Think $100G's For The New M3 Is Crazy? How About $200G's Over MSRP For the Rolls Drop Head?

Think $100G's For The New M3 Is Crazy? How About $200G's Over MSRP For the Rolls Drop Head?
In the competitive business of car sales, a single dealer with such a large market share is practically unheard of. And, yes, there are perks: private audiences with Rolls Royce management and influence over the company's future designs; exclusive rights to sell a limited "Beverly Hills" edition of the Phantom, with custom features such as illuminated door sills and mother of pearl inlays and a price tag of $398,510, compared with the normal Phantom sticker of $345,000. (The standard Phantom is the model of choice for O'Gara customers such as Shaquille O'Neal, who had his converted into a convertible.)

And there's the crown jewel: better, and more, inventory, hugely important for models like the Drophead Coupe, which has a sticker price of $412,000 but a waiting list of nearly two years, allowing dealers lucky enough to get them to mark up the price by as much as $200,000. That juicy profit is an O'Gara privilege.

528i528i - 3/11/2008 8:37:13 PM
0 Boost
Yay.


bmwfan1513bmwfan1513 - 3/11/2008 8:55:08 PM
0 Boost
I don't know what to think.


EL34EL34 - 3/11/2008 9:32:25 PM
0 Boost
I've got my order in :-R


nSunnSun - 3/13/2008 8:49:23 AM
+1 Boost
^^^LOL HIGH FIVE


KZ258KZ258 - 3/11/2008 10:08:41 PM
-2 Boost
dealerships have no morality


EnnNorakEnnNorak - 3/11/2008 11:24:53 PM
+2 Boost
A fool and his money are soon parted.


enthusiastx11enthusiastx11 - 3/12/2008 1:45:34 PM
+1 Boost
morality?

morality has nothing to do with it! high demand equals higher prices. it's called free market capitalism. are you a marxist?


KZ258KZ258 - 3/12/2008 10:17:06 PM
+1 Boost
enthusiastx11 yeah your right. its business after all.


EvoAudiEvoAudi - 3/11/2008 10:41:00 PM
0 Boost
Cuz we pimpin all over da wooooooorrrrrrllllllddddddd............


dbs600olddbs600old - 3/11/2008 11:09:24 PM
0 Boost
$100k for an M3 is uncalled for. $600k for a Drophead is well worth it. While the formers value will plummet, the laters will take off.


enthusiastx11enthusiastx11 - 3/12/2008 1:47:12 PM
+2 Boost
hate to break it to you, but rolls royces depreciate HORRIBLY while BMW is among the top brands in value retention.


pushrod27pushrod27 - 3/12/2008 7:07:35 PM
+1 Boost
that depends on how long you wait. in the short term, a BMW would have better resale value retention than a Rolls-Royce.

But in the long run, the Rolls would certainly fetch more as a collectors' car in 20-50 years. Check out a classic car auction and you will see what i mean.


dbs600olddbs600old - 3/13/2008 1:02:46 AM
+1 Boost
depends on what you mean by short term too. within the first 9 mos of the m3 being released, then, maybe, yes, but once you get to the next model year - the m3 from yr 1's value will drop no doubt. rolls will stay level.


Autoegr525Autoegr525 - 3/11/2008 11:28:36 PM
0 Boost
I'll take mine in yellow like the great Gatsby's


BFABSBFABS - 3/11/2008 11:32:04 PM
+2 Boost
Lets get this straight people. A Rolls Royce dealer sells 10 cars a year 5 new, 5 used. Makes an average of $200000 on each one which means it makes $2million a year. On the other hand, a Honda dealer sells 1500 cars a year (1.5 million sold by 1000 dealers) at a profit of say $3000 each. This turns out to be 4.5 million dollars annually. More than double the Rolls Royce dealer. So forget about morality at the dealership, if the dealer who has paid millions to set up his/her dealership cannot mark-up a rare car, then his customers who have invested nothing will sell that same car on Ebay for $200000 more. Blame Rolls Royce for making very few cars. I was a RR engineer when BMW bought them and I followed BMW to the US with Mini. Though shocked, I soon realised that the mass producers (Honda etc) make more money than the super luxurious manufacturers. Let them mark it up when they can, because for weeks they may not sell a single car.


ZBL1414ZBL1414 - 3/12/2008 7:45:06 AM
0 Boost
I too have no problem with a dealer charging whatever the market is willing to pay. However, the profit on a Honda is closer to $300 than $3,0000.


ZBL1414ZBL1414 - 3/12/2008 7:46:01 AM
+2 Boost
*$3,000


BFABSBFABS - 3/12/2008 9:04:25 AM
+1 Boost
ZBL1414,so between the fully loaded Pilot $35000 and the $14000 Fit you think they make $300 average? Wrong. They make more than that on options alone, like DVDs, leather, sunroof etc. The manufacturers make less per car than the dealers, but then the manufacturers make millions of cars. For example, Mercedes Dealers got 11% of the MSRP as at 2006! I here it's a little less now, that's no less than $6000 per car.


WhelanWhelan - 3/12/2008 9:41:13 AM
0 Boost
We are talking dealer profit. Well for the dealer you have front end and back end money. When I worked at an Acura dealer we would get a car in, say a TL base for 35k. Well we would have about 1500-2000 in back end money that was not touchable, not even the customer could get at it. The dealer needed that to make a small profit margin. Then we had front money. So what they saw as MSRP at 35k, they could maybe negotiate down to 1500 less. But we still have another 500 in the front. So total the dealer would make at most 3-4k per car. That is not counting the stuff people add on. Wheel protection, Simoniz teflon coatings, etc. Each one of those adds a profit to what went into my pocket as well as the dealers.


ZBL1414ZBL1414 - 3/12/2008 6:32:57 PM
+1 Boost
It depends on the particular model. Civics and Accords go out at invoice (unless the customer is a sucker). Yes, the dealer has "hold back" built in, but some dealers will cut into that as well. Again, it depends on the supply and demand of the particular model. When you go to the dealer and there are 45 Civics sitting on the lot the dealer is not making anywhere close to $3,000 on that transaction.


farabira1farabira1 - 3/12/2008 2:22:48 AM
-1 Boost
Rolls is worth it.


enthusiastx11enthusiastx11 - 3/12/2008 1:48:43 PM
+1 Boost
it is funny how everyone forgets that rolls royces are designed by bmw.


jpighettijpighetti - 3/12/2008 1:50:13 PM
+4 Boost
Gouging applies to necessities - fuel, milk, food, etc. Nobody is "forced" to buy a RR drophead. It doesn't apply to unnecessary luxury goods. If the cars are being sold for $200,000 over sticker, and people are buying them, then that's what the car is worth. You people act like you are players on the car at sticker, but any markup takes it out of the market for you. Please. Those who have $400,000 to spend on a car also have $600,000 to spend on the exact same car. There is a difference here compared to the M3 at $30,000 over sticker. The RR dealer will likely get sell the car at that markup, the BMW dealer won't. The $30K+ is there to allow the dealer to take a number of offers without being obligated to sell the car to anyone until they feel they have the strongest offer. It's not gouging in either case.


enthusiastx11enthusiastx11 - 3/12/2008 1:52:47 PM
+3 Boost
blah, blah, blah. freakin communists.

there is value to being among the first to drive around in a rare car (not to me, but to many people enamored of bling). as such, they will pay what it takes to get all the ooohs and ahhhhs. senseless in my opinion, but of great value to others. hence the price.

it's called capitalism, by the way. don't like it? i'll buy you a one-way ticket to cuba.


dbs600olddbs600old - 3/12/2008 10:11:41 AM
+1 Boost
another problem is the price point of the m3. $70k!?!? whats bmw thinking?? baseprice should be $55k. i miss the days that an m3 was $42k - when they were raw, lightweight, rockets - what they should be - not overweights needing v8s. at these prices an m3 vs m5 purchase decision would be too difficult for me.


enthusiastx11enthusiastx11 - 3/12/2008 1:53:50 PM
+2 Boost
why should it be $55k? bmw would be leaving money on the table. and that would be foolish. it's a FOR PROFIT business, not a charity.


dbs600olddbs600old - 3/13/2008 1:08:06 AM
+1 Boost
im not talking about the economies of production or what people are willing to pay, im just saying whatever happening to the pricing of all these cars? its gotten to be out of hand. m3 should be $55k, m5 should be $75k. look at mb amgs - does a $90k ML, R, or E (sedan or wagon) really make sense? its just sickening. while i find it confusing, im getting the point of audi's differentiation between s and rs models now.


macker83macker83 - 3/12/2008 12:40:09 PM
-2 Boost
well the ISF looks very good value now at $65 fully loaded


S4cabriofoxoneS4cabriofoxone - 3/12/2008 5:20:10 PM
+1 Boost
???


snatchandgrabsnatchandgrab - 3/12/2008 12:56:53 PM
+2 Boost
I wouldn't pay that much for an M3 or a Rolls and I loooove the M3.


enthusiastx11enthusiastx11 - 3/12/2008 1:54:28 PM
+1 Boost
seriously, what's with all the sour, jealous communists on this site?


pushrod27pushrod27 - 3/12/2008 7:09:36 PM
+1 Boost
they must not have any money, or any promising plans to get some. it's a shame, really.


S4cabriofoxoneS4cabriofoxone - 3/12/2008 5:19:59 PM
+2 Boost
I don't think this is ridiculous. People mark that much up on Ferraris, which can be as little as half the price of the Drophead.

I mean, think about it: that's a little more than a third of the cost. It certainly happens. Every time a hot new car comes out, the price is jacked up by about a third, or even a half. Look at the Audi R8--I would be surprised if you could get one for under $150,000.



MunichRobMunichRob - 3/14/2008 2:21:09 AM
+1 Boost
Though I do feel it is quite ridiculous regardless of what others in the buisness do, I don't think it's as silly as paying an extra premium for the Rolls as it is for the M3.

The M3 would be exclusive to you & a few others for maybe a month, the Drophead is probably already sold out for almost the next 2 years. Now that's exclusivity.


EyecarehawaiiEyecarehawaii - 3/14/2008 7:54:32 AM
+1 Boost
You can pay a lot of money for something that's not really all that great. It's the buyer's money though so who are we to say otherwise?
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