Is a Lambo S-U-V simply W-R-O-N-G?
After multiple denials, it looks like Italian super car builder Lamborghini is getting into the profitable SUV game. I ask how "right" this decision is over at MSN Autos' Passing Lane blog. Full post after the jump.
Like most young car nutters, you more than likely had a poster of a Lamborghini super car on your bedroom wall as a youth. Depending on your vintage, either a Countach, Diablo, Murcielago, or Aventador, right next to your Farrah Fawcett, Bo Derek, Pamela Anderson, or Megan Fox wall decorations too. But if the recent news of what the next, new Lambo model will be is correct, it’s hard to think it will adorn any walls other than in the automaker's showrooms.
Like a politician who continually denies requests to run for higher office, then throws his hat into the ring at the last possible moment, Lamborghini chairman, Stefan Winkelmann, has been denying a sports-utility-vehicle will be the third model in addition to the existing Gallardo and Aventador super cars as recentl as last month. However, as reported here in the Passing Lane recently, it looks like the Italian super car maker is getting back into the SUV business—big time.Getting back? Yes. Once upon a time, between 1986 and 1993, Lamborghini built the LM002. Known as the “Rambo Lambo”, above, it was originally conceived to be sold to the U.S. military. But when that deal never materialized, Lamborghini ended up getting some of its investment back by selling the over-the-top off-raoader to wealthy, Middle East oil sheiks as dune buggies.
Less than 400 LM002s were ever sold. But this time around, Lamborghini plans on selling almost four times that amount every year, mainly to wealthy city dwellers in America and China.
I can understand why Winkelmann has been reluctant to admit such a vehicle has been in Lamborghini’s plans. He’s been a staunch supporter of the brand’s purebred, super car DNA.
But the Great Recession, and the extra money required to develop technologies his super cars need to be more fuel efficient, has taken a bite out of the automaker’s bottom line. Like what a pre-Cayenne Porsche faced over a decade ago, a profitable SUV in the stable should provide the funds necessary to keep the super cars coming, and help parent Volkswagen Group meet its goal of being the world’s largest automaker.
You would think the world doesn’t need another luxury SUV, but don’t tell the VW Group that. When the unnamed Lambo SUV eventually goes on sale in a few years, it will bring the total of large VW Group SUVs to five, including the VW Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne, and a future Bentley brute-ute as well.
So, like the Cayenne, introducing an SUV comes down to money over mojo for Lamborghini. But does that make it right? Do you think a Lambo SUV tarnishes the brand’s reputation as a super car maker? Or are you willing to put up with this brand blasphemy to ensure the future of Lambos like Gallardo and Aventador?