Miscellaneous Car News

orders down 30% in China I heard.

 

Bad news I reckon.

Any guy that hates 348's is the best guy to lead Ferrari.

 

what a shame, we may not see a car as beautiful as 360 ever to roll off the production line at Maranello
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thank god, the front is the worst aspect of the 360, the rear is much nicer

 

so bitter

 

More to do with the (being seen to) austerity push than the cars but, I think...

 

The story goes that LDM went over a fundamental disagreement regarding the brand strategy, he wanted to keep production under 7k cars and maintain exclusivity.
The business side of Ferrari SpA has done well under LDM, and they are in great shape financially ATM.

Fiat group on the other hand is saddled with debt and offloading Ferrari via an IPO is the
USA is one way of generating $$$ to reduce Fiat debt.

And to maximize the IPO you need to have in place a plan to extract every bit of value from Ferrari as possible, a cornerstone of that is to ramp up the volume. Think Ferrari SUV's , low end sports cars, fridges, toasters and even more memorabilia, you get the picture.

With LDM leaving the path is now clear for that to happen, he is also 67, well past the European retirement age, so It's not such a big deal really ( I mean how long do you expect him to work, he's not Enzo !!)

IMHO the recent years crap Ferrari F1 results are not really relevant, there is a natural ebb and flow with teams no one is on top forever, Ferrari went for years in the 80's and 90's without a world championship.....this is another one of those times.

M

 

Well said. Even though it would have been good for the firm if Luca had stayed. I don't trust Marchionne.

 

Any IPO needs an upside growth forecast. Marchionne will have been using Porsche as an example - they've been lightly modifying various Audi's successfully for years. So we'll have a Jeep, built in a Jeep factory, with a Ferrari engine (plus a diesel option) and badged as a Ferrari.

The end is nigh.

 

The guide said last week that 7k cars per year is the magic number that they will not go over.

We'll see if that is still the case...

 

Yep.
And a hybrid as well, and a Jeep with a Turbo California engine etc etc.

Instead of an IPO there could also be a trade sale - VAG have Lambo, so perhaps one of the other Germans would jump at the opportunity to buy Ferrari. That wouldn't be so bad, Ferrari would gain a lot from that sort of a parent.

M

 

That was the LDM plan. Also cover for the fact that they couldn't sell a lot more than that. Asia Pac was the biggest growth market over the past 5 years, and as Ian mentioned earlier, sales in China are way down and a couple of dealerships were closed there earlier this year.

Aussie sales are soft too, been around 100 cars PA for the past few year and Italian domestic sales collapsed last year.

 

Despite all the chat about limiting production to keep punters salivating, how much extra production capacity does the factory really have? Doesn't seem like that much without significant infrastructure expansion. Unfortunately that doesn't preclude 'badging' options which is probably the sad truth as mentioned already.

 

new amg gt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkPPej4NzjU

 

So, I've got two vehicles that I'm trying to sell.

One has 13,950km and the other one has 19,990km.

I'm scared to use either of them because they'll click over to 14000 and 20000 respectively.

I have a question....if you were buying something, would it make any difference to you and the perceived value between

1. 13900 and 14900km?
2 19900 and 20900km?

 

Just give them a "dashboard tune-up".

Seriously though, only the one approaching 20,000 and even then, not really an issue. It's just that 19 sounds a lot less than 20.

 

No

Aussie delivered? Books, tools, cam belts?

 

Tools? What, the present owner.

From what I've heard, anything PeePee owns is "spot on".

 

Bruce thinks he is a real tool

 

I don't think Wes knows about Bruce.

 

He should. Might make you a tshirt "Bruce hates me"

 

Has he got one of these?
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Can't wait to see this thing!

Ferrari To Unveil U.S.-Only Limited Edition Supercar - $3.2 Million Price Tag, Limited to 10 Examples - Road & Track

 

I hear PeePee is trading the scooter for one of these.

 

Do they take food stamps?

Or is he going to spend the VKat money?