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JAKARTA - Tebet is a modest suburb of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, a district where houses cost around US$100,000 (S$128,000). On tiny lanes outside many red-tiled bungalows sit Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs and Jeeps - imported cars worth as much as the houses themselves.
In the city centre and its more exclusive districts, drivers show off sleek Italian hot rods, grand British mmade Bentleys and top-of-the-range people carriers.
The luxury cars are a sign of the growing wealth of Indonesia's middle class, the bulging wallets of its rich after years of a mining and stock-market boom, and the desire of both to convert their cash into the most prestigious set of wheels they can afford.
Mr Sabam Rajagukguk, who works for a company running nightclubs and bars, used to drive a Toyota SUV, but recently traded up to a US$190,000 Land Rover Discovery.
"It makes me feel like the king of the road," he said. "People care how others see them. A Range Rover is the car for the 'haves' now, for a weekday car.
"For a weekend car, the sky is the limit. I see 20-year-olds arriving at clubs in Lamborghinis."
In Jakarta, there is a six-month waiting list for Lamborghini sports cars that carry price tags of up to US$1.2 million.
The marque has long been a status symbol in Indonesia, having been majority-owned by a son of former dictator Suharto in the 1990s, until he sold it in the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
Slightly below that echelon of the market, Indonesian sales this year by the world's largest premium carmaker, BMW, are up 45 per cent, faster than its 25 per cent growth last year.
Overall car sales in May surged 57 per cent, the highest in eight months and more than twice the growth seen in China. Also during that month, sales of cars with powerful engines above 3,000cc doubled, despite the near-impossibility of a car hitting top speed on Jakarta's gridlocked roads and many bumpy tracks outside town.
For some, one or two cars are nowhere near enough.
"This is for my family," said Mr Zainudin, the 47-year-old owner of a coal firm on Borneo Island, who paid US$300,000 for a Rolls-Royce to be added to his collection, which already boasts Jeeps, a Land Rover and a Bentley. "I prioritise safety, comfort, a quality engine and better performance," he said.
Record numbers of vehicles bought last year prompted carmakers, including BMW and General Motors, to invest in manufacturing in Indonesia - a Group of 20 member and the world's fourth- most-populous country - as part of a global move towards developing economies as engines of growth.
At the less prestigious end of the market, sales of motorbikes have started falling this year, showing that some riders may be swopping two wheels for four, helped by low interest rates for loans.
During a visit to Jakarta last month to launch a new low-cost people carrier, Nissan's chief operating officer, Mr Toshiyuki Shiga, said: "The Indonesian market is growing, but the range is also widening."
Still, the real action is towards the top end of the market.
Western carmakers are stepping up their sales efforts, and they are beginning to make inroads in a country traditionally dominated by Toyota.
Ford said it was the fastest-growing brand in Indonesia last year, while Chrysler equalled 75 per cent of its sales last year in the first five months of this year.
Mr Parlin Sinaga, a 38-year-old Jakarta-based lawyer, who bought a canary-yellow Ford sports car to go with his BMW, said: "All premium cars are already comfortable.
I'm buying for the prestige."
Long jams of Japanese four-wheel drives clog the entrances to Jakarta's glossy malls while, inside, luxury carmakers have started setting up impromptu showrooms to tempt shoppers to upgrade their rides.
South-east Asia's biggest economy, where coal mining, oil-palm plantations and retail businesses are the major growth industries, is producing millionaires faster than anywhere else, according to wealth-management firm Julius Baer.
At a dealership named Glamour, stocked with US$100,000 Jeeps and US$150,000 Range Rovers, a salesman revelled in the status-driven spending spree.
"Customers already have other cars," he said. "They are buying them for the prestige... The rich are buying them like candy."
 
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