World’s costliest car | British manufacturer joins India's high-priced car market

World’s costliest car

It's a combination that might have made James Bond raise an immaculately groomed eyebrow. Aston Martin, purveyor of luxury sports cars with a dash of 007 about them, is about to enter the tangled tumult that is India's road system.
The company has unveiled plans, unthinkable just a few short years ago, to bring almost its entire range of cars, including a model that will sell for Rs200m (more than £2.7m) to a country which has more than 100,000 millionaires and infinitely more traffic jams.
But if there was any surprise, it was that it's taken them so long. India's luxury car market is already beginning to look almost as over-crowded as a cattle fair in Rajasthan.
"It's amazing how things have changed in recent times," says textile magnate Gautam Singhania, who is chairman of Mumbai's newly-formed Super Car Club. "For instance, there were zero Lamborghinis in India five years ago. Today there are many."
Aston Martin seems unfazed by the fact that it is competing with hallowed brands such as Bugatti and Lamborghini in the race to grab the attention of the new-rich Indian sports car enthusiast.
A representative said the company hoped to sell 30 cars during the first year, but market sources insist buyers have already picked up that many, and there is demand for at least 20 more.
"A lot of people want to announce they've arrived, so they're buying multiple supercars – Bugattis, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, now Aston Martins," says Rohin Nagrani, a motoring writer who recently tried out a Vantage in Delhi. "As yet there's no brand loyalty. But I also know of someone who has several Bentley Continentals in different colours to match his different moods. India's flashy new rich are behaving just like Middle East sheikhs."
But there is one major roadblock. Literally. "The love affair with cars is at an all-time high, but the roads are atrocious, even in a city like Mumbai," says Hormazd Sorabjee, of Autocar India. Only two cities in the south have passable racing tracks, though a Formula 1 facility is due to open near Delhi later this year.
"As a result, these supercars end up clocking very, very little mileage," adds Sorabjee. In Mumbai, for instance, most drivers, including the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who owns a red Ferrari, head for the expressway outside the city to get even a fraction of the thrill these machines are capable of providing.
Adi Nazir, the owner of a Mazda MX-5, spoke of a recent scene on a Mumbai road: a Lamborghini Gallardo driven by a billionaire businessman came to a grinding halt at a particularly nasty speed bump. Despite the Lamborghini's lifting system, the speed bump was too steep for the low-slung car to safely surmount.
With the billionaire still seated inside, six burly bodyguards tumbled out of an accompanying SUV and physically lifted the supercar across the road hump. The Lamborghini took off again, trailed by bodyguards whose conditions of employment clearly require them not just to protect their hyper-rich boss from kidnappers but also his supercar from Mumbai's roads.
The proud new Indian owners of an Aston Martin, despite its higher ground clearance, will also face such problems. Since the manufacturer cannot provide James Bond-type extras, owners need to keep in mind Q's parting advice to 007 in The World Is Not Enough: "Always have an escape plan."

World’s costliest car | British manufacturer joins India's high-priced car market