For the elusive and elite driver with a limitless imagination, there is Ai Design. A recent article in Bloomberg profiles the New York City-area car shop that takes customization to a heightened existence. At a minimum, newly-purchased cars are wrapped in film to protect the paint from careless valets. A $7,000 radar system is installed to let anyone behind the wheel know when to dip back below 100mph. A seven-figure sound system is installed.
“The basic math of it is, they can afford to have exactly what they want,” owner Matt Figliola told Bloomberg. “People with wealth are very used to having something custom-made. This is something that they do with their bathroom, their garage, their desks. Why not do it to their car?”
Bloomberg’s Kyle Stock observes that this “small fraternity of car nuts” view a new car as a beginning — not an end.
“The adage about taking care of expensive assets—how one doesn’t own them, one looks after them—doesn’t fly with this fat-pocketed crew,” Stock writes. “For them, owning a machine means changing it, making it weird, angry, opulent and personal—resale value be damned. And, of course, driving the sweaty devil out of it.”
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