Lamborghini is one of the most admired and desired names in the automotive world.
Along with Ferrari, it is one of the brands that gave Italy its reputation for producing some of these sleekest, fastest, and most glamorous cars on
the planet. So called super cars can come from many countries Germany, Sweden, the UK, America, and elsewhere.
But when we think of super cars, we often think of Italian super cars.
Lamborghinis futuristic designs, bold colors, massive engines, and trademark scissor doors have been indispensable in establishing this
reputation. But now the House of the Raging Bull, as Lamborghini is often known, is trying its hand at something very different-a four
door sport utility vehicle
It's a car that gives everyone the opportunity to enjoy it every single day.
I can tell you I drove it several times on a racetrack.
My personal firsthand experience was astonishing.
To purists, as always in these sorts of cases, the company's choice seemed like a betrayal of its legacy and a capitulation to the ever encroaching
crossover SUV craze sweeping the lower end of the market.
But the Urus or Urus, as Lamborghini's SUV is called, has been a huge success.
In 2019, it surpassed sales of all other Lamborghini models combined.
Lamborghini situation is not unusual.
A few high end makers, once known exclusively for making sports cars, even beat Lamborghini to the market with their own SUVs.
And more are following.
But is a four door Lamborghini SUV still a Lamborghini?
Will embracing the sport utility vehicle come back to bite Lamborghini in the long run?
Lamborghini was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini, a wealthy Italian industrialist who had already made a fortune in a tractor business
following World War Two.
Lamborghini wanted to create an Italian sports car company that could compete with Ferrari.
Ferruccio Lamborghini decided he made enough money.
He wanted to buy a Ferrari and he wasn't happy with the Ferrari's dependability and reliability.
So it was easy for him to access the head of Ferrari at the time and said, I'm not real pleased with how this car's behaving.
It doesn't seem to be as maybe as dependable or as refined as I thought it should be.
And apparently Enzo's response was something along the lines of "Yeah.
Too bad, you know, you don't like go back and drive your tractors around." So he went out and decided maybe I could just start my own car company, my
own sports car company, and I'll transition from tractors to cars.
And I won't have to put up with you and your your attitude any longer Enzo.
The company's first prototype, the 350 GTV, was presented at the Turin Auto Show in 1963.
The following year, the first production model, the 350GT debuted.
Lamborghini made 120 of them.
The 400GT quickly followed and about 273 units of that car were made.
The company's first big hit was the Miura, a 12 cylinder car named for a breed of Spanish fighting bulls.
The car attracted a lot of attention at the Geneva Auto Show in 1966, and the ensuing orders for it left Lamborghini flush with cash.
Many more models followed.
Some were considered a bit strange, but were sales successes such as the Espada.
Some, such as the Islero, were sales disappointments and some were legendary, such as the Countach.
In 1972, Lamborghini found itself amid a new political climate, with labor disputes playing out across Italy.
Ferruccio Lamborghini sold his shares and left the firm that bore his name forever.
Trouble continued in 1973, when an oil crisis sparked by the Arab-Israeli war turned consumers away from gas chugging sports cars.
Lamborghini tried to respond with more efficient vehicles and by culling its product lineup.
Around 1977, the company decided to try its hand at a high performance off road vehicle.
But technical and legal challenges kept the cheetah, as it was called, from making it past the prototype stage.
Sales continued to fall in the late 1970s, and by 1980, Lamborghini was bankrupt and expected to fold.
Bought by two sugar magnates in 1981, Lamborghini was resurrected.
The company hired a respected engineer, Giulio Alfieri, as technical director began showing sports cars again.
Then, again, Lamborghini ventured into the SUV arena.
The new owners pushed the company to begin developing an off-road vehicle meant for military use.
Prototypes bearing the name LMA debuted at auto shows in the early 1980s.
In 1986, Lamborghini put it into production as the LM-002 and made about 300 units.
In 1987, Lamborghini was bought by American automaker Chrysler.
At first there was enthusiasm about the deal, but the relationship at times was tough, with Lamborghini saying Chrysler did not give enough
attention to the Italian company's racing program.
Chrysler sold out to a group of Indonesian investors in 1994.
In 1998, German premium and performance brand Audi, a subsidiary of the massive German automaker Volkswagen Group, acquired Lamborghini
for what was then a reported $111 million.
Throughout its history, Lamborghini has given the world legendary names the Countach, Murcielago, Gallardo, Aventador, and Huracan.
But the Urus is an entirely new name for an entirely new type of vehicle.
Sport utility vehicles were once niche products.
True SUVs were basically trucks in a different form.
They were meant primarily for driving off road by civilians, professionals, or military personnel who needed to cross territory that
would prove unforgiving for the typical sedan or coupe.
But over time, automakers discovered that a certain generation of car buyers increasingly sought out SUVs as alternatives to family station
wagons and minivans.
SUVs offered a lot of the benefits of those vehicles, but also had capabilities that could come in handy on an outdoor vacation.
They also, importantly, didn't come with these same square suburban family image that wagons and minivans often had.
When gas prices rose in the mid 2000s, SUVs fell out of favor and even suffered some backlash.
But since the U.S.
economy recovered from the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, sport utility vehicle sales have been on a tear.
luxury carmakers have taken notice BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Bentley and Rolls-Royce all have SUVs, which in many cases now make up
large portions of their sales.
Even companies that were once pure sports car makers wanted in, Porsche was one such early entrant.
But these moves engendered some criticism among longtime fans of these pure sports car names.
One common worry was that SUVs would water down these brands, obscuring their racing and performance heritage.
This concern was articulated, perhaps most famously, by Sergio Marchionne, who, in addition to being CEO of Fiat Chrysler, was also
chairman and CEO of Ferrari.
When asked if Ferrari would follow Porsche in making an SUV, Marchionne said "You would have to shoot me first."
Marchionne later changed his mind, and Ferrari is making an SUV currently going by the project name Purosangue.
It certainly has a lot of purists up in arms and and probably you might even look at some, you know, some of the founding,
I guess names of some of these companies could be rolling over in in graves or in nursing homes wondering what are you doing to my
company? But, you know, I think it's a sign of the times where we're in a different industry now.
And, you know, maybe at some point we'll look back and think, wow, how silly this was.
But right now, it it's what's selling.
British super carmaker McLaren has resisted introducing an SUV, saying that doing so would dilute its brand.
After the Urus was unveiled in December 2017, many reviewers praised the vehicle for retaining features that customers expect from a Lamborghini,
including high performance and a luxurious interior, as well as excellent off-road capability.
The vehicle does achieve some eye watering speeds on the track.
The Urus accelerates from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 3.6 seconds and reaches a top speed of 190 miles per hour.
Staggering numbers for any car, much less an SUV.
Still, there was something not quite right about the Urus for some of those who reviewed it, even those who liked it.
The exterior, in the words of one reviewer, did not look like that of a true Lamborghini, but instead resembled any other luxury SUV from any other
maker. Others have noted that while there may be some similarities among luxury or premium SUVs, after all, they share the same basic shape.
Manufacturers do seem to be finding ways to differentiate their own products.
If you look at the capabilities of the Lamborghini of what we're expecting out of the Ferrari, those are very different SUVs and what you're seeing
from Bentley. So I think the fact that we're seeing track capable SUV, we're seeing ultra luxury premium,
almost chauffeur driven style SUVs from from Bentley.
You know, those are fitting each of those brands, even though it's stretching the brand into a space they weren't in before.
Lamborghini executives say skeptics should take a turn behind the wheel of the car.
Take a car, drive it, come back to me and tell me what you think.
Almost all of them.
They came back to me and said "I have to say that I changed my mind because this is a Lamborghini." That's, I
believe, the only answer, the only proof, because I mean that just
close your eyes and tell me where you are.
And you cannot say that you are not on an SUV.
Sales of the Urus have been fantastic for Lamborghini.
It is by far the brand's biggest seller.
Sales of the Urus totaled 4,962 in 2019, an increase over the 1,761 sold in
2018. Those numbers are already far higher than sales for any other current Lamborghini model.
It has also brought in a new base of customers.
By early 2018, 70% of buyers were new to Lamborghini.
But success, of course, brings its own challenges, like other high end carmakers, part of Lamborghini's desirability results from its rarity in
most parts of the world.
A Lamborghini on the road is a sight to behold.
Part of what keeps these cars rare are not only their prices, but their outlandish looks and perhaps their impracticality.
Huracans, Aventadors, Murcielagos, and Countachs are small sports cars.
They are built for cruising, blasting around a racetrack, or simply attracting a lot of attention.
They're hardly ideal for hauling around a family.
Many argue that the brash, often otherworldly looks, and the sheer impracticality of the typical Lambo contribute to its allure.
These are cars that the eye cannot mistake for ordinary vehicles.
But with the Urus, Lamborghini is now becoming something different from what it has been for most of its history.
Will that be a problem?
Some auto industry analysts think not.
Lamborghini, like every other brand, has to carve out a place for itself in the future.
And starting with an SUV within its lineup is really the most basic first step that they have to do, because every every successful
brand is is really living and dying on their trucks and SUVs, with almost no exception.
So we've watched Lamborghini evolve in a way that it's seen other brands evolve like it and become much more financially secure and have much higher
sales volume and great profits.
That's just the start. In the meantime, perhaps one of the strongest cases for Lamborghini, Porsche, or even Aston Martin SUVs is that sales of these
vehicles allow these companies to keep making the classic low volume sports cars that define these brands.
If you are a guy who has to decide, have to buy one car and they want to have fun, and adrenaline,
and comfort, and 'I want to use every day', Urus is your answer.
It is often observed that in the auto industry, new technology and improved performance first make their way into expensive cars and then slowly drift
into the mainstream. But the Urus shows that it sometimes goes the other way around.
SUVs first overtook the mainstream segments of the automotive market, and then they drifted upward to the luxury category before finally landing in
these super premium performance segment.
Analysts also think the SUV is here to stay, and for now, Lamborghini seems to be betting on it.
There are already higher performance and hybrid variants of the Urus on the way.
Purists may dislike it, but plenty of customers seem willing to pony up the $200,000 dollars or more for an over-the-top super SUV with an iconic
pedigree.