Dubai
The British carmaker Bentley Motors and its local dealership Al Habtoor Motors are launching a direct financing programme from later this month, which will be available to buyers of both new and pre-owned Bentley models. Emirates NBD has signed up as the sole banking partner of Bentley Financial Services (BFS).
Al Habtoor Motors is the largest independent Bentley dealership in the world and last year had sales of 400 plus units.
Recently, Porsche had taken the same route in the UAE through the launch of its financial services subsidiary, while BMW has plans to widen its role in the same category. In the US and western Europe, all of the leading carmakers operate their own financial services subsidiaries. In the UAE, it is only now that this has started to build up sufficient momentum. (Some of the leading local dealerships had their own close associations with individual banks.)
Currently, 96 per cent of Bentley purchases in the UAE are done outright through cash. With the introduction of the customised ‘personal contract purchase’ plans through BFS, the partners hope this will apply to 30 per cent of future sales, with cash purchases making up the rest.
“With the PCP, we are offering an option where Bentley buyers do not have to lock in a significant sum on an outright cash transaction,” said George Duncan, director of Bentley Emirates. “Instead, they can use their capital on their other investments and pay back over a period of time. What this does is protect the guaranteed residual value of the car and also benefit the buyer from a total cost of ownership perspective.”
The Bentley PCP plans will have a 24-month tenor, with interest rate charged being “on par” with standard local banking rates.
Meanwhile, a new pre-owned showroom for Bentley opened in Dubai on Wednesday. “There’s been high demand for the pre-owned, having totalled 163 units last year and projected to cross 300 units this year,” said Duncan.
“All of these cars were earlier sold new by us and an actively managed pre-owned programme with its own team opens up an opportunity to create a broader customer base in this market.”
On the new model launch side of things, the Flying Spur with the V8, a 4.0-litre with an eight-speed transmission, is scheduled for an end August launch. The price tag starts from Dh790,000 compared with the Dh980,000 for the 6.0-litre Flying Spur W12.
