Car Throttle

Conventional thinking is that in times of economic turbulence, companies of non-essential high-end products like Lamborghini would suffer greatly. For the year of 2008 at least, Lamborghini bucked that, posting both a sales and profit increase. Problems accelerated significantly in 2009 though, and reality set in for everyone - including Lamborghini. Lets take a look at the damage. Sales declined by some 37.7 percent, to 1,515 cars. That is after a 2.5% increase for 2008 that resulted in 2430 cars sold, Lamborghini's highest figure ever. A 37.7 percent decline was enough to turn a $79.6 million profit to a $47.6 million pretax loss. Ouch! Lamborghini blames the sales decline on two things: finance industries fell hard last year and many of Lamborghini's customers were in that sector and

Frankfurt seems to be the show to debut your exotic supercar at this year. Already we've got the Mclaren MP4-12C, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing, the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Audi R8 Spyder, and probably the Noble M600.  Add the topless variant of Lamborghini's wild Reventon supercar to the mix, and it looks like it's going to be a killer show this year, economy-on-life-support or not. I honestly thought the Reventon was done at this point; it was limited to 25 units of production and all were sold to rich oil sheiks, or something.  Apparently Lambo isn't done with this futuristic-looking range topper, or perhaps they want something mental to compete with the Aston One-77.  The Reventon is still just a Murcielago with a really cool

The Lamborghini Reventon is the most powerful and expensive Lamborghini yet - no doubt the Ferrari Enzo's equivalent for the brand. The Reventon is actually even more exclusive than the Enzo - only 20 examples of the Reventon were built, while Ferrari sold 300 Enzos to collectors around the world. It appears that Lamborghini is readying a roadster (Spyder most likely) version of the supercar, to make a debut at (where else?) the Frankfurt Auto Show next month, which will have quite a few high-end introductions if varying reports are to be believed. Rumors have circulated saying that Lamborghini has already showed the car to attendees of a VIP event at the factory in Sant'Agata. The Roadster would be even more exclusive then the Reventon coupe, with

Our friends over at Left Lane News have just released renderings on the soon-to-be Lamborghini Reventon Spyder. This will be the deluxe edition of the already immense Reventon which graced the automotive scene last year, and which is likely to have an even more phenomenal price tag to go along with it. Sources inform us that the hole in your potential wallet will be a whopping $1.6 million. Just by looking at it however, you can see why this can afford such a premium price-tag. The Reventon original was inspired by a Tornado Fighterjet, with its low and menacing front grille, its sculptured sides and the hard-edged derriere - you sure wouldn't want to see one of these in your rear-view! Coupled with the fact that

Looks like another high-end sports car manufacturer had a good year in 2008, despite the strong headwinds. Lamborghini has come out of 2008 in excellent shape considering. There was a similar situation with Rolls-Royce and it's 2008 report. Surprising, but true!

Overall sales, profits, etc are all up. The United States saw a drop of 20.3% to 741 units, from 930 the year before (2007). Given the U.S is Lamborghini's largest market and that is a significant hit to global numbers, you would think overall sales would be down. Not so though; traditional markets Germany and the United Kingdom saw small increases while emerging markets like Asia and the Middle East saw strong growth. In addition, Lamborghini saw growth in it's home market of Italy, with sales