It's your fault, yes, you in the pic above, you are the culprit. You were the first one to arrive on the scene to the horror of traditionalists everywhere. Now several years later, you've begat a baby sister (brother?) and between the two of you, your sales account for over 50% of the brand's numbers in North America. By extension, you could say worldwide, these two models are huge for the brand. No secret what this brand is, it's Porsche. Those smart guys saw that a great many of their owners also had a sport ute for drives to the cottage or the ski slopes, so why not develop their own suv, so that the 911 drivers could stay with Porsche? Good thinking, although it took a lot of getting used to. A Porsche truck?
So after the success of the Porsche Cayenne, every other luxury brand has been looking at the sales crazy suv market and pondered bringing their version of a luxury model to the market. For Pete's sake, even Ferrari was rumoured to have given this some thought. So, who might also show up with a new sport ute? This blog won't be guessing about anything, since almost all of these models are about to arrive or are planned for the next couple of years.
The first one out of the gate is Bentley, with their just unveiled Bentayga (kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?)........
Apparently, the first one is going to Queen Elizabeth. Probably as a gift from VW, but she'd certainly be able to afford the approximately $250k price, before those "must have" extras. You just have to believe that, this new model will sell like hotcakes to those wanting the latest and greatest and besides, who needs to get road salt on their beautiful Mulsanne?
Maserati, that maker of gorgeous Italian rolling sculpture, will also be coming out with an suv. The oddly named Levante will arrive in the very near future........
Not as great looking as their sedans and sports coupes, but you can be sure that its Italian leather interior will knock those proverbial socks off.
Next up and also just unveiled is the Jaguar F-Pace........
Jag is another of those companies making lovely sedans and hot sports cars, who we might never have thought would bring an suv to market. But as you probably know, market forces will make a company rethink their role in life and nothing is sacred these days. Will it sell? Why not ask me a question that, you don't already know the answer to?
Ferrari says no (so far) to the sport ute craze, but Lamborghini seems to be buying into it with this model scheduled to arrive in a couple of years......
Of course, being a Lambo, this one will look the part and as always, will be named after a famous fighting bull.
One more and then, I'm out of here. All these other suvs that I've shown are reality, but here is one that isn't (yet). Audi has several suv's, but they've just shown a concept at the Frankfurt show. Their E-Tron sure looks like a sport ute and so far is not planned for production (2018?), but look at this one and tell me you don't think that is it assembly line ready.......
This one has all the right styling cues to make it a success, at least among those wanting an electric suv and there have to be more than a few customers in that category.
These days, show a company a market segment that they are not yet in and see what happens. Go against tradition? Who cares? If it is done right, and Porsche has done it right, then no telling how high the sales might be. Bentley brings out an suv, can Rolls be far behind? Actually, no they won't be with their suv, the Cullinan(?) scheduled for a 2018 release.
Ferrari? Never say never.
Until next time......
No comments:
Post a Comment