China and old Ferraris

Before everyone thinks that the Chinese market will drive the pricing of older collectable cars up...

Shanghai to tighten emission standard
Xinhua (March 4, 2012)
Shanghai is planning to implement a harsher vehicle emission regulation starting next year in an effort to curb the city's air pollution, a senior environmental official said Sunday. The move is part of a collection of air control measures rolled out by the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau to improve air quality and cut PM2.5 -- fine particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter, said Zhang Quan, director of the bureau. Zhang, a deputy of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, said the new standard is equivalent to the Euro 5 emission standard applied to passenger and light vehicles in EU member countries. He said other regulations include speeding up the elimination of old vehicles and strengthening overhaul and maintenance on vehicles in use. Shanghai's decision for a new emission standard came shortly after Beijing ushered in a similar regulation last month. Beijing's economic planning agency announced on February 24 that the city will lead other provinces in the country to introduce the tighter National 5 vehicle emission standard, also equivalent to Euro 5, this year. China's Cabinet, the State Council, on Wednesday passed revised air quality standards, which include an index for the concentration of PM2.5, which are considered more hazardous to health than larger particles. Zhang said Shanghai's PM2.5 particles are mainly from vehicle emissions and discharges from power plants and industrial boilers.

 

Wealthy Chinese buyers have not been particularly interested in importing their purchases into china anyway. This new law will not change that.

 

At the moment, the wealthy Chinese are in the nouveau riche mode anyway- buying the latest and greatest to show off. When they do gain enough knowledge to appreciate and collect vintage cars, you can be sure they will have an impact on pricing.

In any case, the gap between laws and enforcement in china is massive and will not affect the ability of wealthy Chinese to purchase whatever they want.

 

We need to export all our episodes of Magnum PI first . Then we'll have a generation coming up that will want our old cars. And off topic, I think it's time to have a TV hero driving a Ferrari again.

 

You know this better than me, but based on what I saw along the coast, when it comes to "old" collectables, the preference was for Chinese produced works of art. Is it still the same (excluding the huge impact on first growth Bordeaux we've seen the last few years)?

 

I agree, too easy to confiscate if/when the government decides.

The Persuaders is available on Netflix (via DVD) now. Horrible show, but no doubt Tony Curtis is powering the Dino market upward.

 

+1. Concise but appropriate post.

 

maybe true for some parts or some unique pieces of the "collector cars market"...
but for the general market ?... probably overestimatet

as for old cars, there is one very important factor completely missing...emotional binding !

with an old Ferrari we could make a childhood dream come true once we`re turning fourty or fifty and can afford it - in the western world that is

but did the Chinese really dreamed about the same cars when they were growing up ?
I don`t think so...

they are probably as far away - emotionally - from a Daytona or a 308 as the typical babyboomer is from a pre-war Rolls Royce - I could be wrong, though

 

The first market for $100k 308s!

 

Excellent news! When will the price of Lussos fall enough that I can afford one?

 

fifty million two stroke motorbike engines pouring oil into the air might be a problem.

 

The paragraph relates to older cars in general. Vintage or classic cars still basically have regulations which they are covered by. The above will not affect the import of any classic Ferrari's, or other for that matter. The regulations referred to here are similar to other regulations in many countries in the world. Currently in most countries, the only thing that affects the importation of classic cars, are taxes imposed. Look at Australia, Singapore or Scandinavian countries.

 

My Daytona has been in China for over a year between the Ferrari museum and now the Shanghai expo. I got my Daytona back in HK for about 1 month before Ferrari asked to borrow it again. I went to Italy with a group of top Ferrari clients from China last October and I can tell you that they were very knowledgeable in the Ferrari museum. China is a huge country and it does not take very many to get bitten by the romance of Ferrari's history to make a difference to a small market. Someone who buys an FXX Evo, 599XX, F1 car with Clienti in Maranello, etc probably knows more about the older cars than 99.9% of the people on fchat. Ferrari sells a dream and a lifestyle not cars and that dream is steeped in history