Well not quite, but the company is said to be a hard up for cash, so much so that they have had to mortgage the company name. The name, Spyker has been mortgaged to the Friesland Bank for a mere €12.5 million ($16.8 million), which in the auto industry does not really go that far!
Spyker hit a bit of trouble way back in 1926, they did not recover from that one, but the name and the company was revived in 2000, and appeared to be doing very well, as the hand built high end sports cars began to sell very well.
Last year Spyker bought the Midland Formula One racing team, for nearly $107 million, the team only raced in the last three race of the 2006 season and have so far entered into the first four races of the 2007 season.
Spyker have al their hopes in the soon to be launched Spyker Super Sports Utility Vehicle, notice the “Super” in the title, which maybe applies to the figure of around $300,000 for the car. Initially the you would have thought that they have no chance, but apparently there are already 182 order for the car, which is quite a lot of money coming in.
By the end of 2007, the Spyker “D12 Peking-to-Paris” SSUV will retail at $300,000, making it the most expensive SUV in the world. Some of the standard features of the Spyker SSUV include: fulltime four-wheel drive, four doors (suicide configuration), VW’s 6-liter, W12 engine with an output of 500hp, 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds, carbon-ceramic matrix brakes, and all aluminum construction.
The problem that these independent high quality and high end auto makers is, that they maybe try to be just a little too exclusive, which cuts out a whole chunk of the market to them, but they make their own choice to go after these customers, after all that is how Ferrari started, and who is going to argue with them!
Source [Auto Blog]
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