Recently, seeing a BMW in Vietnam has become like seeing a Bentley in the States in about the same way that seeing a Bentley in the States used to be like seeing the Space Shuttle in Lichtenstein. But since last year’s WTO accession, Vietnam has changed that matrix dramatically.
This week I saw three Bentleys in Ho Chi Minh City alone. Who knows how many ships are waiting
off-shore with a cargo-hold full of Bentleys – and who knows who’s driving them. The first I saw, I was convinced was a hotel car, until the driver let the passengers off at the Park Hyatt and then waited in the public lot across the street instead of the hotel’s secure underground lot. You save a little money that way. The second was driving through the distinctly un-Bentley-esque back-packer tourist district and the third in a dealership, waiting for its new owner.
To
own a Bentley in the US would mean that you have spent roughly 3.8 times the national per-capita GDP of $44,000 on a vehicle that retails at the least for $170,000 for the Continental Flying Spur model. But to own that same car in Vietnam would require that you shell out 111 times (scuze me, that's one hundred and eleven times!) the national per-capita GDP of $2600 once you tack on the 70% excise tax for that big (Volkswagen) engine inside for a total tag of $289,000.
To put it into complete perspective, that’s like paying, $4,884,000 for a vehicle in the States, relative to the average income of the country’s citizens – or seeing the Space Shuttle in Lichtenstein.
This week I saw three Bentleys in Ho Chi Minh City alone. Who knows how many ships are waiting
off-shore with a cargo-hold full of Bentleys – and who knows who’s driving them. The first I saw, I was convinced was a hotel car, until the driver let the passengers off at the Park Hyatt and then waited in the public lot across the street instead of the hotel’s secure underground lot. You save a little money that way. The second was driving through the distinctly un-Bentley-esque back-packer tourist district and the third in a dealership, waiting for its new owner. To
own a Bentley in the US would mean that you have spent roughly 3.8 times the national per-capita GDP of $44,000 on a vehicle that retails at the least for $170,000 for the Continental Flying Spur model. But to own that same car in Vietnam would require that you shell out 111 times (scuze me, that's one hundred and eleven times!) the national per-capita GDP of $2600 once you tack on the 70% excise tax for that big (Volkswagen) engine inside for a total tag of $289,000. To put it into complete perspective, that’s like paying, $4,884,000 for a vehicle in the States, relative to the average income of the country’s citizens – or seeing the Space Shuttle in Lichtenstein.
