I bought my first Ferrari a 1989 328GTB and picked it up on New Year's eve 1988 as it was the first '89b in the country. MSRP was $82,000. I have always regretted selling it nine months later for $128,000. I am not joking! I now own a 599 for which I paid MSRP. Couldn't care less where the value goes. I get paid back more everytime I turn the key.
I'm only a newbie on the forum but have loved Ferrari's for as long as I can remember from childhood. Whilst I can appreciate that people can make money on buying and then re-selling a Ferrari (tho maybe not in the current climate), for me it's the same as the poster above, the only money issue I have relating to Ferrari ownership is that I'm not likely to be able to afford one without about 10 years hard saving to get 'low' end Ferrari. I want to own one for the cars that they are, not as an investment. I do fully intend to own one 'at some point' in my life, and even tho it's not likely to be anywhere near the top of the performance scale, you can guarantee that the day I finally sit in one and turn the key there will be a smile a mile wide...
It's nice to be in a position where it doesn't really matter. But, who's kidding who, right now owning a depreciating asset isn't the best feeling. Of course some are depreciating faster than others.
The "Investment Potential" was how I rationalized several things - the Boxer being one of them - that I had wanted to do anyway, and would have done anyway. Passions are rarely about the money (known a few who are exceptions to that, though), and I would actually prefer to be able to buy my preferred old, non-airbag, non-computerized, not-perfectly-aerodynamic cars for "used car" prices, even if it's going to continue down the depreciation path of al the other used cars. I can't remember the last new car I had that made me admire the design and craftmanship enough to occasionally open the garage and stare (although my Audi interiors have been excellent). After dealing with enough new, super-duper safe and efficient cars, I'll leave those to somebody else, and take an old Ferrari, Land Rover, Triumph, Jensen,.......et al, for more, or less, than that shiny new wunder-Bimmer or Whatzit.
If I bought a highly marked up car that was double the MSRP, waited 2 years for it ---then to have that same car selling now for below MSRP, I'd be a bit hurt by that.