AmEx Black Card holders own as many Hyundais as Bentleys

Seems that even the ridiculously wealthy can't pass up a good bargain. According to The Wall Street Journal, a seemingly amazing six percent of American Express Centurion "Black Card" holders say they have a Hyundai in their garage. The Centurion is an exclusive card only offered to the utmost wealthiest of people, with the average Black Card holder having $16.3 million in assets and an annual household income of $1.3 million.

For reference, only six percent of Centurion holders own Bentleys. By that logic, you could say that for every Continental or Mulsanne a Black Card holder owns, there's also an Equus or Genesis. Weird, right?

Not surprisingly, Black Card holders commonly flock to the usual host of luxury automakers. BMW accounts for 22 percent of Centurion automobiles, with Mercedes-Benz at 21 percent, Porsche at 15 and Lexus at 11.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/07/11/a...s-as-bentleys/

 

Surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly?) supercars/exotics are not common at all among Centurion holders, so I'm not surprised at low ownership rates of Bentleys. AMEX does a lot of aggressive marketing solicitation so they wind up bombarding prospective clients with their user data. They once tried to sign a past business I was involved in, so I'm actually very familiar with the demographics of Centurion holders (or at least AMEX's claims of them) from a few years back.

To put into perspective what type of people Centurion holders are, the average holder's expenditures on designer clothing, jewelry, and luxury watches constituted over 75% of the average holder's "disposable" income. This seems amazing and ridiculous to me. Based on that information, the typical Centurion holder tries very hard to appear trendy, fashion-conscious, and wealthy at the personal level via the ostentatious display of expensive new clothes and jewelry and luxury watches.

On the other hand, I recall that less than 50% even consider a car purchase of any type year in and year out, and something like 7% even consider buying exotics. Since actual owner percentages weren't reported (just those "considering"), that figure makes even the 6% Bentley ownership seem like a lot! So, for us car enthusiasts, buying a supercar is a good way for us to distinguish ourselves from Centurion holders.

So, I simply can't relate to the Centurion crowd. (Needless to say I don't have one, nor do I ever plan on it.) Heck, I don't even own a watch or piece of jewelry that wasn't a gift. Of course, maybe Centurion holders also think it's crazy to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car. (Hopefully they don't think so just because they need to save that money to buy new clothes and jewelry and watches every month.)

Also, I'll just note the article quoted in the OP is a good example of when "average" figures are not very useful, since the upper limit of both personal wealth and income is unbounded; a median figure would be much more useful. Of course, AMEX doesn't want to release medians since they want overblown figures to get 3rd parties to commit to marketing via them to their Centurion base. They probably also don't want to admit that most Centurion card holders are just personal business owners who expensed all their purchases to their personal AMEX to get invites to Centurion.

 

if i am understanding this right.

a. Hyundai sells 3-4 million cars worldwide
b. Bentley sells 3-4 thousand cars worldwide

So isnt it a lot more incredible that 6% own Bentley, compared to 6% owning Hyundai?

p.s. My buddy has Amex Black and he owns 1 series.

 

Not a lick. It's to my understanding that GM sells about 8 million and Ford sells about 7 million but where are they? I actually expected Bentley to score aroound the same as BMW and MB.

 

perhaps some of those amex black card holders are in south korea.

 

Statistics have a way of telling a story based on who analyzes the numbers and what their agenda is.

Wealthy people got there for a reason, and they know a bargain when they see one. They also know that they can't afford to buy "cheap".

Every wealthy person has a stable of operating vehicles for staff, deliveries, and other personal/business reasons. Hyundais have their applications in that fleet. If I was in their position, when going out incognito, what better car than a new Genesis?

 

Interesting study especially since Amex doesn't realease how many Black cards there are in ciriculation as it's supposed to be exclusive. Estimates are 30-100k based on the number of subscriptions to the magazine (Black Ice) which is only issued to cardholders.

So we're talking about 6,000 or so Hyundai's for the super rich. lol and the author just assumes the models are Equus or Genesis....

 

Doesn't surprise me.

Outside of famous [Hollywood] types, it's common for the wealthy to not over indulge, which is often partly the reason they're wealthy in the first place.

Many millionaires choose to live "normal" lives. In fact, your neighbor could be one and you may not know it.

 

^^^^ hmm very true

 

yeah at my work some of our patients have black cards. you wouldnt know they would have that kind of money unless you saw that card

 

The Centurion program used to be very prestigious but they're service has seriously degraded through the years, the card is NOT solely by invitation any longer and other requirements to own the card have been lowered. Centurion users must charge a certain amount per year so it makes sense to buy a low cost car vs an expensive car with it and pay it off easily.

 

Ya, that's part of the OP article that shouldn't be forgotten either. One of my first business partners still drives a beat-up old Camry, and he's quite a bit more wealthy than I am. I've noticed among my wealthy associates that even when they do buy luxury vehicles, there's a lot of reliable and less ostentatious like Lexus in there, and supercars are quite rare.

 

If Centurion is your goal getting one is really not that out of reach if you have a mid size company and make purchases with your AmEx for the company. People who have centurion use it for its benefits and they just do the simple math, what they get for $2,500 per year. If its worth it they get if not they dont get it.

Best way to get a step closer (Platinum) is to use your credit AmEx as debit card which means dont use it more than you can payoff by the end of the month. If you max it out for couple of months and then payoff everything by the end of the cycle without getting into interest zone they will raise your loan limit. Eventually you will evolve from Green to Gold to Platinum. If you think you can cash in your $450 annual fee for all the benefits AmEx offers go ahaed.

 

rich people aren't stupid (well most) they know how to save obviously and a great bargain when they see one.

 

interesting comparison