Car manufacturers: When off-the-shelf luxury isn’t enough

It is not new that luxury manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce, Ferrari or Bentley make every seemingly imaginable wish come true when it comes to the dream cars of their well-heeled customers. But even the premium brands a class below have long since discovered individualization programs to make customers’ hearts shine and, at the same time, maximize profits.

Christopher Cattle is a veteran at Jaguar Land Rover and knows his luxury customers very well. Together with his team, he makes automotive wishes come true in the Special Vehicle Operations department. Particularly popular: the Range Rover, an unusual symbiosis of luxury sedan, off-road vehicle and British understatement for a long time after its market launch in the early 1970s, which over the decades became the everyday vehicle of well-heeled customers.

A Range Rover is already available in the configurator with every imaginable equipment detail. But for more and more customers, off-the-shelf luxury is not enough, even in the top Autobiography and SV versions with a full range of equipment packages. “Such vehicles quickly cost around 200,000 euros. But with the corresponding special requests for special paints, leather colors and embroidered seats or headrests, the price goes up significantly,” explains Cattle. “We customize around 400 vehicles every year. An average price for a finely equipped Range Rover SV is probably 280,000 euros. But there are also models that cost 400,000 euros or more – possibly up to 750,000 euros.”

The waiting time for customers before the vehicle rolls into their driveway is around a year. If you feel particularly at risk, you can also have your Range Rover equipped with heavy armor with protection level VR 9. But then it only starts at 700,000 euros.

Most customers come to the English diaspora of Warwickshire to customize their dream car and choose the dream paint and interior of their family choice from 10,000 colors. Sometimes it’s not just individual pieces, but also small series that are produced here. “We recently launched an edition of 20 particularly exclusive vehicles for the Middle East market, for example, where we mixed crystal glass into the paint,” reports Cattle. “The Bespoke Sadaf series was all about pearl divers from the region.”

Things have been more individual than ever at Mercedes for years. Customers of the luxury models S- and G-Class as well as EQS and Maybach in particular will not find all of their wishes fulfilled in the extensive list of optional equipment. Then we go to the factory for a lap of honor. Whether selected paints for the exterior or exclusive materials in the interior – the special production facility offers numerous options for creating your personal dream car, explains Michael Schiebe, responsible for AMG, G-Class and Maybach. “There, selected equipment that is handcrafted in the factory is installed in the respective vehicle.”

Even if the most modern processing methods have been introduced over the years, experience is required when dealing with leather, wood or thread. According to Mercedes, the customization team for tables and sewing machines consists of specialists who have mostly been involved in their craft for decades and who have refined the vehicles into individual pieces using complex processes. One customer wanted inlays in his wooden strips; others have a leather headliner or the incorporation of the family coat of arms wherever you look.

Depending on the complexity of the order, up to 20 vehicles are customized per day in Sindelfingen. So that the complex production structure can be represented without time gaps, driverless transport systems (AGV for short – autonomous guided vehicles) could control each individual production module.

Things are looking very similar to Mercedes in Munich, because the demand for specially refined BMW vehicles is also growing from year to year – with the double pack of the BMW i7 / 7 Series and the large SUV XM / X7. Small series are also produced here specifically for the particularly demanding markets in the United Arab Emirates, USA and China. The Munich-based company recently presented a particularly exclusive special edition of the BMW XM at Art Miami.

In 2025, BMW will launch a series of 47 purple vehicles, created together with the US artist Ronnie Fieg and his fashion label Kith. In addition to special rims and a special interior, each of the XM models comes with a special duffle bag that houses the plug-in hybrid’s charging cable.