How do you to sell a Ferrari or Exotic?

I tried once to sell my Porsche Gt3 - not quite a Ferrari.

What I discovered was that I do not have the temperament and patience to do any of the "classified ads" type of engagement. I did my best to "qualify" prospects before letting them see the car (i.e. required time on my part), even more so to take them for a ride (would only let them drive with a deposit in hand, as I had a 30:1 ratio of "interested people" to "potential buyers".

In hindsight 1) I'm better off letting a professional market and sell the car, even if I have to pay a consignment fee 2) I'm a great car buyer, not a seller 3) depending on the car (eg. classic Ferrari, modern Ferrari), you do need to proactively and thoughtfully position and market the car - i.e. not Craigslist - but more like Ferrari Market Letter 4) you need to be firm with your pricing thresholds, but fight the urge to be greedy and indignant at low but reasonable offers. 5) Once I decided to sell a car, I literally stopped driving it - so in essence, I was paying to "floorpan" my own car, which kind of ended the fun I had with it.

On the "marketing", if you have an active network (Ferrari Club, Porsche Club, SCCA, others) of cars guys, the more painless way is to get the network to help connect you to likely buyers. If your car is one of many (eg. a 2011 Italia, a 2012 Cali) you're going to have to work to differentiate your car somehow, some way, via features, condition, pricing, or availability (i.e. it's down the street, vs. buying across the country).

I have a couple friends who are gurus at selling exotics and know how to market, so my usual routine now is to either trade to them or consign to them. I do pay a consignment fee or take a trade hit, but in the end, the car moves faster, less headache for me, and the end result is usually pretty good even after I pay them.

 

Too many variables e.g. model, proximity to a PPI facility, etc.

For example, if I owned a F-40 I'd have someone else sell it for me. A 400? Probably self-sell via FerrariChat first and eBay second. No joy rides at all (uninformed/no-knowledge locals).

 

I'd either market it on a specialty board devoted to the marque such as this one, or use a specialist / broker.

Then again, if the market is hot and the car is very desirable, a good auction might work, with a fair reserve.

Never use craigslist: too many lookie-loos and flakes.

 

Excellent advice. I'm in the exact same boat as Entropy on this.

 

I sold my 308 through the Ferrari chat sales page. And found my Mondial through a wanted ad. Best option, in my opinion. Most searching there are knowledgable and ready to buy.

 

I always wondered about selling at an auction...

Seems most cars are just listed and sold with little info, no test drives, etc...

Seems like a brave way to buy a used exotic...

On the flipside, might be a great way to sell... All as-is I presume, and if the cars develops problems, caveat emptor...

How does one buy a ferrari at auction without a PPI, driving it, etc?

 

When I sold my first airplane, I gave many free rides to wannabee buyers before I started getting selective. If they weren't interested in looking through the maintenance logs, I could pretty much guarantee they were just there for an airplane ride. Finally started asking for contributions for fuel, but fortunately sold the plane to another pilot based at the same airport.

One piece of advice that a prospective buyer (an old hand who had bought/sold many aircraft) gave me was, "they're easy to buy, hard to sell." Truer words were never spoken.

I believe the same is true of our cars, though having only recently acquired my first Ferrari, I have yet to sell one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I sold my 360 about 4 months ago using Autotrader & Ebay. As suggested I'd post in our F-chat for sale section first.
Here's what I can tell you about Autotrader and ebay.
Autotrader: had lots of views early on and a few offers, none met what I wanted. Then things died down. $70 something to post an ad until it sells.

ebay: Tried a fixed price or best offer first. Had a bunch of lowball (ridiculous) offers, and a few offers that were pretty darn close. Ran that for 2 months. After the first 2 months, I tried the ebay auction route (rather that fixed BO) and started low for a 5 day auction. By the last day It was just a few thousand less than what i wanted and knew it was going to sell by the end based on bidders communication. At the same time, a local saw the ebay ad and bought it on the spot after seeing it. Tons more exposure and activity on ebay.
I'd nix autotrader as useless. Of course, that's just my experience using those two services.

 

You might speak with your mechanic (if you did not maintain the car yourself) and ask if he would be available for questions. I would want to speak with the mechanic if I were going to buy a 308.

 

Go read my ads selling the early GTBs...."time wasting' is the word!!

I eventually went to a dealer..
To save time and aggravation you might consider doing the same!

 

The market is good right now. If you're not in a hurry, the car will sell through the grape vine no problem. I would let reputable people in the Ferrari world know it is for sale (such as my specialist) and let the buyers come to me.

With my 365BB, just the fact that I mentioned it was for sale on this board in a post meant the buyer found me.


Onno

 

Not Craig's List.

 

If I had a 308 to sell I would not hesitate to use Bring a Trailer!

Sold a Jag thru them, super easy!

 

I sold a high end MB (I know, it's not a Ferrari) through Starwood Motors about 3 years ago. I am not affiliated with Starwood in any way, but one of my coworkers sold his Maserati that way, so I went that way. I live in west Texas, and they are in Dallas. I didn't want to deal with ads, showing the car, etc. Don't have the time or patience for that. Called the guy, they picked up the car, detailed it, and put it on Starwood's website and ebay. Sold in about 3 months for 3k less than I was hoping for, but pretty close. They did the work, and sent me a check. I know what they were asking for it, but I don't know the final sale price. He told me what they sold it for, but I never saw a sales invoice -- I never asked for it either for that matter. Anyways, was quick and easy for me. That is the only experience I have with consignment, but it worked for me. Just my experience. Can't guarantee anything though. Hope it helps.

 

I never drove a lambo until I paid for a lambo, same went for my Enzo- no test drives.

When I sell cars unless the potential buyer is someone I know, no test drives, period.

I've never had a problem selling a car, and I've had a tone of them over the past 17 years(exotics) prior to that 930 Turbo, 911, Benz. So 30 years of selling cars. I'm not a dealer, just a biz man

Hope that helps

Eric

 

Sold my CGT last year through FChat classifieds.
Guy asked me to take it to my local Porsche dealer for PPI that he paid for and arranged a shipping from my house.
Paid for the car sight unseen and obviously made a killing since he paid only $400k.

 

i sold one of my 25 anniversary Countach's 3 years ago for $100K, your not alone-ouch!!! Still have one.

Sold my enzo for $1.3, i didnt even notice the $ I was doing so well at the time, i was depressed cause i couldn't drive it, it had sat for a year without 'me' driving it, my back problems were so bad at the time, i just sold it. 6 months later the economy collapsed, i thought i dodged a bullet. lol i didnt


the difference between 20M and 200M is just a handful of decisions. the difference between 2M and 20M is a lot of work. life goes on.


best
eric