High demand revs up sales in Lamborghini’s first year in CT
GREENWICH — West Putnam Avenue has long held a prominent position on the circuit of car collectors. That popularity has helped one of the world’s leading makers of ultra-luxury vehicles make a fast start during its first year of sales in Connecticut.
Nearly a year after opening its showroom at 300 W. Putnam Ave., Lamborghini is seeing robust local demand for its “super cars.” The activity at the Greenwich gallery reflects a period of record sales for the Italian company, which is thriving amid the headwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic and forging ahead with the development of more energyefficient vehicles.
“People are drawn to knowing where they’re going to go to buy an automobile,” Robert DiStanislao, president of RDS Automotive Group, which operates the Greenwich showroom, said in an interview. “In Greenwich, you know that you’re going to West Putnam Avenue to buy an automobile.”
Lamborghini’s Greenwich showroom opened in February. It is housed in a newly built white-cube structure that covers more than 9,000 square feet.
“Before we got here, if someone in Connecticut wanted a Lamborghini, they’d have to go to a location outside the state such as Lamborghini Manhattan or Lamborghini Boston,” Paul Kim, general manager of Lamborghini Greenwich, said in an interview. “We also provide servicing, as you can’t have just anybody work on vehicles of this quality. So we think we’re filling a real need.”
The opening of Lamborghini Greenwich bolstered a stretch of West Putnam Avenue that has long been a nexus for luxury-car retailers. Showrooms for the likes of Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, MercedesBenz, Porsche and RollsRoyce also operate on the blocks of West Putnam Avenue near the downtown.
That confluence of topend automotive brands reflects their location in one of the country’s wealthiest towns, where the median household income from 2015 to 2019 was $152,577, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“It’s an important market for us because there are a lot of high-net-worth individuals in this area,” Lamborghini CEO and President Stephan Winkelmann said in an interview. “It’s a great match for our brand.”
Lamborghini’s new showroom holds up to three vehicles at a time. Complementing the cars are interior flourishes such as photos of Miles Davis, Dean Martin and company founder Ferruccio Lamborghini posing with classic models. There is also a portrait of a Lamborghini Miura with a Frank Sinatra quote that reads, “You buy a Ferrari when you want to be somebody. You buy a Lamborghini when you are somebody.”
The “somebodies” who visit the showroom are typically car collectors — and they have expansive budgets. The 2021 version of Lamborghini’s top seller, the Urus Super SUV, has a base price of about $218,000.
“When people customorder the car, they usually add a few more options, so the cars usually transact in the upper 200 (thousand dollar range),” DiStanislao said. “They can get different road wheels, they can get different interior options, they can change the seating arrangement, they can change the colors, they can customize the stitching. If you change the leather upholstery and the stitching variations, you can quickly add another $20,000.”
In its first year, the Greenwich showroom expects to sell about 70 new Lamborghinis, supplemented by the sale of about 50 pre-owned vehicles that buyers have traded in such as Land Rovers and Rolls-Royces.
“We’ve done better than we expected,” DiStanislao said. “The demand for the product is incredible.”
The Greenwich showroom and other locations across the country are contributing to a worldwide boom for Lamborghini. During the first six months of 2021, it recorded its best half-year ever — with sales increasing 37 percent from the same period in 2020 and 7 percent from the first half of 2019. In the first half of this year, it delivered more than 4,850 vehicles. The U.S. accounted for the largest market, with about 1,500 deliveries.
Today, a Lamborghini buyer can expect to wait, on average, about a year to receive the vehicle. But that timeframe reflects the extent to which consumer demand is exceeding the factory capacity in its hometown of Sant’Agata Bolognese in northern Italy — not because it is struggling to obtain parts.