Automakers introduced ridiculous luxury cars at the New York Auto Show
NEW YORK -- When you walk into the New York Auto Show, two things stand out: the size of the cars and the sheer cost of them.
This is not the year of the petite, fast sportscar or the sensible station wagon. Carmakers are going for bling, reaching for those luxury consumers.
It's a demographic that keeps growing, despite weak or weakening economies in the US, China and Europe. China, the engine for luxury spending worldwide, is experiencing its slowest economy in 15 years.
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The luxury industry somehow floats above those petty concerns. Luxury spending surpassed $1.1 trillion in 2015, which was 5% more than 2014, according to Bain.
That was driven primarily by luxury car growth at 8%, Bain said.
Specifically, the themes were physically represented by the Genesis New York Concept and the Maserati Levante.
Before I explain the significance of these cars, let's give a bit of background.
Genesis is the high-end luxury spinoff of the South Korean Hyundai brand. Essentially, Genesis is to Hyundai as Lexus is to Toyota or Infiniti is to Nissan.
As for the Levante, it's Maserati's first SUV. And we'll discuss the significance of that sentence momentarily.
While the Genesis is stunning in its exterior design and impressive with its interior tech, it is what it signals that piques my interest. That's because luxury cars are proving to be big business.
In the last few years, the global appetite for luxury cars has exploded. Amazingly, there's apparently room at both the top and the bottom of the luxury market for growth.
For example, Mercedes-Benz's entry-level CLA-Class four-door coupe has proved profitable. That's because buyers who used to opt for a loaded, $35,000 Toyota Camry are instead seeing opportunity to drive a Mercedes for the same money -- albeit the smallest one Mercedes offers.
At the top end we have the Bentley Bentayga SUV. One might think that there'd be a limited buyer base for an SUV that starts at $232,000. However, they'd be wrong. In fact, Bentley can't build Bentaygas fast enough to meet demand. Go figure.
It's those sorts of successes in the market that lead a new Genesis brand and a Maserati SUV on the show floor: There's seemingly no ceiling for luxury cars right now. Carmakers are so keen to attract new buyers, they'll bend their brand DNA to meet consumer interest. The Levante is a perfect example.
Maserati has always been a sports-car brand for glitterati.
Heck, when John Lennon made it big, the first car he bought with his Beatles money was a Maserati.
However, as the sports car market slows and people become drawn to big, luxurious crossovers, Maserati has to redefine itself.
The inverse is true for Hyundai. Rather than face the uphill -- and perhaps insurmountable -- battle of redefining Hyundai as luxury, it instead created a new, clean-slate luxury brand atop itself -- Genesis -- with which it can do whatever it wants in order attract luxury consumers. With Genesis, Hyundai hopes to snap up Lexus and Mercedes drivers.
Perhaps the weirdest exemplar on the New York Auto Show floor of how strange car buyer's obsession with big luxury SUVs is Lincoln's new Navigator Concept. Not only is it the size and color of a blue whale, it has more than seven screens, gull-wing doors and concertina steps.
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Although the creation of such a complicated, over the top vehicle is laughable for a whole host of reasons, what's not funny at all is the realization that, with the luxury market this strong, people would probably throw money at Lincoln for the opportunity to own it. The demand, it seems, is limitless.
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Topics Cars
