Bentleys, Rolls-Royces Hop on Road to Recovery : Economy: Sales of the luxury automobiles from Thousand Oaks dealer are moving briskly, perhaps signaling that the down times have been throttled.

Each January, economists brush off their pet economic indicators to predict the strength of the coming year’s economy.

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Unemployment rates, retail sales, office space availability, housing starts and the like are all used by learned men and women of academia to predict the future.

Car dealer Gary Nesen is not an economist, nor does he have a detailed economic report to release to the world.

But he has what he believes is a leading economic indicator overlooked by the Wall Street brain trust:

“Rolls-Royce sales have been fantastic,” he said of his newest line unveiled in May.

Since the first Rolls-Royces and Bentleys arrived on his Thousand Oaks car lot eight months ago, sales have steadily increased to the point where he now has back orders to fill. Rolls-Royce also manufactures Bentleys, the sporting side of the family, Nesen said.

Nesen said he has sold 20 of the motor cars since May and has orders for three more. (Never simply call them “cars,” Nesen warns. “They’re Rembrandts on wheels.”)

Nine of the sales last year were new automobiles, accounting for about 8% of the western United States’ supply of new Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, said Rolls-Royce Regional Manager Chris Brown. Brown’s office is in Moorpark.

“We did a lot of analysis for several years,” Brown said before awarding a Rolls-Royce franchise to Nesen. “The timing wasn’t right for the longest time because of the recession. It now appears to have bottomed out.”

Now Nesen expects a booming 1995, despite the high sticker price of his product.

“What kind of person buys a Rolls?” Nesen said. “One that can stroke a check.” Rolls-Royce owners, by and large, write a check for their new buys, Nesen said. Little financing is involved.

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The bottom-of-the-line Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn can be had for the price of a three-bedroom house in Oxnard: $149,900. But for the most part, the super rich like their bells and whistles and have spent more than $300,000 on a two-door convertible Corniche S.

To Nesen, president of the $200-million-a-year Nesen Motor Co., this is proof enough that the economy is getting better.

“People just don’t buy Rolls-Royces during a recession,” he said. Nesen started with a shipment of two Rolls-Royces and three Bentleys in May and sales steadily increased.

Now, Nesen said he has 14 of the luxury automobiles in stock while two customers are vying to buy his one Corniche S convertible. Only 25 of the two-door automobiles were made for 1995 and the line will be discontinued after this year.

Collectors and aficionados around the world are standing in line to buy the $315,000 automobiles, Nesen said.

And here is what that $315,000 will buy, as described by salesman Paul Schnee: Interior covered in the world’s finest leather, cut from cows raised in Denmark and corralled by electric fences.

“That’s so their hides won’t get snagged on barbed wire,” Schnee said. It takes 12 hides to cover the interior, the same amount of leather used on 200 shoes. *

The Department of Motor Vehicles does not keep statistics on Rolls-Royces, instead choosing to lump them into the “luxury car” category when the agency counts vehicles on its roadways. But Nesen said of the 130,000 Rolls-Royces built since 1904, 80% remain in good working order. And of the working Rolls-Royces, he guesses about 2,000 cruise the freeways of Southern California.

The automobile’s miles-per-gallon rating is also good economic news for the oil and gasoline industries: The Corniche S goes 10 miles in the city for every gallon of gasoline, 16 on the freeway.

The increase in Rolls-Royces’ sales is also heartening news for the insurance industry.

A single, 29-year-old male buying the Corniche S can expect to pay more than $8,000 a year for full coverage, said Oxnard insurance agent Britt Whipple.

“Your insurance would be cheaper if you were married,” Whipple said. “Of course, if you own a Rolls-Royce, you shouldn’t have any problem finding a wife.”