Aston Martin will ban anyone caught making a quick profit from Valkyrie hypercar
Company boss Andy Palmer also said that these people would be banned from future Aston specials
Anyone caught selling their new Aston Martin Valkyrie for a quick profit could lose their car and access to future special editions.
The British luxury car maker’s boss Andy Palmer took to Twitter to respond to the news that an online supercar dealership was allegedly selling its build slot – known as ‘flipping’ – for the 1,115bhp, F1-engined hypercar for £9,999,999. That’s approximately four times the original cost.
He said: “I doubt they have a slot, but if they do and we identify who flipped, they lose the car. If they flip, then they never get another special.”
The high-cost, limited edition car market has exploded in recent years. Wealthy buyers have increasingly turned to cars as a safer investment than leaving their money in banks, and as such the value of classic cars and low-volume models have skyrocketed.
However, there’s an ongoing battle between enthusiasts who believe these cars should be driven and investors who want to keep them factory-fresh for maximum profit.
Aston Martin isn’t the first manufacturer to speak out against the practice, though. Recently, Porsche’s performance division boss Andreas Preuninger told American magazine Car and Driver: “I don’t like this business of people buying our cars to make money on them. That was never our intention. The purpose of limiting a car is not for it to gain value. We don’t want to be laying money on each car’s roof when they run out of the factory.”
The issue came to the fore for Porsche in 2015 and 2016 with the Cayman GT4 sports car, which was universally lauded in the press but was drip-fed to buyers. However, short of banning buyers from future products as Aston Martin is threatening to do, it’s a difficult practice to stamp out.
Last year, one GT4 buyer told the Press Association that he picked up his car on a Friday evening and handed it over to its new owner the following morning. He said: “I really wanted to own that car, but if you can make a £60,000 profit in one day, you would, wouldn’t you?”
