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Europe's Big Rollers hit Detroit
By CNN's Abid Ali
LONDON, England (CNN) -- More than 60 vehicles will make their debut at the Detroit motor show on Monday. Executives at the big three -- Ford, General Motors and Chrysler -- will be hoping new models will catch the imagination of consumers. Automakers in the U.S. have seen profits crushed by tough competition and market share erosion by Asian carmakers Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai. And now the "Big Three" face a new assault from Germany's three biggest carmakers. BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen will be rolling out a new breed of car for the super-rich. BMW, the world's second-biggest maker of luxury cars, on Friday unveiled the first German built Rolls-Royce, the Phantom. Powered by a 6.75 litre, V12 engine, the new Rolls-Royce wafts seamlessly from standstill to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds and on to a (limited) top speed of 149 mph. The Phantom is expected to sell for about $250,000. But DaimlerChrysler, the biggest luxury carmaker, resurrected the Maybach to challenge the Rolls and Volkswagen's Bentley Continental GT. The Maybach was launched in August in an attempt to drum up business before BMW got a chance to market its new challenger. BMW could not advertise or even mention the word Rolls-Royce because of a legal agreement with Volkswagen. Volkswagen bought Rolls-Royce and Bentley four years ago for $700 million but was unaware at the time that it did not own the name. BMW, which had been beaten to the marques by VW, finally got its hands on the rights to the name for $66 million. Both came to an agreement that BMW would take ownership of Rolls-Royce on January 1, 2003. DaimlerChrysler's Maybach will sell at about $300,000 for the smallest of the two models. The German-American company began taking orders in September but only 1,000 will be made each year.
BMW also plans to sell 1,000 cars a year. Together they hope to sell just 800 cars in the United States where some 17 million units were sold last year. The well-healed market is thought to be worth about 8,000 car sales in the $250,000 bracket a year, according to DaimlerChrylser. Volkswagen, meantime, plans to sell its new Continental GT -- a racy V12-turbo charged coup -- in the first-quarter of this year. The car is expected to sell for about $150,000. The company has invested about $800 million gearing up the dilapidated Crewe, northwest England plant, the vehicle and retaining of staff.
Porsche, the world's most profitable sports car maker, has big plans for its new Cayenne sport utility vehicle. The company, which had only made two cars, the 911 and Boxster, sells more than half its units in the U.S. and expects the Cayenne to boost sales by about 50 percent. The Cayenne is priced at 100,000 euros and the Turbo version has a top speed of 266 kilometres (165 miles) an hour. The more modest Cayenne S, with a price tag of about 60,000 euros, has a top speed of 243 kilometres an hour.
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