The influx of wealthy second-home owners and seasonal visitors to Bend in the last few years has led to more luxury vehicles moving from showroom floors onto Central Oregon streets, according to local automobile dealers.

The increasing prevalence of cars and sport utility vehicles from the likes of BMW, Mercedes and Audi is indicative of the changing car-buying crowd in Bend – and one dealer is upgrading its facilities to adapt.

Carrera Motors Inc. plans to open its new 14,000-square-foot BMW showroom-service building at its Bend location by February, said President Tom Anderson. The new building will be seven times larger than the current showroom for the German-made vehicles.

”We have seen very strong growth in BMW sales and we expect that to continue,” said Anderson, whose Bend dealership also sells Audis, Porsches and Volkswagens. ”The current (BMW) showroom is like a stepchild among the buildings we have now and it doesn’t offer the right experience for our customers.”

Anderson said the four brands sold at Carrera have experienced double-digit sales growth in the last few years.

A report commissioned by Porsche showed Bend households with annual income of more than $250,000 are expected to increase by more than 50 percent in the next five years, he added.

To accommodate the growing number of luxury- and classic-car owners in Bend, Carrera opened a 15,000-square-foot clubhouse, storage and detailing facility in February 2006.

Travis Jonas, general sales manager at Mercedes-Benz of Bend, said his dealership has sold more new vehicles in the month that ended in mid-December than any other month since it opened at its current location in 2002.

Luxury vehicles from manufacturers like Mercedes are priced anywhere from $30,000 to $180,000.

”Used-car sales are good,” Jonas said. ”But the new-car sales are exceptional.”

Both Jonas and Anderson said part-time residents comprise a significant portion of their customer base.

”We do sell a lot of cars to those buying second homes here,” Jonas said. ”And when you drive in Bend, you’re seeing a lot of luxury cars. This is definitely a good market (for upscale vehicles).”

Jeff Robberson, dealer with Robberson Ford in Bend and Prineville, also sells vehicles from Lincoln, Ford’s premium brand.

Robberson said seasonal residents, often visiting Central Oregon during winter, have increased sales of luxury four-wheel drive vehicles like SUVs in particular.

”In our market, SUVs are big because they allow people (who are here seasonally) to recreate during the winter,” Robberson said, adding that sales for the Navigator SUV are stronger than Lincoln’s cars locally. ”We’re definitely seeing people with substantial disposable income coming here more than we did five to 10 years ago.”

Despite the wealthier demographics, however, some luxury brands remain without an area dealership. Manufacturers without local dealers include Japanese luxury brands like Lexus and smaller European makers like Saab and Jaguar.

But Central Oregon’s popularity with the wealthy, which is helping to fuel higher property values, could limit the opportunities for those brands to move in, said Carrera’s Anderson.

”Car sales are a low-margin business,” he said. ”You need a lot of land to store your cars, and land’s expensive here. We can span our (operational) costs across our four brands, but it’s very difficult for (single-brand) dealerships to start here.”

Mercedes’ Jonas agreed, adding that those dealerships would have otherwise located in Central Oregon by now.

”We don’t worry about (increasing) competition,” he said. ”You would practically have to live under a rock in Oregon to not know that Bend is an upscale market.”