The act of flipping cars — that is, buying a limited or highly desirable model and then reselling it for big profit — won’t go unnoticed, or be tolerated, by Rolls-Royce.
Specifically referring to the new Rolls Spectre — the first electric car from the brand — Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös told Car Dealer that any customer who sells or try to sell one will be blacklisted for life if he attempts to buy another from a dealer.
Speaking at the launch of the new car in California, he said: ‘I can tell you we are really sanitizing the need to prove who you are, what you want to do with the car – you need to qualify for a car and then you might get a slot for an order.” But those who violate the policy and resell the vehicle at a higher price are “going immediately on a blacklist and this is it – you will never ever have the chance to acquire again.’
The super-luxe Spectre is to open its order books soon with deliveries to start in the autumn. Base price in the UK is about $425,000.
The response from some dealers in Britain, who say the inflated price resales are legal, was resentment at Rolls. London dealer Tom Hartle, known for selling secondhand Rolls-Royce models, said that he has already agreed to collect £50,000 ($65,000) premiums for two Spectres. He said he will have a Spectre for sale at his used-car dealership “within two weeks of it being launched.”
”I do not think it is fair for carmakers to tell customers who have spent close to half a million pounds on a car what they can do with it,” he told Car Dealer.
Last year, General Motors said it would ban flippers “from placing future sold orders or reservations if the vehicle is resold within the first 12 months of ownership.” Those high-demand products were the Corvette Z06, the Cadillac Escalade-V, and the GMC Hummer EV. And years ago, Ford famously sued wrestler and actor John Cena, who flipped a Ford GT in violation of his purchase contract.
At Rolls, the company maintains that it has paid close attention to Spectre’s specifics while in development. “To do this, “ Müller-Ötvös said, “we have conceived the most demanding testing program in Rolls-Royce’s history. We will cover 2.5 million kilometers – a simulation of more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce, on average – and we will travel to all four corners of the world to push this new motor car to the limit,”
