Rolls-Royce — the luxury car brand that makes all other luxury carmakers feel young, vibrant and West Egg-ish — saw a seemingly astounding 31% increase in sales in 2011. Rolls sold 3,538 Spirit of Ecstasy-ornamented barges of bountiful bank accounts — making it the best year of sales in the brand's 107-year-old history. Wait, does this mean those poors whining about the 1% are right?
Perish the thought! A look at the details indicates those whining art history graduates couldn't be more wrong.
Breaking out those sales across the globe, Rolls saw 47% higher sales in the Asia Pacific region, and Middle East sales were up 23%. North America — home to the United States, the brand's most important market — saw sales blossom by 17%.
But wait, you say, that seems to be even more evidence of a upper crust of American society that's ever-more-capable of buying big ticket items while the middle class continues to disappear to be replaced by an ever-increasing class of food stamp-carrying shiftless unemployed college grads.
Ridiculous!
What these overeducated with liberal arts degree riff-raff don't understand is the big increase in sales isn't coming from the $380,000-plus top-of-the-line Phantom. No, the car that saw the most growth was the recently-launched Ghost — with a mere pittance of a starting price of $250,000. Hell, some owners are even toying with the idea of buying an electric Rolls-Royce.
Everyone's cinching their belts these days, you know.