You wouldn't find much of an audience for your jokes in a luxury car dealership the day after the local football team got relegated. But they've got a much bigger problem now the entire country's been relegated, financially speaking.
Two ways of looking at this: doom and gloom for the luxury car seller, a shot of adrenaline for the luxury car buyer (assuming anyone's being frivolous with their money any more).
Being British, I'll start with the doom. Among the general despondency of October's car figures was some worse news for luxury and sports car manufacturers. While the whole market was down 23% compared to the previous October, Bentley dropped a massive 48%, Porsche 38%, Aston Martin 33% and Mercedes by 32%.
With no customers, dealers are starting to fall by the wayside. Those known about (as opposed to whispers and rumours) are Bentley West Country in Exeter, Lexus dealerships in Brighton and Southend, and the continuing loss of dealers run by the giant Pendragon Group, which includes the upmarket Stratstone chain. The crippled group will have shed 75 dealers by the end of the year.
Those that remain are under orders not to take certain brands or types of car in part exchange - even their own. Cases I've heard about include one Porsche repeat customer who wasn't allowed to PX his Boxster, and an Audi dealer who wouldn't take cars with over four cylinders.
But if you're plonking down cash, of course, it's a cut-price candy shop out. To give you an idea how good it is, back in 2005 the price experts at CAP guessed that in 2008 a three-year-old Bentley Continental GT would be worth £66,300. And that's a trade price too. With the dealer adding profit, it would have been closer to £70,000. But I had no trouble finding a three-year-old, newly serviced GT on sale for just £45,995.
Almost the same goes for the Aston Martin DB9. CAP predicted £61,725 for a three-year-old example. I found a nice one for £49,850. For a car that cost £103,000 back in 2005. Of course, many dealers will be so happy to see you, they're likely to knock off a couple more grand, throw in a bottle of champagne they've no reason to open any more and, hell, maybe even let you have a part-exchange hatchback they've got kicking about.
