Comment on Sales Process of SA APERTA

The whole story is making me look very seriously towards the cooperation between Bentley Motors and Carrozzeria Touring...

 

That was what I was going to say.

But, I can't say I'm excited to see another "made to be an investment" car. Very similar to Porsche's ridiculous Club Sport 911, where they're making 200 or so.

Between Porsche milking the 997 for all its worth, and Ferrari doing the same to the 599, it feels like these companies are primarily in the souvenir and nostalgia business.

 

Way too many variables in trying to determine how or even if the "LIST" exists. Who would be more likely to benefit from such a list? The factory or the dealers? Do all dealers have lists? Is there a special depatment within the factory that keeps a formal list of its most generous and most loyal clients? I doubt that any of these "LISTS" are that structured. Probably run more like a lottery than most would like to believe. Round and round she goes and where she stops nobody knows.There will always be a privilaged few who will have the inside track to any new model the factory unveils. They have put in both the time and the money to get there. The rest of us just get to spin the wheel and hope they call your number.

 

Hawkeye- You getting asked gives me a bit more faith in the system. It appears it was hit and miss like you said.

Funny thing about owners missing the e-mail like Yin and others. I assume they are registered on Ferrari.com. Even I received the e-mail.

What all this seems to mean is for those hoping to be on the list for the Enzo replacement, they better start letting their dealer and the factory know they want one way in advance of production. A good relationship with both is indeed required. Hopefully they do an F-40 on this one and let advance orders determine how many will be built rather than use some cute, arbitrary, limited production number.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

+1

 

ferrari doesnt have to sell the plethora of inane merchandise for someone to know and desire the cars

 

They have to do the post-sale press releases in order to make the cars valuable to the few that got them. If there were no envy or jealousy, they would depreciate quickly...

 

"If there were no envy or jealousy, they would depreciate quickly..."


Perfect!

Not to brag, but I own a 612 OTO, which I am told was designed for Ferrari's best customers.

I also receive, every so often, a very nice Ferrari magazine which helps me make difficult decisions about watches and jewelry. Happy to lend any of you a copy, I believe I am the only US recipient.

 

I was going to say that I didn't get the email either, and then I checked my spam folder and there it was. So apparently we know what Google thinks... Take that, Luca!

Seriously, exclusivity is created by telling people they can't have something. It just makes them want it all the more. As a strategy, it seems to work for Ferrari, and they've used it for over 40 years.

 

LOL!

 

Funny of the month!

And here's how to do it.

Those of you all butthurt because you got left out of the Aperta thingie (what is an Aperta anyway? an extinct flightless bird?) and are in the US and feel entitled to a V12 with a PITA soft top will be delighted to know there's at least one Lambo LP650 available new, for only 413 or so. If that one gets snapped up, duPont shows what looks like at least five new LP640 roadsters ready to go. I personally know of two more, a Rosso Vik/Nerosomething/Rosso E-gear marked down from 450 to 320 and a Nero Aldebaran/Grigio Phoenix six-speed stickered 403 now at 300. If that's still too expensive, there are dozens of lightly used 640 Roadsters all across the fruited plain looking for good homes, with years of warranty left, for under 270.

Then drive your new/newish L over to whatever F dealer you're mad at (except FCI, nobody can be mad at them) and loop through the parking lot a few times, displaying whatever universal hand signal you feel is suitably expressive. Evo says their Murci is at 160k miles and still going strong, so drive yours for 270k and your depreciation will be less than $1/mile.

Then take your well loved L back to the same F dealer as before, and, chastened, they will realize you mean business, and admit their grave mistake in personally disrespecting you by not allowing you to have annihilated, what, $600k way back then, and say "what is thy bidding, my master?" just so you'll buy an F this time and not another L.

There's always some way to stick it to the Man!

 

I agree Also

 

Not sure I'm adding anything to the discussion, but let's take a guess at the pissed-off list.

The old "we will build one less than the market demands" along with the general pricing structure establishes and maintains Ferrari exclusivity. So, exactly how long is the global most favored customer list....say people who are willing, able and have actually purchased a $1M Ferrari? Even if you don't sum the limited production quantity of Enzo, Challenge Stradale, Super America, FXX, and GTO because many of those buyers own a combination, let's add to the list the owners of >$1M vintage road and race Ferrari. Let's say the number is 600. Did they make 600 calls, clearly not....this means they have 500 of their wealthiest and most loyal customers PO'ed that they didn't even get a call. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

 

Ferrari has been "screwing" over customers for generations, that's nothing new. Its worked for them this long, why change? Fact is there is still much more demand than product coming out the front door, as long as that is the case, there is no catalyst to change. Isn't that one of the "badges of honour" of being an owner? Similar to Jaguar owners talking about oil leaks?

Competitors come and go and competition improves the quality of all cars being produced across the board. Saying F-you to Ferrari may feel good, but it isn't going to change anything. So long as there is an image of the brand that is positioned that makes it incredibly desirable (for what ever reason: speed, performance, exclusiveness, benefits with waif thin models, etc...), people will want the product, regardless of how painful the process may be.

The R8 has been mentioned, Audi has had tremendous success at Le Mans, but you don't see record sales. People don't care about practicality, this is about dreams. Ferrari has figured that out. Sure there are better cars out there, better buying experiences, but Ferrari is still turning them out and people are still buying them. The only thing that will kill the company is if conspicuous consumption will get you killed. The rich may be getting taxed more going forward, but they tend to be savvy enough to stay alive.

Jim, friends and all, but I hate to say it, I don't agree with your ticked off comment. If you want to consider getting onto the list with the others, go build your own car (with your own name on it) and then kick their ass. At best, you're currently aiming at the Breadvan. Neat car, but one with way too many footnotes.

 

But they may have gotten calls from 80 that didn't get calls saying "why didn't I get the call?" to be responded with "you'll get the next limited edition if you put X down". Why market when the market comes to you?

 

I think Ferrari is being far more shrewd than most of you think.

The worldwide market for new exotic cars priced at $1 million or more becomes much smaller if you consider buyers who are worried about depreciation. If they can flip it at a profit (or at least have the satisfaction of knowing they could if they wanted to), that number grows quite a bit.

How can you ensure your buyers can flip it at a profit? By building significantly fewer cars than there are buyers-- because the most hard core buyers will pay a premium, creating a market for your customers, if they choose to flip the car. Of course, you pay lip service to not wanting them to flip the cars-- and the buyers probably won't, for a variety of reasons, but they COULD.

If your buyers think their new asset has increased in value, they are going to be that much more likely to buy the next limited edition special.

That is how you take care of your best customers-- and these cars are going to their best customers.

 

Nonsense. They said that in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and it hasn't changed yet. Furthermore, Ferrari is coming off of some of the best racing history in their history. F1 is much bigger in the rest of the world than in the US.

As I said before, it's human nature to want to get into the exclusive club, and not being let in only makes people want to get in all the more.

This is what the current owners of Lamborghini don't understand-- and the problem for them is, it takes too long to build up that level of exclusivity.

 

They'll still walk in. Current business model only needs 10k sales in a world of greater than 6.8 billion. 2009 statistics show ~10 million HNW individuals globally. They need to get just 0.1% of that population to buy. Less if you still have the "I'll take one of each" crowd around.

The only way this model completely falls apart is if conspicuous consumption becomes passé. Look at me behavior became firmly established as acceptable behavior during the renaissance...

 

No matter what we all think of the Aperta process I think we can all agree that Ferrari must be facing a nightmare with the Enzo replacement.
Just with my close friends I know 5 people who have bought every recent car and are expecting to buy one - that's clearly not going to happen.

I doubt meany people are that bothered about not buying the Aperta but there are going to be hundreds of mega pissed off Ferrari customers who wont be getting Enzo replacement cars

 

Mike- What is going to be so different about the next 40 years?

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Let's tackle these one at a time.

Aston Martin - nice styling, zero product mix in the pipeline and I've heard of people getting stuck in the back seat of the rapide. If there heritage is anything, they will go through 8 more owners in the next 40 years due to financial solvency issues.

Audi - Going to have a real issue with product mix and overlap now that Porsche is part of the family. Likely going to really get into issues when Herr Piech dies as his votes are going into a trust. Management by committee will confuse the message.

Lamborghini - Will likely standby the old "we're the option if you're ticked at Ferrari" model. Yawn. Go do something, anything. Even Maserati kicks their ass in FIA GT racing. Future sales highly correlated to how many shirt buttons the 20/30 crowd will leave open. With gold pushing 1300/troy oz, the 20/30 crowd may not get into gold chains.

Mercedes AMG - Eventually the crowd will figure out that this is pure profit for Mercedes, but its tough to have an exclusive "brand" when even the pizza delivery kid is driving an older E55. Exclusive as the M series BMWs, i.e. every dentist and decent accountant has one.

McLaren - MP4-12C, sounds like a zip code, not a car. Hard to link passion with Ron Dennis. Waiting for Gordon Murray to tear apart the new car and state that it would have been better if he designed the whole thing. Eardrums in Surrey will pop upon uncontrolled expansion of his ego upon the statement.

Porsche - Again, every German dentist can't be wrong, but that's the problem. The Honda Accord of the sportscar world. The GT2s, GT3s, RSRs, etc... fit the AMG/M model. P-bug fans may make fun that Ferrari made the Mondial 8. Porsche made the 924 to fit that category...