Rolls-Royce cruises Kazakh streets in ultra-luxury car frontier

New York

ROLLS-ROYCE'S search for buyers of cars like the US$294,000 Wraith coupe has landed it in Kazakhstan, where the average person lives on about US$330 a month.

Thanks to an abundance of oil and metals riches, the former Soviet republic has a big enough wealthy class to lure the likes of Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Maserati to the pot-holed streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city. In fact, more people in the central Asian country have ordered Bentley's upcoming sport utility vehicle than in neighbouring Russia.