While the typical supercar buyer in most parts of the world is in his 40s, things are somewhat different in China, where Lamborghini Asia Pacific general manager Christian Mastro is based.
In the world’s second largest economy where newly-made millionaires are acquiring the taste for flashy cars, the buyers come notably more fresh-faced.
And Mastro has made it a point to pay attention to the younger set when he catches them admiring the supercars in his showrooms.
“We often have young guys in T-shirts and sneakers whom you think are just curious kids.
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| Mastro |
“Then they come up to our salespeople and say, ‘I want to buy this car’,” Mastro said in an interview during his recent visit here for the launch of a new 3S centre in Glenmarie, Shah Alam.
“Our youngest customer is a 25-year old. The average age of our customers here is between 35 and 45 – some 10 years younger than the usual Lamborghini buyers in Europe,” he said.
Mastro, whose office is in Beijing, said most of his Chinese customers were young entrepreneurs who had made it big in the country’s booming property and mining sectors.
“When they buy our cars, it’s usually in cash without any financing. This practice is rare in the US or Europe,” he said.
“I guess that our Chinese customers are making plenty of money fast so they probably want to enjoy their money as quickly as possible,” he laughed.
In fact, China has overtaken the US as the top market for Lamborghini despite the 243% tax levied in China on these sports cars.
He said a Gallardo and an Aventador, which are priced at US$550,000 (RM1.7mil) and US$1.1mil (RM3.4mil) respectively in China, cost only a third of their prices if they were sold in the US.
Last year, Lamborghini sold 1,600 cars for which the Gallardo accounted for 60% of sales. The remainder was made up of the Murceilago and the Aventador models.
Besides China, Mastro is also responsible for markets such Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Malaysia.
While the focus of all global car makers of late has been the Chinese market, Lamborghini does not want to neglect its older markets.
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| The newly launched 3S Lamborghini centre in Shah Alam. |
Mastro said the opening of the RM4mil Lamborghini 3S centre in Glenmarie, Shah Alam, meant that interests of Lamborghini owners in Malaysia would be better taken care of from now.
“We should be here in a proper way with the right facilities and services to promote the brand so customers get the real Lamborghini experience.
“Our technicians must also be well-trained and be equipped with proper diagnostic tools,” he said.
Eminent Century Sdn Bhd is the official importer of Lamborghini cars while JH Italia Sdn Bhd is the sole official dealer.
JH Italia is also involved in Lamborghini’s one-make-series, the Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia.
“In the past, there were many grey market Lamborghini cars in the local market and customers were not looked after.
“Grey market car importers are just selling our cars without conveying the brand value and experience to the customers. They were just taking advantage of Lamborghini’s popularity without any interest in looking after the brand,” he said.
However, Mastro said Lamborghini would not abandon Malaysian customers who had bought their cars from grey importers.
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| The Gallardo MLE. |
He said the local operations would still provide service to grey car owners but might not be able to help them in warranty claims if the cars have been modified.
Mastro said Malaysia was an important pillar for Lamborghini’s growth strategy in the region.
“We are not talking about annual sales of few units every year any more but much bigger numbers,” he said.
Produced exclusively for the Malaysian market is the RM1.68mil Gallardo MLE (Malaysian Limited Edition) variant.
With a run of 20 units only, the MLE is based on the regular Gallardo LP 550-2 variant but gets the bodykit of the more extreme Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera that consists of an aggressive front bumper, carbon side skirts, titanium exhaust tips and a carbon fibre rear diffuser.
Mastro has almost two decades’ experience in the automobile industry, having worked in Volvo and Honda before joining the Sant’Agata Bolognese-based supercar maker in 2004.
He relocated to China in May 2009 as general manager of Lamborghini Asia-Pacific.
“Our core values are being extreme, uncompromising and Italian.
“We are a unique brand and we want our cars to stand out from the competitors’. We do our business our own way and do not look at what our competitors are doing,” he said.
Mastro said many Hollywood studios wanted to feature Lamborghini cars in their movies as these vehicles matched the personalities of the heroes.
A Murceilago was driven by Bruce Wayne, the alter ego of Batman, in the 2008 movie The Dark Knight, while a Gallardo, modified with a floor escape hatch, aided the IMF team in the abduction of the villain in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III.
“There will be more Hollywood movies featuring our cars soon,” he said.
As a “Raging Bull” man, Mastro admits that the temptation to drive fast is never far away whenever he gets behind the steering wheel.
His fastest speed was 330kph in Murceilago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce at Nardo Ring track in Italy.
“At 330kph, things were happening very fast and there was not much time to think about anything else.
“I hope I will get the chance to do that drive again with the more powerful Aventador soon,” he added.