Costly Cars Sell; Yachts Just Bob at Dock : Luxury tax: With all the items hit--autos, yachts, jewelry, furs and airplanes--only cars seem to be going like hot cakes.

A growing number of Jaguars and Aston Martins are rolling out of the showrooms as buyers flock in to beat a new federal luxury tax--and car dealers couldn’t be happier.

“It’s going to be a good December for everybody,” said Don Moothart, general manager of Newport Imports in Newport Beach.

But the few remaining days before the tax goes into effect Jan. 1 has done little to bring out would-be skippers of the sparkling new yachts bobbing at broker’s docks. Yacht sales are in their usual winter doldrums, and yacht dealers say the tax will add to their woes.

Luxury car dealers say sales are healthy this month despite the economic downturn, thanks to the January deadline.

At Newport Imports, where $40,000 Range Rovers and $200,000 Aston Martins sit fender-to-fender, business is up 45% over the last two months. Moothart expects sales to be as strong this month as they were in December, 1989.

Some car dealers say that December is traditionally their best sales month. What better way to tell wives, husbands, mothers or fathers how much they are loved than to park a silver Jaguar XJ at their door, wrapped in a bright red ribbon?

Some people buy luxury cars to start the new year out right. “They want to do something for themselves for the New Year,” Moothart said.

But this year, dealers say more buyers are telling them that they’re shopping to beat the new tax. As part of the deficit-reduction bill signed into law by President Bush, a new 10% luxury tax will be applied to that portion of purchases exceeding a set dollar amount. Those amounts include $30,000 for cars; $100,000 for boats; $10,000 for jewelry, watches and furs, and $250,000 for airplanes.

For example, someone who pays $90,000 next month for a top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz 500 SL will have to pay a 10% tax on $60,000 of the sales price, the amount exceeding the $30,000 limit. That adds $6,000 to the price of that Mercedes.

Garth Blumenthal, general sales manager for Caliber Motors in Anaheim Hills, said cash-paying customers are particularly concerned about the new tax, which must be paid in a lump sum at the time of purchase. Customers who lease or finance their purchases aren’t as concerned because the tax is amortized over the term of their payments. It is just a fraction of their monthly payment, even if the added sum means they pay more over the long run.

But the temporary boon to car dealers somehow has not been duplicated at yacht sales lots.

Doug Fredericks, general manager of Hatteras of California in Newport Beach, said the tax will mean more troubles for the slumping domestic boat industry.

Fredericks, who sells luxury cruising boats ranging from $375,000 to $8 million, said many of his customers are real estate developers who have been hit hard by a slump in that industry. December is usually a slow month for boat dealers anyway, he noted.

Fredericks said the effect of the luxury tax will be even more dramatic for yacht dealers, since their products carry such hefty price tags. The same customer who might not object to paying a $3,000 excise tax for a $60,000 luxury car may think twice before he adds $27,500 to the price of a $375,000 boat.

He said the only result of the tax on the boat industry will be to put more employees out of work.

“This tax is so ill-conceived. As an industry, we’re killing our domestic business,” he said. The tax could also hurt the industry’s export business by forcing some manufacturers already hurting from the domestic sales slump out of business.

Jewelers say they haven’t seen much effect this month on sales from well-heeled customers hoping to beat the tax.

“It hasn’t been affecting us at all,” said a manager at the exclusive Shreve & Co. at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. “Most people don’t even know (about it).”