As a luxury car brand, Maserati, like other brands, has a dedicated customization room to meet customers’ personalized needs, primarily to enhance the brand image, showcase brand strength, and guide customer spending.
Li Jing followed the fairly attractive female sales associate into the customization room. The room was meticulously arranged with soft lighting design, and various custom parts were displayed along the walls, including interior materials, audio systems, etc.
The female sales associate initially intended to take the opportunity to showcase some high-end Maserati accessories to Li Jing, but noticing Li Jing didn’t seem too interested in hearing her chatter, she immediately dropped the idea and quickly seated him.
For a rare generous customer, the female sales associate played the part with unparalleled attentiveness.
Unlike the exhibition hall outside, this customization room featured a virtual customization system, which essentially meant using a computer for virtual display of car models, allowing customers to visually see the effects of different customization options on a large screen.
Li Jing found this quite good and directly asked the sales associate to start explaining after sitting down.
"This model currently has two power systems, one is the 3.0T Modena, priced at 1.46 million yuan; the other is the 3.0T Trofeo, priced at 2.298 million yuan. The 3.0T Trofeo, being the high-performance version, offers more powerful performance, with a maximum horsepower of 550, excelling in control performance and driving fun..."
"I’ll choose this high-performance version."
Before the sales associate finished speaking, Li Jing directly decided on the high-performance version.
According to his thought, since he didn’t lack money, he naturally chose the highest possible options.
The sales associate, cut off but without any dissatisfaction, instead smiled even more brightly, continuing, "Mr. Li, do you have a preferred color for the car body?
We have white, diamond black, rock gray, vibrant blue, as well as special colors and limited edition colors, although those might require some waiting."
Although pleased with Li Jing’s straightforwardness, the sales associate did not forget his "no waiting" request, thus she specially reminded him.
Originally intending to choose a special color, Li Jing changed his mind immediately upon hearing about the wait and said, "Then let’s go with vibrant blue, it appears more lively, unlike black and white which are too common."
The female sales associate operated the customization system while saying, "The custom fee for this color is 49,800 yuan."
"What the heck? It costs so much just to choose a color?"
Before Li Jing could speak, Huang Jun’s eyes widened, an exclamatory surprise escaped him, his face full of suspicion that they were getting scammed.
Huang Jun had some understanding of luxury car prices, so even if this car cost two million he could accept it.
But having increased the cost by almost fifty thousand just for a color choice exceeded his comprehension.
Even gold-plating it wouldn’t be so expensive, right?
Seeing this, the female sales associate patiently explained, "Sir, this color uses three layers of paint, and it has a gradient effect under sunlight, choosing this color will definitely make the car’s aesthetic far surpass other ordinary cars. Also, in our customizations, apart from the standard version, everything requires an extra charge."
Saying this, she looked uncertainly at Li Jing and asked, "Mr. Li, what do you think..."
"No problem, continue."
Upon hearing Li Jing’s still calm voice, the female sales associate secretly breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that the big order might encounter issues midway, and immediately continued introducing, "Next is the interior color, do you have any preference on this aspect?"
"Brown, it looks more stable."
"Okay, the custom fee for this is 67,900 yuan."
Hearing that the interior added nearly seventy thousand more, Huang Jun couldn’t help but blink, wanting to speak but upon seeing Li Jing’s composed demeanor, he swallowed his words.
Damn, the money of wealthy people and the money of poor people are indeed different things.
I truly don’t understand the world of the wealthy.
Thinking this in his heart, Huang Jun subconsciously glanced at Zhang Ling, who maintained quietness beside him, and found her gaze towards Li Jing growing brighter and unavoidably changed his expression, his heart filled with both envy and jealousy:
Damn it, even though I don’t understand, I still wish to be rich...
"Mr. Li, next is the style of rims, currently available in 19 inches and 20 inches options."
"Okay, the custom fee for this option is 41,700 yuan."
"The color of brake calipers, you can see on the screen there are various colors for you to choose."
"Okay, this custom fee is not expensive, only 7,300 yuan."
"Next, this configuration is for wireless charging and electric doors, we also suggest adding it."
"Great! The custom fee is 9,900 yuan, then next is..."
Observing Li Jing add each configuration, the cost jumped up dramatically, and the more Huang Jun watched, the more outrageous and shocking it became.
Is this buying a car or outright robbery?
No, robbery wouldn’t make this much money!
Li Jing and the sales associate exchanged words, with almost every sentence ending in tens of thousands added.
Huang Jun could only feel that Li Jing’s words were incredibly valuable now; some say a promise is worth a thousand gold, but his words are worth thousands of gold!
Meanwhile, Zhang Ling, though her expression wasn’t as exaggerated as Huang Jun’s, was also listening intently with a heart pounding, realizing that in just a few minutes, Li Jing had spent the equivalent of several ordinary commuting cars on additional features.
Although she usually dealt with properties worth over ten million, watching the thousands keep adding up was undeniably more stimulating to the heart.
Moreover, even though she had accepted the steep price of houses in Celestial Sea City, experiencing the high price of cars so directly was a first for her.
A family considered middle-class in Celestial Sea City might grit their teeth to buy a house worth several tens of millions with a loan, but their cars would probably cost only four or five hundred thousand.
Because in most people’s minds, a house is still a necessity with a sense of belonging, providing marriage, education, and appreciation attributes, so they can accept loans of millions.
However, cars in most people’s cognition are still consumables, besides commuting, they don’t have much other value, compared to houses offering marriage security, education, appreciation, and value retention, most people wouldn’t spend excessively on cars.
It was precisely for this reason that Zhang Ling was increasingly shocked by Li Jing’s strong economic power, probably exceeding her expectations.
"Mr. Li, this is the printed configuration sheet for you to confirm."
At this moment, the female sales associate had already printed all the previously confirmed configurations and respectfully handed them to Li Jing.
Li Jing merely scanned it slightly, then moved his gaze to the price column at the bottom, totaling 2.956 million yuan.
"What the heck... a two million yuan car, the configurations directly jump it to three million?"
Huang Jun secretly extended his neck, seeing the price on the configuration sheet, feeling even breathing had become difficult.
Then he thanked himself inwardly, fortunately, he followed Jingzi to take a look, otherwise spending his own earned over a million, unable to pay for a sports car, would be greatly embarrassing.
Just as Huang Jun thought it was over, the female sales associate exchanged with her colleague, finished calculations, and spoke again, "Mr. Li, because your car has exceeded the luxury car tax threshold line, excluding the 2.956 million car price, you still need to pay a 261,000 luxury tax, a 200,000 purchase tax, and a 40,000 insurance fee, finally totaling 3.457 million yuan."
"Another fifty thousand added???"
Huang Jun, not paying attention earlier, hearing the total price now soared to 3.457 million, his eyes widened, brain suddenly froze:
What the hell... is this doing math problems, adding one problem after another, never-ending, right???
Someone said money is just a series of numbers, now I deeply feel it, this money indeed isn’t the money I recognize, it’s more like a series of emotionless numbers.
Except this series of numbers, isn’t it a bit terrifying???