Ferrari dealership for sale

From today's New York Times:
Ferrari Dealership for sale ad.
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That would be one way to make sure you got the latest and the greatest first.. wonder what the investment would be .. also wonder if this is a new dealer or an existing...notice the car they chose for the ad...

 

I found it odd that a dealership could/would be marketed by way of a newspaper ad.
I suspect that there's an interesting story behind this.

 

Hmmm...... You can buy the dealership but do you actually get the official Ferrari franchise or are you paying top Dollar only to find Ferrari then take the franchise away?

(I don't know how it works in the USA but this has been known to happen in the UK!)

 

It can't be too difficult to figure out who it might be out of only 40 total - assuming its a genuine ad and not a Nigerian scam equivalent....

 

the physical real estate would be a separate transaction typically...

 

Hasn't this been done in the past? I thought I remember discussing an add for a north east (New York?) dealership but I don't remember what became of it. I think it was discussed in Silver a while back.

-F

 

Should be MAG in Columbus, Ohio. Has been for sale for a while with ads in WSJ. Last known number was considered to be beyond justification by those that have done the analysis.

 

Columbus. Think I'd rather have a McDonalds franchise in Columbus.

 

Gotta sell it some how..

 

the area code is NYC. maybe just a broker. Funny. The potential buyer for such a product is extremely small and surely must be approved by Ferrari. If they control which journalist can test drive their cars, the control over the dealership must be an order of magnitude more. Surprised this deal is not more secretive.

 

Many many years ago (the late 80's as I recall), I remember reading about a car dealers site in the UK that came up for sale and the price was greatly inflated due to it being an official Ferrari dealership.

The sale details for the site implied that there would be no issues whatsoever with the franchise being transferred to a new owner and so someone paid the asking price to become a Ferrari dealer.

However, when they applied to Ferrari to take over the franchise it was rejected for some reason and so the buyer was left with a car dealers site that was worth a fraction of what they'd paid for it.

They tried to sue for the loss of money but the seller had been smart enough to ensure that all of the details of the sale stipulated that the transfer of the franchise was subject to Ferraris approval and in no way guaranteed.

As I recall, the judgement was along the lines that although the franchise transfer was implied to be a formality, it was stipulated in the paperwork that it was not guaranteed and that it was for the buyer to ensure the franchise transfer would be accepted, and so the buyer lost his lawsuit.

The lesson of that was: A Ferrari dealership might be for sale - But that's no guarantee that you'll buy a Ferrari dealership!

(I'm sure any buyer would carry out the necessary due diligence these days to ensure the above could not happen to them, but it could still be possible to get caught out!)

 

Maybe the ad is for real, but something doesn't smell right.

Did anybody answer it?

If the seller wanted to maximize value, shouldn't it have been auctioned at Monterey?

 

The initial impression you get is that you would be buying an authorised Ferrari dealership, but the lack of any official Ferrari trademarks in the advert suggests to Me that it's more likely to be an independent specialist (or the seller knows that transferring the franchise could be an issue if it is an authorised dealership at the moment).

The other thing is, if this business will produce "The highest quotient of fun and profits", then why sell it? (I always get suspicious when I see someone selling a goose that lays golden eggs! )

 

Actually this is not the case. The factory/FNA won't allocate the first cars to the owner of dealership even if they have an incredible personal collection, due to a conflict of interest. This actually happened to someone I know who owns a dealership. They still get allocations, but they aren't the first go around.

 

Thats relatively easy: retirement / ill-health / peak of cycle / manufacturer again demanding unaffordable/unjustifiable refurbishment cost etc etc

 

Would you lose your money faster buying this or a large race team?

 

...you mean an F1 team with a Ferrari engine supply?!

 

Wasn't Ferrari of Beverly Hills supposedly for sale a year or two ago as the result of a messy divorce? Maybe it's still quietly for sale? I imagine these things can drag out for eons.

 

I would certainly hope that anyone with the ability to purchase a dealership would also be wise enough to get the franchise approval from Ferrari prior to actually closing..on the deal..

 

When buying a franchise dealership in the U.S. there are tons of qualifications/requirements/experience required before the store would change hands. Any Tom,Dick, or Harry can't buy a franchise with a simple financial agreement on price for it regardless of how much money they have. I have seen manufactures kill lots of buy/sells based on the quality of the buyer. They will analyze to death how capable the new ownership group would be, taking into account the performance of their current dealerships sales and customer service scores.

 

Somebody reads the New York Times?

 

Is it the NYT part or the read part?

 

How low do those customer service scores have to be to qualify for a Ferrari dealership? 😜

 

It's in The Wall Street Journal (preferred over the NYT) today.

So I called and the guy told me there was a waiting list and I would have to buy his Mitsubishi and Volvo dealerships if I wanted the Ferrari store. (I kid.)