The Real Luxury

For some, a high sticker price is part of the appeal of a car - not a drawback. Value is often as much perceived a it is real, and there is a privileged generation of people for whom price is no object, and would in fact prefer to pay more, to feel they are getting something that is top quality. Hong Kong luxury automobile dealers have found a host of challengers for the creme de la creme dollar in unique and customised cars - here we look at some of the most extravagant, including the features that your mid-sized runabout is missing out on.

With prices starting at around $300,000, it is easy to wonder who it is that actually creates a market for these cars to be built. In fact, the models that we explore below have quite healthy sales through Hong Kong luxury car dealers. Bentley's sales and marketing director, Stuart McCullough, says that " Competition is getting tougher ... If you look at the kind of wealth these people have, the car is not that big a deal. It's not that big a dent on their net worth".

A great example of this is a customer McCullough had who had changed their mind about the color of the car they wanted. The man contacted the dealer to see if it was too late to change the order, and was told that unfortunately it was. He immediately asked to have another duplicate vehicle ordered in his chosen color ... doubling the cost, but getting him the precise product he desired.

Top notch customers can even have complex factory modification s done at their request. For example, the luxury car dealer in Hong Kong that sold Sir Michael Kadoorie (Chairman of Hong Kong and Shanghai hotels) his Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe moved the two batteries underneath the floor of the trunk, so that there was more room for luggage. The Hong Kong luxury automobile dealer even had the CEO of Rolls Royce deliver the keys personally to Sir Michael ... but that is understandable when you consider that he bought 14 of the up-to-$400,000 vehicles a couple of months before.

When a person buys a Ferrari from a Hong Kong luxury car dealer, around $20,000 to $50,000 worth of personalization options are typically ordered with the car. However, it is not only these options, bells and whistles that are important to ultra-high earners, and Hong Kong luxury car dealers understand this. They are now trying to focus on the fundamentals of great customer service for their super-rich clients, including putting real people on the ends of phone lines, allowing front line employees to make decisions rather than having customers wait for a response, and problem resolution policies that favour the customer.

Some of the cars that warrant this kind of service include the Bugatti Veyron, the only production car with over 1000 horsepower. It has a W16 engine - two V8s alongside each other, and costs around $1.4 million. The Mercedes Maybach 62S was one of the first to break the $300,000 barrier, and will now cost you over $400,000. This Mercedes auto has a turbocharged V12, and your Hong Kong luxury car dealer can arrange upgraded upholstery for you, including color contrasting piping, carbon fiber trim, paints that are exclusively mixed, and a choice of woods for the dash and console.

The Mercedes Benz SLR MCLaren is another Mercedes auto that make the list of the most expensive cars in Hong Kong. It has a hair-raising 650 horsepower, and purchasing this Mercedes Benz car also gets you an SLR-club membership, at a high-tech test track in the south of France, so you can really see what all those horses can do.