Buy a Jet, Get a Sports Car Free!

Posted: 26 May 2011 08:45 AM PDT

We have heard of the “free Ferrari” promotion for selling mansions.

Now comes the free Lotus for selling private jets.

: Hawker Beechcraft Corp.; A Hawker 4000 with the 2011 Lotus Exos T125 Track Car.

In a sign that private jet sales are still in the dumps, Hawker Beechcraft is offering a free Lotus sports car with a purchase of one of its Hawker jets.

If you buy a Hawker 200 or one of its bigger models, it will toss in a Lotus Evora. If you buy one of the less expensive King Air turbo-props, you get a Lotus Elise (which is also less expensive). It is like the free-burrito promo from Chipotle, but with lots more money. The Hawker 200, the company’s entry-level jet, lists for $7.5 million for the 2011 model. (It isn’t giving away the F1 car shown, unless maybe you buy your jets in Hawkers bulk).

If the free-car deal has the whiff of desperation, it would be understandable. The rich may be back, and private-jet ridership is slowly creeping back, but private-jet sales and prices–especially for smaller planes–have yet to emerge from the wreckage of the recession. Sales of business jets fell 22% in the first quarter–and that was off the low base of last year, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

Fortunes of the rich may be back, but the hyper-luxuries of the rich (yachts, planes, mansions) have been slower to recover. Private-jet charters are cheap, because of a glut of planes, so why should anyone buy? Then there is the risk for jet owners of having their private-jet movements tracked by The Wall Street Journal.

Hawker Beechcraft says it hopes the Lotus promo will jump-start sales.

“This sales promotion gives us the opportunity to create some excitement around our new alliance with Lotus,” said Shawn Vick, executive vice president at Hawker Beechcraft. “We look forward to having customers experience the revolutionary craftsmanship through the ownership of both products.”

Of course, no one is going to buy a $7 million plane just because they get an $80,000 car. And restrictions apply: only customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa can get the deal.

Still, it makes for a fun blog photo.

What incentive would Hawker have to offer you to buy a jet?