Two different luxury items for one small city
Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Apr 30/01) - Iqaluit's only luxury Mercedes Benz is collecting dust just three months after arriving in town.
"It wasn't brought up to make money. It was brought up for customer service," said Dan Gauthier, the Driving Force manager who rents, sells and leases vehicles.
The sleek, S-500 model was purchased with dignitaries and government officials in mind following rumours of a spring Royal visit.
The rumours disappeared, the vehicle remains.
Nothing like the S-500 battles Iqaluit's pot hole-lined streets: big doors for gracious exits, crash sensors, heated leather seats, double-glazed windows and the power to reach speeds in excess of 200 kilometres an hour.
With no renters, yet, the odometre has barely flickered.
"Three or four kilometres," laughed Luc Pothier, Driving Force co-owner.
"We'll rent it out for weddings and grads."
High school grads?
"With a chauffeur," Gauthier insisted.
The $100,000 limousine-like vehicle rents for about $100 more per day than Gauthier's fleet of 28 trucks and sport utility vehicles. Gauthier is bemused by the attention one leather-lined, European chariot has generated, not all of it good.
"When Paul Martin was here, he wouldn't take it. He said there was too much hype around it," he said.
Instead, the federal finance minster opted for a standard four-wheel drive.
"He didn't want the attention. The government is afraid of it," Gauthier said.
Across town, at the Baffin Flower Studio, sits a lesser known luxury: chocolate body paint.
Tucked discreetly between the bath salts and honey pots, the 10-ounce jars of edible art are flying off the shelf.
"I couldn't keep them in stock in February," said Elaine McBain, store owner.
The idea of sweet seductions are cute to some, intimidating to others.
"I sell to husbands and I say if you're wife is embarrassed just tell her it's great on ice cream," McBain said.
"Because it is."
As the city grows, so do people's quest for luxury items, she observed.
"There's more people coming in with varied tastes."
