VROOM WITH A VIEW HIGH-END AUTO AFICIONADOS DROP HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

The deal still ends with a handshake and signature on the dotted line, but the experience of buying a super-luxury vehicle bears little resemblance to strolling onto an average car lot.

When list prices take six figures to add up and V-8 engines are the entry-level option, a cup of coffee in a Styrofoam cup just doesn't cut it to seal the sale. Before buyers spring for these rare wheels, they've got to come in through private entrances to screen them away from the rabble who buy mere Benzes and Jags. They contemplate their custom-painted color schemes by fireside, and when it comes time to settle up they almost always pay cash.

This isn't about how the other half lives - it's about how the other fraction of a percent lives. For these buyers, $100,000 is pocket change and $800,000 isn't out of the question.

``We had a billionaire come in here - how do you wow a billionaire?'' said Beau Boeckmann, vice president of Galpin Ford in Van Nuys. ``But when he saw the light show, he was like a little kid. He's got more money than he could ever spend and that was what got him excited.''

Galpin recently dropped $2 million to put in an ultra-high-end Aston Martin showroom, set off from its more pedestrian luxury brands such as Lincoln and Volvo. Though the Lincoln sales area's pretty nice by most people's standards, it's got nothing on the futuristic suite Boeckmann calls Club Aston.

Prospective buyers must make an appointment, then enter through a sliding polished aluminum door opened by a fingerprint scanner. Those who have already bought their way into the club get a private staircase, where speakers pump in the James Bond theme as they ascend to a room that looks like something out of ``The Jetsons.''

A $170,000 DB9 coupe, the ``more refined, more understated'' of the Aston Martin crop, with a V-12 engine pushing 450 horses, spins on a spotlighted platform. Buyers uncertain whether they'd prefer to take home the DB9 or to spring $250,000 for its 550-hp cousin the Vanquish S can mull it over while sipping martinis at a walnut bar with more curves than a Marilyn Monroe flick.

Boeckmann says the bathroom's nicer than the one he's got at home. Once you buy the car, which will often take three months or four months to arrive, Galpin wheels it into a bank vault complete with combination lock. The experience has little in common with buying a new sedan for the family.

``For qualified buyers, it's not about haggling over anything, except for maybe the color of the upholstery,'' said Robert Ross, chief automotive editor for Malibu-based CurtCo-Robb Media, which publishes mega-upscale magazine The Robb Report. ``It's like having a suit fitted on Rodeo Drive. The experience isn't based on trying to get the best price, but the best experience and the best product. Why haggle when money isn't an object?''

Though it's possible to finance or lease the super-luxury vehicles, Ross said most buyers just hand over a check. If they're a true car aficionado, they'll pick up several in one batch. Flatbed trucks deliver the cars to their gated homes, then pick them up again if they break down.

``We never give a franchise to a Kia dealer - even if they're a great dealer, they just don't have the same customers,'' said Victor Muller, chief executive officer of the Dutch carmaker Spyker, which recently started selling its supercars in Los Angeles. ``With a very high-end clientele, they all have Aston Martins and Ferraris. The guys who buy my cars want something else because they have nothing to prove.''

Even with a $300,000 price tag, the featherweight and monster-powered cars aren't that much of an expense for their high-toned purchasers. When you've bought a 70-foot yacht or your own private jet, a car that can hit 60 miles per hour in four seconds seems like a minor investment.

A Mercedes S-Class sedan with $4,000 in after-market lights doesn't even merit a spot on the showroom floor at Specialty Auto Sales, a high-end dealer in Sherman Oaks. Most Benzes are relegated to the outdoor lot - to get inside, a car needs a badge such as Bentley or Ferrari on its hood. The dealership isn't particularly flashy, save for the signed head shots of Harrison Ford and Sting singing the praises of the autos they bought there.

But when it comes time to take a 12-cylinder Ferrari or rare Mercedes AMG coupe home, buyers can get service rarely found elsewhere.

``I had one guy - he owns a hotel - ask me to shut down the whole showroom, just so he could show a Spyker to his wife alone,'' said owner Stuart Silver. ``Did I do it? You bet. Did he buy the car? You bet. Didn't even ask to test drive it, he just wrote me a check 15 minutes later. $344,700 - I remember that number real well.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Stuart Silver, owner of Specialty Auto Sales in Sherman Oaks, stands with a Spyker Spyder that sold for $304,000.

(2 -- color) The instrument panel gleams on the Spyker Spyder. The Dutch automaker recently began selling its supercars in Los Angeles.

(3) Beau Boeckmann, vice president of Galpin Ford in Van Nuys, shows the dealer's new $2 million Aston Martin showroom, which welcomes prospective buyers by appointment.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer