As many of us could have predicted, the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) public Bugatti auction was a bust, with no serious bidders putting in an intention to bid. Which is hardly surprising, given the difficulty of securing P30 million in cold hard cash to secure bidding bonds with just eight days’ notice.
Add to that the restrictions on who could bid—namely, licensed car dealers and traders. While gray-market dealers might be able to line up buyers for these high-dollar exotics, who’s going to gamble a non-refundable P30-M only to have the better part of a billion pesos sit unmoving on their lot if the deal goes through?
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And there is a good chance that those cars won’t move. At first, we were wondering if the auction price was the product of malicious compliance. Where the BOC—not wanting to sell via public auction—set the prices based on brand new prices multiplied by expected taxes and duties rather than a more reasonable secondhand price, intending to sell to a pre-selected buyer after the failed auction.
In reality, prices for secondhand Chirons of that vintage are holding firm in the $3-3.6 million range (P177 to P212 million). Which means the floor prices are just about right.
But what dealer is going to want to gamble on razor-thin margins when being outbid means you’re saying goodbye to that bond? Instead, the negotiated sale is more favorable to prospective traders—who may be picking these cars up for quite a bit less than the auction floor price—with a willing buyer, of course.
We’re still skeptical about those buyers, mind you. Because anyone with that much money to spend can do the math as well as we can, and may well come to the conclusion that it’s much simpler to buy privately and import personally, with the option of undervaluing the shipment and paying significantly less than any deal the BOC is willing to cut. While you also run the risk of search and seizure, we warrant the usual suspects aren’t going to be as conspicuous as the owners who openly flaunted their cars in public—which was what led to the search and seizure, in the first place.
Granted, you also face fines and penalties for the attempt, but what’s a half million pesos in fines when you’re buying a Bugatti?
