Luxury cars roll into Vietnam despite economic doldrums

At least 10 super luxury cars have been imported to Vietnam within 2012’s first six months, with five Rolls-Royce Phantom Dragons, each estimated to cost  $1.2 million, out of 33 on the world market imported, according to local importers.

Besides that, there have been some super luxury cars being rolling into Vietnam’s streets such as Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV, Bentley Mulsanne, Ferari F430 Spider, Mercedes SLR Mclaren and Audi R8 V10.

Most of them are million-dollar cars and have a limited quantity for each model. Similarly, lower-priced luxury car models of Audi, BMW and Porsche were sold well despite the current downturn and high tax barriers for imported cars.

Tran Tan Trung, director of Lien A International Company - the official Audi dealer in Vietnam, believed that despite of the gloomy economy, luxury Audi cars such as A5 Sportback, A6, Q5 and A8 were the best sellers.

“Even some newly-introduced car models are being hunted by Vietnamese customers,” added Trung.

In a similar development, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam has opened two new showrooms in Haiphong and Danang to catch this wave. In Danang, the German car manufacturer sold three R300L new generation with a total bill of VND10 billion ($478,900) in the first days of launching.

To date, some luxury cars have official distributors in Vietnam such as BMW, Audi, Porsche, Chrysler, Dodge and Subaru. But famous super luxury automobile manufacturers such as Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghini and Maserati still have no authorised dealers in Vietnam.

With the positive moves from Vietnam, Bentley Asia revealed that it was casting  its eyes on Vietnam market and would soon introduce official dealer in Vietnam in 2012. Contrary to the positive picture of super luxury and luxury cars, middle and low-class cars are facing with big challenges.

According to Vietnam Automotives Manufacturers’ Association, the volume of imported completely-built units was down 30 per cent in June compared with the same period last year. Total sales for first six months stopped at 13,978 units valued at $285 million, a significant fall of 58 per cent in volume and 54 per cent in value versus the same period of 2011, respectively.