US pricing of European and Japanese imports will tend to go up (beyond inflation)...so anyone contemplating buying an import over the next couple years might want to think about purchasing sooner rather than later.
#3966 of 24697 merc1 by ljflx Jan 21, 2004 (5:46 pm)
I'm anxiously awaiting your Detroit report.