Lease Company Finds Explosive Growth in Exotic, Vintage Car Markets
Premier Financial Services (PFS) claims that overall demand and prices for exotic, vintage and highline vehicles remained strong throughout 2018. The company’s growth included the fourth quarter of the year.
Established in 1997, PFS achieved record-high performances during 2018, both in the number of vehicles and the total dollars financed. Compared with 2017, the company achieved a 22 percent increase in the number of cars financed, and a 38 percent increase in total dollars financed.
PFS currently maintains a portfolio of leased vehicles in excess of $275 million. Porsche and McLaren outpaced all other marques in the PFS portfolio in 2018, in terms of growth.
“More than half of our lease transactions in 2018 came from current PFS clients or referrals,” said Mitchell Katz, founder and CEO of PFS. “First-time automobile enthusiasts and collectors also represented a significant client segment for PFS last year. These new clients were from all age categories-including Millennials, GenX-ers and Baby Boomers-who increasingly appear to be unwilling to wait for retirement or to win the lottery before they can acquire the car of their dreams.
“Leasing can make new and previously owned exotic and vintage cars immediately accessible to owners who wish to use available cash or lines of credit for other purposes,” Katz added. “Unlike traditional car leasing programs, specialty leasing provides owners with much greater flexibility, for example, in terms of changing vehicles within their lease or ending a lease. Automobile enthusiasts have an insatiable appetite for fine cars, and specialty leasing satisfies their desire to try something new or different on a frequent basis.”
Katz noted that exotic and vintage car owners change vehicles every two or three years.
The strong 2018 financial performance at PFS may be good news at the outset of the season for serious automobile enthusiasts, according to the company. The 2019 season of auctions, rallies and other motorsports gatherings for High Net Worth owners and collectors kicked off in mid-January in Scottsdale, Arizona. The seven auctions held in Scottsdale this year tallied $251 million, the fourth highest take ever for those sales.
