Who is the New Aston Martin V12 Speedster actually for?
An exploration of the potential customer for this spectacular if utterly useless vehicle.
First of all, I want to clear something up. I'm going to say it: I think the V12 Speedster is truly a thing of beauty.
So what's this post about then?
Well, It's written in response to this post:-
In particular, it's written in response to some of the comments, pointing out how useless this car is, despite its inherent desirability. I'll be honest, as a car it IS pretty useless. Yes, it has a reasonable boot for this 'sort of thing'. I accept that. However, I honestly don't think the V12 Speedster is a car you could use every day.
Why?
Well, aside from the obvious security and weather concerns of having no windscreen, roof or door windows...
First of all there's the price. It's essentially an ultra-rare circa £800,000 Limited Edition Aston Martin. The fear of it getting damaged would probably dissuade you from leaving it parked almost anywhere unattended.
Secondly there's the fact there's no windscreen. I appreciate I already mentioned that, but I feel like it's such a big deal it's worth mentioning twice. Why is it such a big deal? Well, there's no windscreen. There's also notably; not even a fly screen. This means basically that driving the car at anything other than incredibly sedate speeds will be painful, bordering on dangerous. If you've ever stuck your head out of sunroof at 70mph, or seen a tiny pebble flirt up and crack your entire windscreen... Then you'll know what I'm talking about. Aston Martin helpfully provides two full-face helmets, which strap in place in the cargo area. I'm not sure whether you need to provide a helmet size when you order one of these? Anyway I digress. This is obviously an admission that driving this car at typical highway speeds really requires helmets. On a trackday helmets make sense. On a motorcycle they make sense, but what you can't appreciate unless you've worn one for extended periods of time is that helmets seriously hinder your peripheral vision. You're basically peering out of a letterbox that fits on your head.
Thirdly there's the fact that if you leave this car somewhere and it rains - it will fill up with water. Again, I've touched on this, but again it's such a serious flaw you need to address it twice. Imagine the damage a sudden downpour could do this car's interior if you'd left it parked on a restaurant car park while you had a meal? (Not to mention the wet back and bum for the drive home!)
Alright, we get it. So WHO, IS the Aston V12 Speedster for?
Okay, let's get straight to the point. It's for someone wealthy. You've just struck it lucky and won a million pounds on the lotto? It's not you for you, PAUPER! This is a car for proper wealthy. Just won 20 million on the Euro Millions? Dream on! This car isn't for you!
I don't think many of us can easily perceive how the 0.01% live.
To give you some context, if you're interested in the details, here's an article which is quite helpful:-
Basically the main market for these cars will be people who are in the $100,000,000 a year income or more bracket. A simple way of looking at is shown here:-
The crux being that to be top 1% in the USA in 2018 you had to pull in $737,000 a year, but to be in the top 0.01% you have to pull in over $2,000,000 a year. This backs up my argument. I'm not going to disclose how much I earn, but I will tell you this:- I would NOT be prepared to pay a whole year's salary for a car. If I earned £20k a year I wouldn't drop £20k on a car. If I earned £200k a year, I wouldn't drop £200k on a car. Bearing in mind that the V12 Speedster is a car you'd spend most of your time garaging, I think we can all agree it's beyond the reach of a 1%'er unless they are prepared to break themselves financially to own one.
Here's an interesting article for UK people to consider:-
Institute for Fiscal Studies£236,000 is required to be in the top 0.5% and nearly £650,000 to be in the top 0.1%
To be in the top 1% of income tax payers in the UK (i.e. to be among the 310,000 individuals with the highest income), a taxable income of at least £160,000 is required. £236,000 is required to be in the top 0.5% and nearly £650,000 to be in the top 0.1%
This again, backs up my theory. If you're in the top 0.1% you can't buy a V12 Speedster with a year's salary. You'd never drop that sort of cash on a car you couldn't use unless you were either insane or complete enthusiast who doesn't mind his wife divorcing him on the grounds of financial recklessness.
Great, so WHO is going to be buying the V12 Speedster?
Think yachts. Think business owners. Think investment bankers. Think inherited wealth, that people have managed to grow rather than squander. Think, people who see income tax as optional and have multiple homes around the world to facilitate their lifestyle and their non-taxpayer status. Some of them will pay their share of tax, because they think it's a moral obligation. Other's choose not to. The bottom line is; for this elite, income tax is optional.
If I was earning £650,000 a year and I was taxed on it. I'd pay £277,500 a year in tax and have a take home pay of £355,640 a year. So I'd really have to save up for that V12 Speedster.
Source:-
You can see why some of these peeps choose not to pay tax. They'll have top drawer private healthcare and send their kids to top private schools. So They're actually arguably less of a burden on 'the system' yet they have to pay more. I would argue that they can afford it of course but...
If I saved up £300,000 in the first year (I could live on £55k) I could then invest that £300,000 into stocks which pay monthly dividends.
Examples are STAG Industries[STAG], O Reality Income Corp[O], LTC Properties Inc[LTC.US], Main Street Capital[MAIN], Vanguard [VCIT] and American Capital Agency Corp [AGNC]. Say they pay an average 10% dividend. £300,000 / 100 = £3000, x 10 = £30,000. That gives me £30,000 extra income. If I continue to live on my £55k (Which I could manage) then the next year if I reinvested my dividend I'd gain an extra £33k per year income. Now imagine you're a 0.01%'er and you can add a zero to every figure I just mentioned.
Suddenly £800,000 becomes a trifle. It becomes a toy that a spoilt rich kid blows his pocket money on.
Is this a problem?
Well, that's the debate isn't it? You could argue that our wealth should be more evenly distributed and that the wealthy hoard money rather than spend it - and so don't stimulate the economy. But then if we lived in a world without the 0.01% there'd be no reason to engineer and build cars like the V12 Speedster and I think the world would lose something for that. Most of us will never become top 10% earners, or even top 20% earners. But we aspire and we dream. We know one person being a multi-billionaire isn't necessarily good for society, but that doesn't mean we don't covet it.
The alternative was tried in the USSR, a world without capitalism. Communism failed. Capitalism is broken, and it often needs shoring up to keep it working. But I think it's the best system we have available to us at the moment and without it we'd never have the Aston Martin V12 Speedster.
Martyn Stanley
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Comments (2)
Don't forget the criminals, these cars are great for moneylaundring purposes...
True, but this particular Bn one is a bot conspicuous! 😳