To Buy … Or Not To Buy … A $430,000 Car

Posted on December 12th, 2008 12:39pm by Glenn Hunter
Filed under Business, Local News

It’s not that the folks listening to live music, downing Kent Rathbun canapes and Moet champagne and inspecting the new, $430,000-plus Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe last night at Park Place Dealerships are disconnected from the economy, exactly. Sure, luxury-car sales at Park Place are down slightly from last year, marketing director Rob Sumner says. But the people who favor expensive cars like the Rolls–captain of industry types–are still buying them, even as many watch their net worths shrink. Heck, Sumner says, Park Place sold five Rolls or Bentleys just last week. Take David Genever-Watling and his wife, Janet (shown here in a Marty Perlman photo), for example. Janet and her husband, a former president and CEO of GE Power Systems, were all over the ‘09 Phantom last night–for one main reason.

The reason? Excitement.

“I have a white ‘07 Phantom,” Janet said with the clipped accent of her native England. “I was worried because this new one is a coupe, whether there would be enough room in it. But I had David climb into the back seat, and room is not a problem. This one has a little excitement to it.”

“She likes excitement,” interjected David, who also is English.

Asked whether she drives the Rolls herself or retains a chauffeur, Janet said she always gets into the back seat and has David drive her around, even requiring him to wear a chauffeur’s uniform at times.

She was kidding about that, I think.

“There’s only one problem with this car,” David said then, pointing to the new Rolls’ metallic-like hood. “It’s not bird-s***-proof.”

The Genever-Watlings–or just “GW,” for short–have lived in Dallas 10 years, following David’s retirement from GE. These days he “sits on a few boards,” but is seriously considering returning to full-time work again, by popular demand.

“It’s getting harder and harder to not work,” he said, referring to the troubled economy. “People are asking for help, lots of help. These are unprecedented times. If someone had told me a few years ago that you could buy a share of GE for $12.78, I would have told them they were out of it.

“I really think we need to go to a war-time footing,” David went on. “We need someone like a Winston Churchill or a George S. Patton to be put back in. Someone who will tell it like it is.”

“I’m thinking of planting vegetables,” Janet added. “Like the old Victory Gardens.”

I think she was kidding about that, too. Because today, the GWs said before disappearing, they intend to take the new Rolls coupe out for a test drive.

17 comments

  1. In other news, I will be purchasing some sort of vehicle with a hatchback. I currently own a Hyundai with a back window that goes down when I hit a good bump.

    @ 12:42 pm on December 12, 2008

  2. FTW!

    @ 1:29 pm on December 12, 2008

  3. no sloppy seconds for mr gw

    @ 1:31 pm on December 12, 2008

  4. I just re-read the price tag on that car. It’s more than the mortgage.

    @ 1:34 pm on December 12, 2008

  5. I thought a Pontiac was “driving excitement”.

    @ 1:53 pm on December 12, 2008

  6. I think I’ll stick to my “war time footing” plan, not buy a 430,000 car and buy my vegetables at the store. I mean, that’s a lot of green…

    @ 2:20 pm on December 12, 2008

  7. Edited? Huh?

    How could a reminder that charitbale giving might be a better alternative to ostentatiousness be so caustic that it would be deleted?

    Guess I hit a nerve.

    @ 2:34 pm on December 12, 2008

  8. Oppps:charitable.

    @ 2:36 pm on December 12, 2008

  9. It’s more than one mortgage.

    @ 2:57 pm on December 12, 2008

  10. Jesus, I hate RR and the people that buy them. Nearly half a million dollar can do a lot of good, or it can by used to buy a chariot for some rich broad. Eat the rich.

    @ 3:01 pm on December 12, 2008

  11. And what do you suppose happens to the $430,000 when it is spent on the Phantom Coupe? It does a lot of good for the people who own/work for Park Place and BMW. Then those folks spend it and the cycle continues.

    The “metallic-like” hood is stainless steel, and while nothing on a car is completely immune to etching from bird poop, stainless should be a bit more resistant to bird poop than normal paint.

    @ 3:15 pm on December 12, 2008

  12. I’d spend that on the car if it came with Bethany stuffed in the trunk.

    @ 3:25 pm on December 12, 2008

  13. Dead or alive?

    @ 3:46 pm on December 12, 2008

  14. Hard to say.

    @ 3:53 pm on December 12, 2008

  15. We’re about to revisit the dead midget Filipino hooker in the wood chipper thread, aren’t we?

    @ 3:54 pm on December 12, 2008

  16. If you’re talking about oddball expensive stuff, what about that $120,000 shotgun stolen from the Beretta Store in Highland Park Village around Thanksgiving. Some guy(s) just walked right out of the store with it while the store was open. Oops!

    No security cameras!

    Granted, I imagine we won’t be seeing it used in a liquor store hold up.

    @ 5:31 pm on December 12, 2008

  17. At the end of the day when you’re 60 +years old (and retired) and worked hard all of your life, why not spend it on frivolous things to make you happy?

    Power to you GW family!

    @ 11:22 pm on December 15, 2008