What is up with this looooooong ass wait?

They are in stock for immediate delivery in China. See this other thread:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153402

 

What do you suggest as an alternative? Increase production and reduce exclusivity? It's all about supply and demand. Right now demand exceeds supply. Ferrari is wise in keeping it that way.

-steve

 

Buy something else.

Plenty of "pre-owned" Ferraris out there looking for a new home. Take a test drive, get a PPI and take'r home.

I've never seen much "up" side in buying new.

 

It seems everyone knows that there is a SOP when it comes to cars in short supply. Dealer sells car to "valued customer" at list, so he has it booked for manufacturer's inspection and does not get in trouble. "Valued Customer" drives car a little bit. Car i resold to someone on the waiting list at a big premium, and dealer and "Valued Customer" split the profit.

One friend who just has to have every new Ferrari immediately explained to me how the dealer puts a lien on his fully paid car so he can't sell it to anyone else. This fellow also told me he never drives the car above 70 MPH anywhere, which makes you wonder why he wants the cars in the first place!

A Ferrari, even as expensive and "rare" as they are, is a commodity, and any commodity, particularly one in short supply, is susceptible to market manipulation.

What's really great is how many of these new cars go out of circulation after their owners crash them because they don't bother learning how to drive them!

 

Define what you mean by the use of the term........"full deposit"..........

 

Yes China, Russia and Middle East.


How to Slow Down a Ferrari: Buy It

MARANELLO, ITALY -- How long should the world's super-rich have to wait before they can buy a Ferrari? The answer has as much to do with how luxury-goods companies create an aura of exclusivity as it does with the global economy's shifting winds minting more millionaires in places like China, Russia and the Middle East.

For years, Ferrari SpA, a division of Italy's Fiat SpA, had a standard 12-month waiting list for a new car. That was long enough to make prospective Ferrari owners drool with anticipation, but not too long to drive them toward competitors such as Porsche AG or Volkswagen AG's Lamborghini, where waiting times are usually shorter.
[Photo]
Ferraris at the Shanghai auto show

The year-long waiting period also allowed Ferrari to achieve a rare feat in the automobile industry: the resale value of its cars, pushed up by loyal collectors and dealers, rarely depreciated. So confident was Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo of this system that in 1999 he boasted the company would never make more than 5,000 cars a year. At the time it was making slightly more than 4,000, and most of its customers were in three markets: North America, Italy and Germany.

Since then, however, the math and the market logic underlying Ferrari's approach have been thrown out the window. The escalating desire to own a Ferrari among the newly rich of Asia, the Middle East and Russia has yanked the company's clubby ways out of whack.

Ferrari made 5,700 cars last year, and the number this year will crest above 6,000. Even so, average waiting times in Hong Kong, the United States, Australia and England have soared to around 24 months or more. In Italy and Germany, the wait hovers around 18 months. (Ferraris currently retail from $190,000 for a F430 to $280,000 for a 599 GTB Fiorano.)
A LESSON FOR THE RICH

What good's being rich if you have to wait for your Ferrari? In the Wealth Report, Robert Frank explores the significance of waiting lists for luxury goods.

"We realized a few years ago that we needed to rethink this," says Andrea Bozzoli, Ferrari's commercial and marketing director. "We started to consider 18 months ideal, but now we can't even keep up with that." What changed, Ferrari executives say, was a surge in demand in emerging markets. The company now sells more than 100 cars annually in the United Arab Emirates and more than 150 in China -- two markets where sales were virtually nonexistent only a decade ago. Ferrari will ship 60 cars to Russia this year, only three years after opening its first dealership there.

Michael Mastrangelo, a Ferrari dealer in Spring Valley, N.Y., since the 1970s, says that in the New York area in recent years, the wait has averaged three years for a new Ferrari. Last year, when Wall Street bankers were earning record piles of cash, Mr. Mastrangelo couldn't reap the benefits. Since Ferrari's headquarters imposes strict limits on how many cars it ships to each dealer, Mr. Mastrangelo's suburban New York City dealership couldn't sate the demand -- especially as repeat customers always come first.
[Global Gears]

"It's very hard to come into a dealership right now and put in a new order if you are not already a customer," he says. "When I get a young person, what I say is, 'Let's start with a used car' . . . It's kind of like getting into a club."

Satisfying the desires of these wealthy new consumers goes beyond a hot set of wheels. High-end fashion and jewelry brands, such as Gucci Group NV and watchmaker Patek Philippe SA, are also retooling product lines and rethinking marketing. While in mature markets, the target consumers are women, men are heavier-spenders in many emerging markets, so fashion brands have adjusted their message.

Ferrari has always been skittish about making too many cars, afraid that even a modest boost in volume could damage its refined image and aspirational appeal. Even this year's increase of 10% above last year's 5,700 cars will strain its one factory. All of its cars are customized, and its specialized work force spends years in training before joining the assembly line. Porsche, by contrast, makes around 100,000 cars a year. For a customized car, customers must wait between three and six months, according to Ferrari.

Now, coping with the sudden demand from new quarters is proving awkward. "If you go to some Arab countries, where customers want a car, or more than one, immediately, it can get sticky," says Ferrari's Mr. Bozzoli. Ferrari, he says, tries to make special accommodations for members of royal families and tries to get used cars to tide over important customers until they can get a new one. Still, there is a "feeling of mistrust about the waiting list," says Mostyn Heard, the president of the Ferrari owners club of the United Arab Emirates

"People think that you might get moved up or down on the list depending on whether you are a V-VIP [Very-Very Important Person] or merely a successful manager," says Mr. Heard, who manages properties for the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and expects to wait three years before his new 599 model will be delivered.

Ferrari admits that there was at least one such case of waiting-list tampering but that this no longer occurs. There is another problem with multiyear waiting lists, though: They can foster a gray market in which a person who takes delivery of a new Ferrari immediately flips it to an even hungrier buyer for sometimes double the price. That weakens Ferrari's ability to control its pricing and resale value, and keep track of its coveted customers.

It's a similar problem that has plagued high-end fashion labels for years: Designs that hit stores in Paris or Milan first would be snapped up by dealers who resold them in boutiques in Asia. Big luxury-goods conglomerates from Gucci to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA have since tightened their supply chains to ensure new lines hit their global store network at the same time and, when possible, at the same price. Of the roughly 20 Ferrari F430s circulating in the UAE, only about three were sold through the local dealership, estimates Mr. Heard. The rest were bought off mostly Europeans for what is often a substantial premium.

Ferrari is trying to stem the problem by policing waiting lists from dealers world-wide. Getting on the list usually requires fronting a portion of the car's sales price and providing proof of sufficient funds to cover the rest. Moreover, Ferrari tries to weed out duplicate names or people it thinks might be posing as a front for another buyer, says Amedeo Felisa, Ferrari's general manager.

Meanwhile, Ferrari is trying to keep up with the demands of its new consumers. At the Shanghai auto show in April, Ferrari served ****tails to a select group of prospective buyers atop a podium surrounded by a high glass wall while gawkers snapped photographs.

Among the potential clients was Mr. Liu, a 35-year-old financial entrepreneur who declined to provide his full name. Mr. Liu, who already owns a BMW 750 and a Land Rover, said he was willing to pay 4 million yuan ($520,000) for a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, but he didn't want to be put on any waiting list.

When salespeople tried to steer him toward a lower-priced car that would be more readily available, Mr. Liu insisted on waiting for the 612 , snapping: "I want it as soon as possible."

Source: Wall St Journal 09 May 2007 - 19:00

 

+1

The 575 is prettier, also stupidly fast, and you can actually buy one without getting extorted.

 

I do not mind 2 years if the dealer would just be straight with me about it. My local dealer told me it would be 5 for a 599, and that was IF they were to allow me to purchase from them. As if it were some honor to give them my business. please..

 

They're going to sell the lot anyway, so no. I think there's a fair deal of people who'd do much more for a Ferrari.

 

FIVE YEARS??!! For a modern production car?

Buy something else. You know the 599 will be yesterday's news in 2012.

 

+1

 

Maybe this is why, we seem to get a new die-hard ferrari-guy in the Lambo section each week.

Ferrari not meeting demand, is keeping Lambo alive and making them stronger every day.

 

Ferrari has almost always been like that... in the past it was even worse since the production wasn't like it is today.

It was even much more exclusive, driving mad many people who wanted one...

But it's always been... Ferrari... love or day... take or let it go.

g

 

I don't doubt you or your friend but I don't understand how a dealer can put a lien on a fully paid car. What if the dealership hits the wall and the receiver tries to collect the dealership's debts, starting with liens on cars? It sounds like the customer is betting on the solvency of a company he has no control over. So, who really owns the 'fully paid' car and how substantial is the lien?

As a consumer it sounds unacceptable.

Oddly enough the first time I encountered a 'no flip' policy was when I bought, of all things, an early BMW Mini. Part of the sales contract was a commitment for two years to sell the thing back to the dealership at market, a sort of right of first refusal. It didn't bother me because I don't think I've ever had a car for less than two years, however a lawyer friend I mentioned it to said that the clause was unenforceable and was a waste of ink.

Oh, yes. I still have the Mini.

 

That was from Wynn Ferrari. They deal with clown-shoes people all day, so I am guessing because they did not know me from Joe Shmo, that is what they have to say. If I made an appointment and had them make me a priority, I am sure the answer would have been different. The visit soured me from ever ordering a car from them though.

 

here in italy the official wait if you order a 599 today it's 3 years... then of course, you might push to get it few months before.

g

 

I'll never be able to afford a new FCar, and even if I could, I have that "new car depreciates too fast" mentality, so I probably wouldnt even if I had the money (and time to wait on the list).

That said, I think its interesting how the wait is so long BUT people STILL want to buy them. It does make them more desirable from an overall marketplace standpoint, in my opinion. Sorta like season tickets for the Broncos, they are like hotcakes here in Denver (I'm not originally from here), and pretty much you have to be on the list forever to begin getting season tickets, then forever to move to better seats.

Admittedly, I think its a pretty good marketing ploy, supply low and demand high. If they can sustain those market forces, they will be in business for quite a while, if the quality of the product is not compromised or suspect.

Sorta like "old money" and "new money", new money WONT buy you a new ferrari, regardless of how much it is, you have to have "old money" or more aptly termed "old relationship". There was a rumor that Ted Turner wasn't allowed in one of the country clubs in Atlanta, even though he made more than most if not all that were members already. New money......

Again, I'd NEVER buy one new, even if I could, but it is an interesting marketing ploy.

James in Denver

 

+1

 

A wait is good for maintaining brand image but keeping the supply too much below demand does not maximize profits, and may drive some customers to competitors.

As in everything else, there is a fine line between too little and too much.

 

I totally agree with 2NA. Keep your deposit and buy something used. IMO the pros completely outweigh the cons. If your heart is set on a 599, in a couple of years you can sell the car you bought now and trade up (or down, depending what car you buy now).

 

Don't you think they may have seen through that?

 

Most of the prestige of wanting an item is waiting for it and doing research on it. Rarely is the actual satisfaction of receiving something after wanting it for so long greater than the anticipation. I am only 15 but I have gone through this process sooo many times. Now when I want something, I strech out the wait as long as possible before I start to cry, then I make my purchase. Part of this is the fact that most (not all) things are not as amazing as thier reputation is built up to be.