What do VIPs use super cars for?

Super cars by well known brands have appeared in Vietnam, from Lamborghini, Rolls Royce to Bentley, Porche and Audi. However, it may be a surprise to manufacturers and many other people that Vietnamese businessmen do not want others to know about their cars, which they buy not for use, but for their collections.

Nguyen Quoc Cuong, Deputy General Director of Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Corporation, has frequently appeared on newspapers these days, both on domestic and foreign, not because he is a manager of a big company which lists its shares on the bourse, but because he is the owner of an impressive collection of cars.

However, the businessman does not seem too pleased about being known for his car collection

Cuong, when giving an interview to local press, said: “Everyone has their own pleasures or hobbies. I like cars, while others like diamonds or watches. Others’ collections can be really more valuable than my car collection. Yet, their private lives are not being exposed to the public”.

“I purchase cars just to admire them, not to polish my image. I am not going to do harm to anyone with my cars, ” he added.

In August 2010, when Quoc Cuong Gia Lai announced the plan to list its shares on the bourse, a lot of negative comments appeared on securities forums. The members of the forums criticized the luxurious hobby of the deputy general director. They wrote that the hobby, which requires large sums off money, may badly affect the company.

Owning a red luxurious Rolls-Royce, Nguyen Dinh Khoa, General Director of Mekong Real Estate Company never drives it to the office. Khoa said it is better to use a normal car at work, and that driving a luxurious car may cause much inconvenience to the car owner.

Khoa decided to buy the red car in 2008 and the purchase drew much public attentionat that time. The problem was that the red colour was not favoured by securities investors, who believed that the colour symbolized the stock price decreases. At that time, the stock market was gloomy and securities investors, both big and small, were being pessimistic about the market prospect.

Meanwhile, Khoa said: “I purchase the Rolls-Royce because cars are my hobby. The car is not an asset. Therefore, the decision to purchase the car in no way relates to the stock market”.

Khoa only uses the car when he and his family go to visit parents or relatives at weekends, or sometimes he uses it for excursions. But he doesn’t drive it at work. When he needs to meet with business partners, he would use the company’s car or drive a Mini Cooper S.

Meanwhile, another “big guy” who is very famous among the business circle in Hanoi, has another reason not touse his super car In the past, when using a BMW series 7, the businessman only had one worry: that he would be late because of traffic jams. Nowadays, when using the Bentley, which costs more than 10 billion dong, he has many other worries. He fears that his expensive car would be scratched by other vehicles on the road.

“With the current traffic conditions in Hanoi, it is very easy to get some scratches on the car,” he said.

He related that he sometimes drove state officials with his Bentley. The officials insisted that the car must stop at the place which was hundreds metres away from the office instead of stopping right in front of it. “They did not want to let others see them coming out from a Bentley,” he explained.

Meanwhile, he himself thinks that it would be better to use the super car in suitable circumstances, or else, people would say that the car owners want to “show off”.