Greenwich's Big-Ticket Car Show: Austerity Edition

(MoneyWatch)  GREENWICH--It wasn't rain that, as usual, inhibited attendance at the annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance. This year, austerity seemed to have taken a modest but discernible toll. There were fewer big-ticket cars and fewer luxury exhibitors.

All of this is relative, however: Greenwich has been shaken by the tanking of many of its new money hedge fund managers, but it is still, in every sense of the word, Greenwich. Real estate is in the doldrums here, but the streets are still thronged with Lamborghinis and Bentleys. And the talk was still of Palm Beach and Cannes, of auctions attended and the Bugattis that just barely got away.

It's vulgar to actually talk about money at events like this, but despite the current hard times, plenty of it was on display. Owners of some of the 1920s and 1930s cars rose to the occasion by dressing in period costumes. And since the period happened to include the Depression, it was hard to make comparisons between that hard-hit era and this one.

Looking glorious in Greenwich were such cars as a 1934 Duesenberg Model J LaGrande Phaeton, 1929 Cadillac 341B Town Car (with its presumed owner in chauffeur's outfit, complete with shiny boots and cap) and a 1928 Phantom I Rolls-Royce from the brief period the company made cars in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Rolls' owners, Norman and Lorraine Janus Hathaway, really got into the spirit. Lorraine Hathaway, whose costume suggested a wealthy jazz baby, explained her elaborate picnic setup and portable Victrola as "suitable for the era of our car, and indeed it was: partying before the storm in 1928. I found it appropriate that the yellow 1928 Rolls-Royce 40/50 Ascot from the Great Gatsby film was included in the accompanying Bonham's auction.

It seems curious to us now that carmakers of the day, including Duesenberg, Pierce Arrow (soon to fold), Packard and Cadillac would be building V-12 and V-16 luxury automobiles--some of them selling for $10,000 or more after custom bodies completed them--in the teeth of the country's worst depression. One veteran car owner told me that I should remember that some industries were, then as now, thriving. The new talkies offered diversion from trouble, and people flocked to Busby Berkeley musicals to hear glossy actors sing "We're in the Money." Movie stars like Clark Gable kept ordering custom-made Duesies and Packards (one of which was in the auction).

Walter Eisenstark, a longtime Italian car collector who's 1953 Siata 208S Barchetta (the last one made) was one of the hits of the auction, said the recession has "affected everything," but most significantly has "taken a lot of the impulse buyers out of the market. And Ferrari, the most recognized status symbol car in the U.S., has taken the biggest hit." Indeed, a perfectly nice 308 was on sale in the parking lot for just $24,000.

The Pierce Arrows of today are from marques with long histories, including Rolls, Bentley, Bugatti, Aston Martin and Alfa-Romeo. Greenwich's Miller Motorcars had examples of each for sale on the slightly muddy green lawn. An associate of the firm, who asked not to be identified, said the market is "definitely picking up now." He pointed out the finer points of a $130,665 Maserati to a very interested customer who apparently still had a full enough wallet to afford such a car.