Costly Bentley turns heads at motor show

Novan Iman Santosa and Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Before they were officially "unveiled" to the press, many photographers had already taken pictures of the two fenced-off cars under a large billboard that read "Bentley".

And to many, what made these cars interesting was not merely their whopping prices -- the Bentley New Arnage R is tagged at Rp 6 billion (about US$643,638.70) while the Bentley Continental GT is priced at Rp 4.5 billion, both off the road -- but the fact their customers may have to wait for months or even years to get their cars delivered, as is the case with the Continental.

The price of the latest Arnage T broke last year's record set by the same model at Gaikindo Auto Expo where the Bentley car was then priced at a much more reasonable Rp 4.8 billion.

PT Grandauto Dinamika marketing communications official Tryfena Sri Rahayoe, said that 15 orders have been made for the Continental GT in the past two years, but the company had only been able to deliver one. The company is the sole distributor of Bentley and Jaguar cars here.

"Each Bentley takes about four months to be made, based on the customer's specifications. There's no two Bentleys that are exactly the same," she said on Friday.

The Bentleys were only two of dozens of new cars and motorcycles unveiled at the Second Jakarta Motor Show and Second Jakarta Motorcycle Show at the Jakarta Convention Center.

At the car show, Volkswagen launched its Touareg Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV), with prices ranging between Rp 800 million and Rp 1.22 billion off the road.

Audi also launched its New A6 3.0 multitronic and A6 3.0 quattro, which are offered at Rp 875 million and Rp 925 million respectively.

Another much-awaited -- and much more affordable -- car on offer is Toyota's Kijang Innova, which is offered from Rp 136.5 million to Rp 220 million, depending on the model.

Both events were officially opened by Ministry of Trade and Industry Rini MS Soewandi. Rini said the automotive industry had high added value as it involved component and other supporting industries.

"The industry has invested more than US$1 billion (in Indonesia) and additional investments are on the way," she said in her speech. "The automotive industry is a priority sector (for Indonesia) and we should export more products with more local content."

"There are about 70 motorcycle assemblers all using different technology. It would be better if companies with similar technology worked hand-in-hand to produce their own components," she said.

Statistics from the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) show there were 354,311 vehicles sold last year, an increase of 11.5 percent compared to 2002. While in the first half of 2004, 226,155 vehicles had been sold out of the revised full-year target of more than 420,000 units.

Sales of vehicles in 1998 reached the lowest point following the 1997 monetary crisis, with only 517,000 motorcycles and 48,000 cars sold.

Separately, the Association of Indonesian Motorcycle Manufacturers (AISI) said it expected a total sales of more than 3.4 million units this year compared to some 2.8 million motorcycles last year.

"The Indonesian automotive industry should ask its respected principals (parent companies) to invite their parts suppliers to invest in Indonesia," Rini said.

The public can see the latest cars and motorcycles on offer from Saturday (today) until Sept. 12. Tickets cost Rp 20,000 for weekdays and Rp 25,000 for weekends.