SUPERCAR sales are going into overdrive in Scotland in a surge which car dealers say has not been driven by wealthy older workers cashing in their retirement savings.
New Lamborghinis, which a former government minister said the over-55s could blow their pension pots on following recent reforms, and Maseratis were mainly responsible for the near 50 per cent boost in the market for luxury high-performance vehicles north of the Border.
Scottish drivers purchased 170 new Aston Martins, Bentleys, Rolls Royce, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis in the eight months to the end of August this year, according to to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
The new registrations of the vehicles compares to 139 for the same period last year and 115 in the first eight months of 2013, equivalent to a 48 per cent increase over two years.
The registration figures do not include used car sales, which tend to be higher, and come as car dealerships nationwide enter one of their busiest months of the year as new September number plates are rolled out.
Chris McMahon, operations director for the Leven Car Company in Edinburgh, Scotland's only official Aston Martin and Rolls Royce dealership, said sales had stalled last summer as the looming independence referendum created economic uncertainty.
Mr McMahon, who took over the business with his father in May 2014, said: "May to August last year was really good. Then it utterly nosedived because of the independence referendum and it didn't recover until after Christmas.
"We honestly could have turned the phones off between September and December.
"The people who buy our cars are generally self-made, entrepreneurial people and there was just a huge amount of uncertainty about what the values of their businesses or properties were going to be if the outcome had been different."
The price tag for a new Aston Martin ranges from around £95,000 to £220,000, while a brand new Rolls Royce retails from at least £230,000 - though most customers throw in an additional £15-20,000 of bespoke features.
The current upturn was being fuelled by growing confidence among buyers, added Mr Mahon, rather than the UK pension shake-up.
Mr McMahon said: "Three [clients] have told us that their financial advisor had said 'what's the point on sitting on this money, you don't need it - go and do something with it'. So we've had a we bit of that, but not a huge amount."
According to the SMMT, 25 new Aston Martins were registered in Scotland by the end of August this year, along with nine Rolls Royce.
The biggest increases, however, have been in Lamborghini and Maserati sales.
The iconic Italian brands both racked up record-breaking worldwide sales in 2014, along with both Bentley and Rolls-Royce, and Lamborghini announced last week that 2015 sales will be even higher.
In Scotland, Maserati sales have gone from 14 in January-August 2013 to 55 this year, according to the SMMT, an increase of 293 per cent.
For Lamborghini, there has been a 700 per cent surge from two to 16.
Buyers have been lured by the new V10 Lamborghini Huracán, which has enjoyed bumper sales since launching internationally in early 2014. A £205,000 convertible model, the Huracán Spyder, was unveiled in Frankfurt last week and will commence deliveries, including to Scotland, from next spring.
For Andy Canning, sales manager for Sytner Lamborghini in Edinburgh, the sales boost has been driven by the new models rather than the so-called pension "cash dash".
He said: “The Lamborghini brand is very strong. We’ve grown steadily in Scotland since the dealership opened in 2006. Sales are affected, of course, by new products, and in the last two years cars such as the new V10 Huracán, and Aventador models including the most recent Superveloce, have attracted both loyal Lamborghini customers and newcomers to the brand.
"Our clients are a very broad mix, of all ages, although we haven’t been aware of any specific purchases due to pension rule changes.”
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