“It is wrong to say certain segments of the market are immune to economic downturns in the market, as far as we’re concerned.” Who said it?
That’d be a Bentley vice-president, Geoff Dowding, who happens to be the worldwide operations manager for Volkswagen-owned Bentley as well. For quite some time, luxury vehicle sales were immune to the current economic downturn that displayed American sales statistics that can be seen here, here, and here.
Such a anti-trend fad was bound to end. Some Numbers are beginning to reveal the effect of economic downturns on American luxury car sales. Those Numbers are below.
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27.9 – percentage drop in American Bentley sales over the first half of 2008 compared with the first half of 2007 when 2,527 Bentleys were sold
20,268 – total sales of the Lexus LS in the United States during the first six months of 2007; 7,248 more than in the first half of ’08
25.7 – percentage sales drop in America for the Mercedes-Benz-owned Maybach brand over the first six months of this year
11,216 – total sales of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class over the first half of 2008; 3,854 fewer than the same period of 2007
28.6 – percentage drop in Porsche 911 sales through July of this year, down from 8,021 in 2007.5 to 5,724 during the first half of this year
