Comment on Sales Process of SA APERTA

I spent my childhood thinking, polishing and later owning and driving Ferraris. During the last 20 years I have also met many people from the factory.

But...every time that I've been at a Ferrari meeting, or visited an unknown dealership or worst, an international motorshow, marketing and sales treated me like a nobody. Just because I do not own a model which is currently in production. Usually those people do not know what a Superfast, a 275 GTB / 4 and a 330 GTC are. Or if they know it, it's because they work at "Ferrari Classiche", the new marketing bonanza.

I've noticed this kind of attitude since the Jean Todt "era". He learned to his managers that "greed is good" and that rich people loves all that is rare, expensive and unattainable. The result is that you have to wait two years for a hypertechnological V8, and you have to be a special "Cliente" in order to get your tricolor customized limited edition. Other example, the budget for three races in the Carrera Cup is the same as the budget for brakes in Ferrari Challenge season (around 30 k&#8364.

But, and I don't know why, even if an F40 was crude, monochrome, expensive and designed to make big profits, customers and fans never looked at it like a bucketload of science or a marketing product but just as the result of pure passion.

PS: I do not know where they found the name "Aperta". I am Italian, I have an Audi Cabriolet, and I never say "today I'll get my APERTA," it sounds just inappropriate. Why not the names: "Spider Pininfarina", "SA Speciale" or, let's fools "SA Riviera", but "Aperta" is another marketing brillant idea that I don't understand.

 

I would take that up with your dealer not necessarily Ferrari SpA. They all knew about the car..

Also, there are 400 Enzo owners out there, how do you determine which 80 get the priviledge?

If anything, yes they should've made more than 80, but then they decided not to make it the point. They wanted to create something special for their best and longest clients.

 

McLaren does look very promising.

 

What's new here? Ferrari has done this sort of stuff since the Enzo days.

 

If I may take a stab at this question,

I think Ferrari should online auction all of them at once. The 80 highest bidders get the 80 cars. Takes the flippers out of the game.

But I think Ferrari should sell all of their cars that way. Each month put up a certain number of chassis numbers for auction and let the winners spec the cars once they have won a chassis number.

 

I knew the car was going to exist but had not seen pictures. Cool looking car.

Was I offended by the email, no. This is all for fun. I could care less about small things.

I do understand the views of those who were offended and hope Ferrari hears your concerns

 

Have to say I received the e-mail yesterday, and really had no cause to be offended. I bought my first F-car this year, and have the 2nd one coming next year. I think we get a bit spoiled at times and forget that for the most part we are fortunate to be able to afford these cars in the first place. There are guys here that think they "deserve" something, to me that is a bit more troubling than how Ferrari handled this. I sat with, what I consider a major Ferrari owner recently, and he was a humble down to earth guy, to me that was most impressive. He still has the passion and the enjoyment of turning that key/pushing the button every day. I still smile every time I look at my car......in the end that is what drove most of us to buy are first F-car. The dream and desire of owning one/driving one, and experiencing the Ferrari for what it is. I gather most members here are self made and can appreciate this thought process.

Did Ferrari handle it poorly? Likely yes, but how do you please 1000's of possible buyers with 80 units? You don't. So I guess in a way Ferrari marketing hit it dead on. They have a bunch of pissed current owners yearning to be at that next level, and wanting something they could not have. I say F__k it, and grab you keys go for a drive, and forget about the little stuff you can't control.

my 2 cents, if you want change PM me I will fed ex you a 1¢.

 

All True and many a good story begins with: The Count, Federico, Henry The Duce was pissed off with Ferrari. Fifty Years from now, when a Father is showing his Son P 4/5 or
P 4/5 Competizione I hope he'll add my name to that list.

 

If all the Enzo and GTO owners on here did not get asked if they wanted a car, who are the favored few? Must be a pretty select crowd if Jim, Hawkeye, and others did not get an offer.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

By way of contrast, Porsche approached the potential sale of the 918 spyder by using questionaires and other interactive marketing to gauge demand.

Whether being asked for your interest in the 918 translates into securing a car remains to be seen.

But Ferrari has totally under-estimated the demand for their car.
Perhaps at the time key decisions were being made, the economic forecasts were more gloomy.
Otherwise, they lost out on millions of dollars of profit and upset their customer base.

 

First of all I don't think all 400+ Enzo owners would wish to order this car. It is not my cup of tea and I suspect that a good proportion of Enzo owners value light weight and aggressive performance more than open air thrills.

However ALL Enzo, F50, F40, 288 and -dare I say- 599GTO, Barchetta, 575SA, 16M owners should have been invited to the private viewings. It is a limited production Ferrari and these are the people who buy/own them. Whether Ferrari decide to give them a car or not is irrelevant

I am not upset I am not getting the APERTA, but I AM suspecting that something similar will happen when the Enzo replacement comes out...and then I WILL be upset

 

+1.

Ferrari didn't play it very smart and obviously left a lot of people out there feeling by-passed. For what it's worth: dealers have to deal with this BS day in, day out. Will they get cars, how many, ...

I know that my dealer (who is a great guy and has an awesome team) had to tell one of his long term customers who wanted a GTO bad, that he couldn't get one extra for him, yet, there are new GTO's being offered out there via non Ferrari dealers. Dealers themselves often feel by-passed and to be honest, I've heard some "internal kitchen" stories that help me put this e-mail on the Aperta in the right perspective. Hard to follow their logic. As with many things in life: It is not what you tell, it is how you tell it. Obviously this was the wrong way and should have been handled totally different.

As to the car itself: I think it looks very nice but I don't feel like I've missed something as I have other criteria which are higher ranked on my list (that's why I'm thrilled having the GTO). My dealer was courteous enough to tell me about it already some time ago.

Expect such mishaps to happen again when the Enzo replacement is born

 

No doubt! Whereas I completely understand most people's annoyance at the way this has been handled, I don't get why people are so surprised. This is what Ferrari has done and will continue to do. Is it correct? Maybe not but it works for them. And as was so aptly stated earlier in this thread....its 'their' game. The game rules are actually very simple....$$=allocation. Trust me, start setting aside a budget of $1m+ a year towards Ferrari and you WILL begin to receive the calls on the next 'big thing'. Nothing in life is free....you gotta pay to play. It's just with so many seriously wealthy people out there the cost of the game has become very very expensive.

 

An interesting letter...
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if they want to keep the brand with an air of exclusivity then quit hawking all this crap merchandise and putting a store on every street corner

 

if you ask me. that adds to the exclusivity. whats better than everyone walking down park ave in NYC walking past the ferrari store. they walk in, look around, maybe buy a tshirt, or they just stare through the window and dream of owning one, getting a ride in one, hearing one start up, or even just sitting in one. 99% will never be able to own a ferrari, but they want to. what good is being exclusive if you dont have something others want.

this thread is interesting to me though. i always wondered how the non-production ferraris get bought. i always figured, if you owned an f40, you got a chance at the f50. if you bought that you got an enzo, etc. i guess this thread proves that not to be the case.

 

Same here 8 new Ferrari's in past 12 years - NO EMAIL

 

Terry,

I don't think the crowd was that select, probably more hit and miss. The email from Ferrari was probably not the best idea (Congratulations, you lost). I was offered the SA Aperta and I passed (car doesn't appeal to me) and dealer probably knew better than to call Jim on this car. I think a lot of people passed and out of the 30 or so cars offered in North America I doubt I was the first person asked in my region. There could have been one or two "no thanks" before they called me. But that mystery -dealer allocation and "the list"- is something that, IMO, can disguise bad business practices and needs more transparency.

If a price or allocation for one person is a result of a list, how do you as a buyer know there is actually people ahead of you at all? You could be the "chosen one" because others simply were not interested. And if you pay over MSRP to get ahead on the list, should not that order of merit be disclosed under agreement to determine if, in fact, the lists exists? I say there is no such list, anywhere. And if you can buy your way up the list, the integrity of the order of merit is lost.

 

Sono completamente d'accordo con te....

 

Yes..Such a strange name. Does the name change to Chiusa when it's not aperta...

 

There were only two private viewings, one in Maranello and one in Monterey. Invitations were handled through Ferrari and the dealership network. If you don't have a close relationship with the factory I'd try and become closer with your dealer.

Here's hoping that you do get in on the Enzo replacement though.

 

Maybe if they are not going to let the market decide through an online auction, as I suggested earlier, they should choose the buyers in a different way. Instead of offering them to people who already have other limited edition cars, offer them to those people who do NOT have other limited edition Ferraris, the "Give some new people a chance program."

Yes, I know it will never happen, and I say it jokingly, although it would be interesting. I still think an online auction is the fairest method of distribution and cuts out the flippers.