McLaren builds 10,000th car, still won't give us all freebies
That's impressive, considering not a single model costs less than $100,000.
Building 10,000 cars isn't a big deal if you're, say, Toyota . But it's a monstrous achievement for McLaren , the small-batch British automaker churning out six-figure objets de vertu.
McLaren just finished manufacturing its 10,000th car -- a McLaren 570S painted in ceramic gray, a color from its Special Operations' "Defined" offerings. It took the company approximately five years to achieve this task after building its first supercar, a McLaren MP4-12C. The 570S in question will remain with the company in its Heritage Collection.
You'd look this happy, too, if you worked for McLaren. I get this look every time I get within 500 feet of one of these cars.
A good deal of this achievement can be attributed to McLaren's Sports Series, its most affordable car lineup, which includes the China-only 540C, the 570S and the more luxurious 570GT. A second shift at its assembly facility bumped output from 10 cars per day to 20, an easy move for McLaren, which is already in its third year of profitability. Its sales will nearly double this year to more than 3,000 cars.
That said, McLarens are still not cheap. The 570S starts a hair under $200,000, putting it just above the Porsche 911 Turbo in terms of affordability. Toss another 100 large on top if you want to move up to the Super Series, which comprises the 650S and 675LT. Add a whole 'nother digit to the equation if you're keen on the Ultimate Series, but it's not like it matters, because both the P1 and P1 GTR are sold out.
McLaren doesn't hope to start building affordable Camry competitors in order to make a bajillion dollars. It's quite happy where it is, offering a decently wide range of supercars to discerning buyers. Based on our time in McLaren's latest vehicles, its buyers should be quite happy with the results.