Why not make an almost affordable sports car

Alfa Romeo

 

You could get your own Boxster. Apart from the badge, it's exactly what you're asking for. The news ones are beautiful cars (finally).

There is no substitute.

 

Simple reason why they don't. They have X manufacturing capability. And no more. And they have X +x% demand. So they maximize profit by building X number of expensive cars.

Making an affordable sports car would only hurt their bottom line...

 

The exclusive approach makes them big money. An affordable Ferrari is an older (but not TOO old) one.

 

This, too.

 

Cost? about 65 grand
0-60 time? 4.3 sec
Exotic? CF tub, TCT gearbox, mid engine
Exclusivity? about 1500 pcs per year for the US
Weight? (US) about 2500 lbs
Beautiful? Definitely
$1800 badges? NO

It's not a Ferrari. It's a modern day Dino. Ferrari today wants to build Ferrari's. And, you can't blame them. They sell every car they can make. Why argue with success?
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If you thought your mondial t would be a hard sale at best when time came , if an affordable fcar came out you might as well use your mondial as a daily driver and add a hitch to it.

The used car ferrari market is already affordable and can compete. For 100k as a ftype you can easily get a 550 , or a 360 , and a damn good Testarossa. All BETTER than any boxter, or ftype.

 

That's why they launched DINO ... then it became the V8 Berlinettas family and so on ...

 

^And, civillians can't tell the difference between an new Ferrari and a 10 year old Ferrari, but the car aficionados love all Ferrari's, mostly.

 

612

 

I don't think Ferrari could ever compete against Porsche or even Chevrolet at the 50k price point. Give the Corvette team 50k and they'll give you a crude version of a super car. Give the Ferrari team 50k and you'll get half of an engine and three wheels.

 

Why on earth would Ferrari want to dilute their brand with a cheap sports car? If you had hand bags that you made and each and every one you could make sold for $50,000.. why would you want to make a handbag to sell in Target or Walmart? All that can result is dilution of your brand, which short term increases profits for 3 years but in 10 years results in your brand being a second tier. No way.

The same problem occurs in reverse when a cheap brand like Corvette tries to make a $250,000 car. Or like Porsche and its 918. Not all sell. Sure you get a few buyers.. but you can't convince your customer that your "affordable brand" is worthy of that price, even if the seats are hand stitched and the pope blesses it.

 

That market is saturated, why dilute the brand and make a sub - ferrari ferrari?

 

Ferrari is going the entirely opposite direction. Everything has ticked up about $100k.

 

I can see both sides of this argument. I too wish Ferrari built a 2,700 pound car with a 375 HP V-6, manual trans, & very little of the BS that interferes with the car-driver interface. Price it at about $135,000, & I'm in.
OTOH, as stated, they sell all their cars anyway, so why bother? Here's the problem: if you really look at where their highest profits (income vs. expenditure) come from, it's ...MERCHANDISING!! So following the "profit is god" logic, then why build cars at all? Turn Maranello into a theme park, sell t-shirts, model cars and tote bags, franchise out the Cavallino restaurant and save a ton of money on needless things like engineers, craftsmen (and craftswomen), etc!
I say this with tongue about 80 percent in cheek ...

 

Two words, Alfa 4C!!!

 

I think you just described the F355. Luckily its even less then $135,000 even if you figure in maintenance and repairs it's still a bargain.

 

You just described a 355 (minus the turbos). Just go buy one if that's what you want, that's what I did.

 

Like the Volkswagen Phaeton.

I am not in favor of Ferrari building an "entry level" sports car.

 

Ferrari is not an entry level brand.

The Mondial was expensive when new.

 

Nothing is a ferrari but a ferrari. Ferrari has never been more accessible or affordable as they are today. You want ferrari to be something else, just like the op who wants to not drive them as engineered. Wanting a low cost bulletproof ferrari to still have a ferrari badge on it is futile. Inside a year, the brand wouldn't be the same and you wouldn't want it anymore. Stop being glass half full and accept the world for what it is and find your place in it. Not directed at you specifically, just in general to all who want ferrari to be Chevrolet or Nissan but still have a ferrari badge.

 

I like the OP's thought on this -- but for me, make it a (simple) modern, mid-engine longitudinal 5~6L V8 with a manual trans and decent air conditioning only (you know, a modern Pantera that doesn't overheat and has decent AC -- I don't need KERS, I don't need a touch screen, I don't need an overly complex magneto-blah-blah damping system...)

 

I agree. Before the '90s, Ferrari's were ultra-exclusive, and in the '60s apparently you had to have connections to get one. Now you can pick up the phone and own an F430 in the very low $100Ks and the V12s have depreciated even more relative to sticker price. (And we're talking about cars with maybe 1,000 miles/year of use...)

If anything, a Ferrari is more attainable now than ever.

This kind of goes back to the flappy paddle thread: should Ferrari compromise performance for the sake of simplicity? (And no one needs a touch screen in a sports car, or carbon fibre dash trim -- question is around techology that improves acceleration/handling/stopping.)