Global Financial Crisis

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Discussion in the Australian Porsche forums.

German luxury car maker Porsche has announced the resignation “with immediate effect” of its chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and financial director Holger Haerter.

ex-Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking

Discussion in the Australian exotic car forums.

Demand for prestige cars is rising according to the latest data from BCA. June sales nationwide saw strong bidding across a range of performance cars and exotica, suggesting buyers are happy to invest in these high-end, high-value machines.

Professional buyers have been attending BCA’s programme of Top Car sales in large numbers and bidding has been exceptionally competitive – even for cars approaching six-figure values. As a result, values for many cars in the prestige and performance sector have risen sharply against CAP Clean.

Source: Easier.com

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Discussion in the Australian Lamborghini forums:
http://aussieexotics.com/forum/lamborghini/lamborghini-sales-figures-t3772.0.html;msg62468#msg62468

PARIS (Reuters) – Luxury sports carmaker Lamborghini sees no recovery in its markets until 2011 after a 30 percent drop in sales in the first five months of this year, Chief Executive Stephan Winkelmann said on Wednesday.

Still, first-half figures would be positive, and the company, based in Sant’Agata Bolognese in central Italy, would achieve a full-year pre-tax profit, Winkelmann told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit.

“We could stay profitable with sales that are dropping at 40 percent (in 2009). We are foreseeing a scenario that is staying on the same level next year and coming back in 2011,” he said. “I’m prepared to face another tough year in 2010.”

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Discussion in the Australian prestige car forums:
http://aussieexotics.com/forum/off-topic/the-global-economy-aussie-economy-and-where-it-is-all-headed-t2452.0.html;msg62467#msg62467

Ever hankered for a Hummer, ached for an Aston Martin or dreamed of buying your very own Lamborghini? Well, this could be your lucky week.

Luxury car owners are putting their dream machines on the block in record numbers as the recession bites.

Thirty luxury vehicles worth $3.5 million will go under the hammer in Auckland this Saturday at Turners Auctions’ largest prestige auction.

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Discussion in the Australian Porsche forums:
http://aussieexotics.com/forum/porsche/porsche-may-be-forced-into-bankruptcy-t4293.0.html

Porsche in ‘advanced talks with Qatar’

Porsche is in advanced talks about selling a big stake to the Gulf state of Qatar that could ease the sports car maker’s debt problems, a newspaper report says.

The deal could ease the sports car maker’s debt problems and turn the tables in its feud with its bigger rival Volkswagen, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Wendelin Wiedeking, Porsche’s chief executive, is talking to the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) about taking a stake of up to 25 per cent in its holding company, people familiar with the talks told the newspaper.

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Discussion in the Australian Rolls-Royce forums:
http://aussieexotics.com/forum/off-topic/the-global-economy-aussie-economy-and-where-it-is-all-headed-t2452.0.html;msg58094#msg58094

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Rolls-Royce said its global sales may be flat this year but the luxury carmaker is banking on an economic recovery and the rollout of a new model to help jumpstart volumes in 2010.

“It could be anything from 50 percent higher to 100 percent higher,” Graeme Grieve, sales and marketing director of Rolls-Royce, a unit of German car maker BMW (BMWG.DE), told Reuters in an interview no Friday in response to a question about expected sales trends in 2010.

Rolls-Royce Chief Executive Officer Tom Purves also said the company’s total car sales could rise to 3,000 a year with the launch of its new RR4 model. In 2008, Rolls-Royce had total sales of 1,212 ‘Phantom’ model cars.
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Discussion in the Australian luxury car forums:
http://aussieexotics.com/forum/off-topic/the-global-economy-aussie-economy-and-where-it-is-all-headed-t2452.0.html;msg58093#msg58093

FRANKFURT (AP) — German automakers Daimler and BMW said a reluctance by consumers to spend on luxury autos trimmed first quarter sales — but Porsche reported an increase in Germany.

Munich-based carmaker BMW AG on Tuesday said its first-quarter sales worldwide fell 21 percent while rival Daimler AG said its own sales in the January-March period fell by around 23 percent.

BMW, whose brands include Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW, said sales in the first three months of the year totaled 277,264 compared with 351,787 a year earlier.
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Discussion in the Australian Porsche forums:
http://aussieexotics.com/forum/cars/porsche-pawn-t4053.0.html

People turn to pawn

THREE Porsches and a latest model Toyota are among the luxury cars being pawned by eastern suburbs (in Adelvegas) business people to keep their companies afloat.

Dozens of expensive items, including the cars, boats and plasma TVs, have been taken into Norwood pawnbroker Cash ‘N’ Trade in recent months as collateral in exchange for a money loan.

Cash ‘N’ Trade owner Matthew Fuller said he was servicing a “new breed” of clientele who had overspent and could not get a bank loan due to the economic downturn.
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Discussion in the Australian luxury car forums:
http://aussieexotics.com/forum/off-topic/the-global-economy-aussie-economy-and-where-it-is-all-headed-t2452.0.html;msg57952#msg57952

PRODUCTION of ultra-luxury cars is being reduced as millionaires and billionaires feel the pinch of the global recession.

Rolls-Royce chief executive Tom Purves was the latest to announce cutbacks this week, with 50 down-days scheduled for the company’s plant in England.

Rolls has abandoned its goal of sales growth this year and aims to match last year’s total of 1200 cars.

Lamborghini is cutting back production this year to about 1700 cars after making a record 2500 last year. Demand is expected to fall by up to 30 per cent.
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All is not well for Porsche, the German carmaker that appeared Tuesday to have made a killing from hedging shares of Volkswagen. While the company announced an astonishing 6.8 billion euros ($9.0 billion) in net profit booked on cash-settled options of Volkswagen shares, up from 850 million euros ($1.1 billion) last year, it said its net debt stood at a higher than expected 9.0 billion euros ($12.0 billion).

The value of Volkswagen shares, now 23.0% higher than at this time last year, has been driven up by expectations that Porsche (other-otc: POAHF – news – people ) would increase its 51.05% stake in the German carmaker to beyond 75.0% so that it can gain majority control under German law. The stock jumped again last week, when Porsche said it had renewed a 10.0 billion euro ($13.3 billion) credit facility that it could expand by another 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion).
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