2023-07-20 11:57:28
A gleaming racing car, with an aggressive and biting design and stuffed with electronic gadgets, sits in the middle of this luxury car sales garage in Casablanca, decorated worthy of a 5-star hotel lobby.
This “beast” which costs the modest sum of 5 million dirhams is a 650 horsepower Lamborghini Urus 4.0 v8. “This supercar is not intended for ordinary mortals, but reserved exclusively for the wealthiest and connoisseurs,” asserts the manager of this luxury garage.
The inhabitants of Casablanca, Tangier and Rabat have become accustomed to seeing this kind of stalls multiply, which always seem empty of customers seen from the outside, as this universe seems reserved for a tiny minority of mortals. Who are these privileged people who can afford to buy an Aston Martin DB11 5.2-litre coupe at 3.2 million dirhams or a flagship Mercedes Maybach S 580 at 3.7 million dirhams that we find in sale only in these points of sale of very high-end cars? “Our best customers were rich kids from Casablanca or Rabat, but also other young people who had all the profile of drug traffickers”, testifies on condition of anonymity a former manager of this type of garage in Tangier.
Social class car
According to him, this type of customer can easily change cars once a year! As soon as a new model is on the market, they run to their usual garage to acquire this new supercar, in exchange for their old car and a large sum of additional money.
The garage is a winner because it sells its latest model at full price and gets another luxury car, with few kilometers on the odometer, which it can resell once polished and refurbished. The buyer can boast of owning the most expensive, most luxurious and above all the most recent car on the market. According to our source, we are even witnessing a “unique” car race on the local market. The one that will make its owner the first driver to have ridden this latest addition to the Ferrari, Bentley or Land Rover brands in Morocco.
We also remember this sublime Bugatti Veyron photographed on its arrival at Mohammed V airport freight in February 2018, which had ignited the web before we learned that this car, costing the trifle of 27 million of dirhams, was intended for the Qatari ambassador stationed in Rabat.
The attraction for beautiful cars is universal. Nevertheless, the social and cultural context in Morocco plays a lot in favor of the acquisition of luxury cars whose value often exceeds the financial limits of buyers. “In Morocco, we measure the value of success by the cars lined up in your garage, the watch on your wrist or the jewelry and adornments worn by the wife”, summarizes this manager in a luxury concession. “Importers are aware of this snob-effect,” he adds. This kind of business seems to have the wind in its sails.
Especially since a new segment of 30-40 year olds seems to be opening up with customers ready to spread payment over several installments. And according to our source, women are just as passionate as men and just as fond of bling-bling cars. “Some of them are capricious in wanting to match the color of the seats of their sports car to their latest outfit purchased from a great Parisian fashion designer,” he quips.
Business & Money Laundering
Nevertheless, the presumptions of acquaintances between this kind of garages and money laundering circles are legion. The former garage manager affirms: “No shrewd businessman might afford to block a fortune in a stock of luxury vehicles – which sometimes peaks at more than 100 million dirhams – while waiting for future buyers, when such sum invested in any other business would be much more profitable”. And to add: “We don’t live in Dubai where billionaires jostle at the gate of car dealerships! How does this business manage to be profitable when the average Moroccan has trouble buying a used Dacia Logan?
This kind of doubt is all the more serious in Tangier, a city which has the greatest concentration, with Casablanca, of luxury garages. Especially since the pearl of the strait drags the reputation of an Eldorado of drug trafficking and money laundering. Some luxury garages in the city are registered as Sarl whose share capital does not exceed 50,000 dirhams. Which is far from corresponding to the impressive volume of cash circulating in this sector of activity.
It is because the sale of luxury vehicles is a laundering activity in which a large number of mafias in Europe and North Africa indulge. And Morocco cannot escape this new sector. A precedent was even noted in November 2019 when a judicial police investigation had allowed the dismantling of a drug trafficking network specializing in cocaine which established proven links with owners of garages selling high-end cars. in several cities of the Kingdom. The Customs department had even launched an inspection in several points of sale of high-end cars. Inspection which should logically be periodic and systematic to protect this sector from criminal networks…
And why not a brand dealer?
If buyers are moving more and more towards these luxury car garages to the detriment of exclusive importers, it is because the prices are more advantageous. Before the Covid crisis, these garages declared imported cars without the options included in these luxury cars which make all the difference for the selling price. Thus, they benefit from low customs tariffs and the price of their cars was very competitive compared to that displayed by the dealer. “They managed to import a BMW X5 Pack M stuffed with options at the price of a normal BMW X5. The gain is very great for the customer who might buy a full-options car with a sports design at a price equivalent to that of a mid-level car from the exclusive dealer of the brand, ”says a manager in a luxury dealership. But this advantage was removed following the complaints made by the Association of importers of vehicles in Morocco (AVAIM) which pushed the Customs services to be more vigilant vis-à-vis these tricks.
Since then, owners of luxury garages have taken advantage of the shortage of semiconductors, caused by the Covid crisis, to compete with exclusive dealers who were often out of stock. Customers in a hurry to collect their car and refusing to wait for the very long delivery times imposed by dealers were ready to pay 10 to 15% more to second-hand garages, provided they might benefit immediately from their order. According to our source, some managers of luxury car garages had access to the stocks of large dealers in Europe with which they were partners. It even happened that, made aware of the imminence of a new arrival of cars at the dealership, owners of luxury garages offered to buy a whole batch of vehicles which they hastened to exhibit in their show. -room at higher prices. Before concluding: “But now we are more vigilant regarding the profile of buyers”.
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