Automobile Retailers

Lamborghini’s gross profit has gone up by more than a third in the first half of the year, the Italian carmaker said.

Due to higher sales, better products and bigger margins, Lamborghini was able to record high profits in a time when selling a Lamborghini must be difficult. The company reiterated its 2008 estimate for a 5% rise in unit sales, too, and stated that they had already met their target of matching the 10% gross increase in profit margin that it had achieved last year.

Lamborghini hit a record net profit last year after working to rejuvenate its brand, accelerating innovative model launches, widening its dealer and retail network, and expanding licensing agreements.

One of Lamborghini’s latest moves was to have Versace, the famed Italian fashion house, work with the company on designing the interior of limited edition vehicles and accompanying Lamborghini accessories, such as bags and gloves. The move helps boost the profile of Lamborghini and should help increase the profit margin.

Another promotional move was to feature the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 in the latest Batman film.

With promotional moves on deck that should wow the crowds, Lamborghini dealer outlets could be flooded with even more curious customers as the company’s profile in the community continues to improve.

After watching the latest Batman movie a few times over the week, I couldn’t help but wax poetic about the various incarnations of the Batmobile and how it’s come about in the movies. Starting with Tim Burton’s machine in the 1989 film and rolling through almost two decades later to the Tumbler and the Batpod, it’s interesting to see how Batman’s vehicles have changed.

For starters, Tim Burton’s version of the Batmobile was sleek and slick. It was apparently inspired by a Harrier Jump Jet and had rear lights taken from a Ferrari. The headlamps came from a less luxurious location: a Honda Civic. The car came armed with two Browning machine guns and a grappling gun, just in case.

Fast-forward a bit to Joel Schumacher’s campy makeover. The car was rebuilt to match Schumacher’s campy take on the franchise and was given colourful lights and a more streamlined feel. Not very popular, the Schumacher Batmobile was rejected alongside the movies he made and Batman had to retire.

With Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, he was able to fuse a Lamborghini and a Humvee to create the Tumbler. Arguably the most realistic Batmobile yet and one of the most popular, this version cooked through city streets and made itself into a Batpod for emergency purposes, as evidenced in The Dark Knight.

You may not be in the market for a Tumbler, but you can hop down to your local Lamborghini dealer for a look at your own superhero vehicle.

With rising gas prices and changing environmental issues, Chevrolet is taking a gamble in its production of the new supercar. The first of the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 models rolled off the production line and headed to David Ressler, who bought the car on auction for $1-million.

The ZR1 has a list price of $103,300 and is the most expensive and most powerful car Chevrolet has ever built. The car is largely designed on the basis of an ego trip, with hopes that drivers will love the feeling of power and control that goes with the car. Unfortunately, many analysts think that Chevy has brought this beast out at the wrong time and is taking an unnecessary and major gamble with rising gas prices.

The “macho” effect simply isn’t what it used to be.

The car’s supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine cranks out 638 horsepower and allows the car to accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. Its top speed is 205 mph. Chevy is hoping that the Corvette ZR1 will tackle the European supercars and be able to bring some of the prize of macho supercar status back to North America.

The ZR1, despite not being too great across the board in fuel economy, actually beats Lamborghini’s fuel economy. Whether the Corvette ZR1 will wind up defeating the Lamborghini dealer products remains to be seen, of course, but it certainly does appear to be able to give the Italian automaker’s pride and joy a run for its money.

Those looking to get into a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 will have to hold their horses for a few months. This model, the most significant makeover of the car since the vehicle’s introduction in 2003, is one hell of a popular vehicle among those who can afford it.

In fact, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 is proving so popular that the Italian automaker announced a six-month waiting list for models. The wait list was announced even before the car’s United States sales debut later on this summer.

The LP560-4 went on sale across Europe in June with a price tag of $222,000.

The LP560-4 is named for its more authoritative engine, which is a direct-injection 5.2-liter V10 that can hit up to 552 horsepower. It also features four-wheel drive. The model has been re-sculpted too, with larger air intakes that provide added cooling. The redesigned rear end takes its styling cues from the Lamborghini Miura.

So when it comes right down to it, those in the United States or North America looking for a piece of the action in terms of a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 are just going to have to wait a little longer. Drop by your local Lamborghini dealer, check out the cars on the lot, and put your name on the waiting list…if you must. Or if you’re like me, if anything else, you can bask in the glow of the cars you won’t be able to afford.

The darkening gloom hanging over the United States economy continues to gather like a relentless fog. It’s hard to imagine a way out of the gloom, but there may be some signs that things are looking up. Unfortunately, one of those signs wasn’t the falling crude oil prices.

Oil fell yesterday in the largest single-day plunge since 1991, tumbling a massive $6.44 a barrel. Before settling on that final price, the tumble was as much as over $10 a barrel. Officials were grateful that the seesaw effect from the day’s trading levelled off where it did because things could have been a lot worse.

The large price swings in oil are certainly not good signs. The market is especially volatile and many analysts are predicting that things are going to get a lot worse before anything gets better. Some energy analysts said the catalyst Tuesday was testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who said the Fed must remain “particularly alert” to any sign that inflation is getting out of control.

This type of market activity isn’t good news to anyone with major or minor investments. The resulting tumult in the economy may wind up wounding big and small businesses. Car dealerships will suffer inevitably, as the resulting oil calamity is impacting the amount of cars sold. From the local Lamborghini dealer to the Ford outlet, owners are feeling the pinch and there is no sign of things letting up anytime soon.

It’s hard to pretend that the world isn’t sitting at the brink of another oil crisis. In 1973, there was another sort of oil crisis involving oil from the Middle East and support for Israel. Currently, the results of the oil crisis may be good as people are forced to find alternative energy sources. But in 1973, the situation was very different and companies like Lamborghini were in serious trouble.

The 1973 incident was caused when members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that, as a result of the ongoing Yom Kippur War, they weren’t going to export any more oil to countries that continued a relentless support of Israel. This, of course, meant the United States of America primarily.

The countries also used their influence over world markets to raise the prices of oil considerably and, as such, the economies of the oil dependent countries became incredibly inflationary. Car companies were in serious trouble. Lamborghini actually declared bankruptcy in 1978 as a result of the crisis.

As a result of declaring bankruptcy, an Italian court was appointed to find a buyer for the company. A Swiss based company took over in 1984 for some time, and then Lamborghini was bought by Chrysler in 1987.

Eventually, Lamborghini sold to a company called Megatech, which eventually sold the car company to Audi. All Lamborghini dealer outlets are now related to Audi and the car company has been doing relatively well ever since.

The Volkswagen Group in China increased deliveries to the Chinese mainland, Macau, and Hong Kong in the first half of 2008 to 531,612 units, up 23.3% from the same period last year. This increase, involving Volkswagen’s two joint ventures, Shanghai Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, is certainly something Volkswagen can be proud of.

Sales of the Volkswagen brand amounted to 439,218 units, which is up 15.7% from the same period of last year including 5,797 imported vehicles. Audi delivered 60,509 vehicles to customers, which is up 23.1% from last year including 6,721 imported units.

By contrast, Lamborghini dealer outlets in China sold 44 units of their luxury vehicles in the same geographical location. This is actually a deceptively impressive figure, as problems have befallen China as of late, including the earthquake, environmental issues, and the rising price of oil. Despite these issues, Lamborghini has sold a considerable amount of automobiles.

Volkswagen has impressed, however, and their continued commitment to growing sales in the region will likely be mirrored by other companies. Lamborghini may wish to steal a few pages from the Volkswagen book, although luxury car sales are a completely different set of circumstances.

Volkswagen is looking at opening up more plants to meet the growing demand, including one in Nanjing.

Despite the government’s best efforts to shut down the importing of luxury cars and keep them heavily taxed, various luxury vehicles are still finding their way into Vietnam.

In order to fight inflation, the Vietnam government has tightened restrictions on luxury vehicles coming into the country. But despite these efforts, several thousand luxury cars are arriving in the country. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Customs Agency, by the end of March 2008, 2,593 cars arrived in the city, marking an increase of 2,171 units over the same period of 2007.

Many are pointing to the low import tax as a reason for this sudden swell. Of course, the governments have increased the import tax to 83%, which has made it harder to bring in cars from outside. Still, most market analysts say that the high taxes aren’t impeding enough importers from bringing their vehicles in to the cities.

The high demand for luxury cars in Vietnam has prompted luxury car manufacturers like Porsche, BMW, Audi, and Rolls-Royce to race to look for distributors and dealers in Vietnam who will help boost sales in the country, where the income per capita is less than $1,000 per annum.

Contrast that with the situation in America where, despite the recession, individuals are still lapping up luxury cars and heading down to the Lamborghini dealer for a good time. Perhaps we aren’t so different after all…

Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Porsche are going to have a hell of a fight on their hands if the brand spankin’ new Tesla has a word in it.

The Tesla, which can rip from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, is a completely ELECTRIC car. So much for the mythology of green cars not being able to go fast or compete with the muscles of the combustion engine powerhouses.

Ferrari and Lamborghini most certainly will need to come up with something to come to terms with this latest green addition, even if the Tesla is just another in a long line of electric cars that can burn rubber. It certainly isn’t the first fast green car, of course, as Tom Swift was ripping it up in electric cars some sixty years ago.

If Tesla wants to market their green machine as the first and finest, more power to ‘em. I just hope the buying public knows that the power behind your favourite car at the Lamborghini dealer or the Ferrari lot is available with none of the fuss and muss of the internal combustion engine. Not only are electric cars cleaner, they’re also quicker when it comes to reaching those speeds. While the combustion engines require a lot of going-through-the-motions to reach their apex, the electric car is a start-and-go masterpiece.

So get ready, Lamborghini. Tighten your braces, Porsche. And prepare yourselves, Ferrari. Tesla’s here.

Dick Kvetnansky was washing cars at a gas station near Washington, D.C., when he first spotted the fake. It was a yellow Ferrari Testarossa, but it had an engine that sounded an awful lot like a Chevrolet. He knew the discrepancy instantly and it gave the Slovakian an idea.

Fast-forward and Kvetnansky started creating his own fakes. He built fake Ferraris and fake Lamborghinis, spending several years creating versions of the top sports cars. Hollywood even used some of Kvetnansky’s cars in crashes for their films.

Eventually, Ferrari cracked down on the Slovak and said he was harming their image. He was forced out of the replica business and had to enter the kit car design business with an entirely new enterprise. It was after creating roadster kits built on a Honda Accord frame that he started to make an entirely new sports car.

Today, Kvetnansky is backed by Slovak investment firm CI Holding and is hoping to take on the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini with something he’s calling the K1 Attack. He has since called out any competing sports car for a speed challenge, claiming his car is the fastest.

Whether the K1 Attack will find its way to any dealer remains to be seen, but it may wind up challenging those cars found on the Lamborghini dealer lot or in the Ferrari factory, adding new speed to an industry often dominated by two Italian carmakers.