Gentleman’s garage ‘base 296 value will skyrocket “

296 is indeed a great sports car.
It should be valued properly.

 

I would totally agree with him. We have to wait another two or three years. In the meantime there is no way to find a new Lamborghini or a Ferrari without having a hybrid system attached (besides an SUV). it will rapidly become a common issue. And when those old school people realise, that their turbos or natural aspirated cars will be overtaken by a low priced hybrid Audi/BMW, people will change their minds. a few years ago, people told me not to buy a biturbo, because the values will decrease in comparison to direct injectors. And what's now? The F8 is pretty expensive. When there is another one or two generations of hybrid system cars from Ferrari available, and the prices get higher and higher, prices of the 296 will rise again. I was at the Maranello Atelier last year and they showed me the new E factory, they told me there won't be any car below €500,000. So that's the way.

and I don't know how you see it, people like me get dinosaurs. Young people tend not to be impressed by a V12 but by pure power and efficiency. A lot of young people don't care about having an own car anymore. When I was a kid, there had been a certain area in a plane where you have been able to smoke. Totally crazy, because you smelled it everywhere in the plane. Nowadays nobody can even imagine, that smoking in a plane was allowed. You know what I mean?

 

Someone buying a car without wanting it is the less concerned about having to pay more; I'm not sure that's the mindset of most potential buyers though.

 

the 296 is a good car but the demand of cars isn't relative to their ability - most people won't be any faster on the roads in a 296 vs a 488

 

I would worry about Ferrari shifting back to NA engines. I thought they recently got an exemption from the EU? Along with other small super car auto makers?

 

I think you are absolutely spot on. This is generational. What this means for values is they will take a while to recover.

 

i too think no more NA cars unless special ed with manual tranny etc.. akin to porsche. even with exotic car manuf emissions requirements loosening up.

i too think the values on these cars will go up soon. making easier to trade up

 

Most guys have a spend limit - they buy to drive esp second hand - first guys don't drive many miles.
Due to a spend limit / interest rates - we will see.

The guy who got 3 - pumping himself up to justify his purchase because he loves Ferrari and races earning VIP cars - not the norm but for Challenge drivers. Fun to watch and shows that Ferrari treats their VIP's well

 

And as a reward to Ferrari they support the brand by giving hopes to the losing Not Important Person customers

 

My thought on why they are not holding value is 1) too many of them 2) GTB is not good looking 3) price delta too large to justify 4) priced too high to begin with 5) fear of hybrid system and 5) we reached peak performance so the feel and excitement a car brings is more important than stats.

I doubt they come up in value but I bet the deprecation levels off. I have a GTS on order btw.

 

A v6 Ferrari hahahahahaha. You can't make this up, dare anyone to try.

 

how about this. lambo and porsche and ferrari make SUVs now.

 

Prices should come up as the inventory dries up after the production runs end.

 

i pretty sure however many decades ago people said the same things about v8s

 

Who cares about resale?

The car drives fantastically.

That's all that should matter.

Worrying about resale value is like going to a steakhouse to enjoy a steak dinner, and after-the-fact worrying about not taking a picture of your juicy ribeye to post on your Instagram feed.

 

In the case of a car (unless one intends to keep it forever, and therefore admits it is the end of all and there will never be anything worth replacing it), resale is a parameter in the total cost of ownership - so it is important, because for any expense (unless one has unlimited means - good for those in this situation, but that's not the most typical case) value and cost need to be balanced.
Now we have apparently an objective situation, which is that the resale value of 296 seems to be below what has been the case for Ferraris recently (excluding the SF90, which seems to be in a similar situation).
Apparently, quite often, the same people claim that the low resale value is transient (so eventually it's like it does not exist) and at the same time, it's not important anyway, because the car is so good...
If it's not important, why all the efforts in a denial enterprise ?
For my narrow mind, it would be more logical to acknowledge the unusual depreciation cost, and then decide whether the car is worth the complete cost (for which there is indeed a case, given that the car is so good, it could be worth it), or not (in which case a second hand buy could be a good solution to wipe out a part of the cost, unless it's definitely considered too expensive).

 

Coupes and GTS are $100k or more under list currently, which still gives a big number, in the case of GTS close or north of $400,000 plus taxes. They will NOT “skyrocket” they are going to keep going down until they level off probably another $100k below where they are now.

 

I don't think people on this thread (at least the majority of the regulars) are in "denial" about the resale curve of the 296.

People are generally discussing it with an objective lense, and as a factual matter, not in terms of justifying the price drop or trying to explain how the market is misguided.

But, for me personally, whenever I buy a car, especially an exotic or supercar like a Ferrari, I just assume the moment I take delivery, the $$$ paid has been basically pissed away.

Any $$$ recouped at the end when (or if) I sell it, is just gratuitous "found" money.

It's so much liberating in this respect.

 

Not sure I understand how anyone would buy into this nonsense to give their coins away? Is it just the logo?

You're smart enough to make the coins to buy a super/hypercar. It's a real head scratcher for me...

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Agree to disagree. Not only is the 296 much faster than a 488, but it puts it’s power down better and is easier to drive approaching and at the limit.

 

My thought on why they are not holding value is 1) too many of them

Yes, too many.

2) GTB is not good looking

Definitely not. Based on the constant flow of unsolicited compliments.

3) price delta too large to justify

Yes. Based on perception of 6 cylinder- not on the reality of the performance and driving pleasure.

4) priced too high to begin with

Yes- see above.

5) fear of hybrid system

Yes. This will take time to change. Uncertainty is a negative.

and 5) we reached peak performance so the feel and excitement a car brings is more important than stats.

No. The 296 puts down its power unlike any other road car. Usable performance. I thought this was over at 550HP. It isn’t. Ferarri has proved we have not reached the limit.

I doubt they come up in value but I bet the deprecation levels off.

Maybe. No clue. I do know that buying one almost new is the best exotic sports car deal existent. Better than my MC20- which I thought was the biggest bargain.

I have a GTS on order btw.

So do I. I may cancel and buy pre-owned. I currently own a GTB AF.

 

The market values the car not what we may or may not think about value. The proper value is the market value - will that change to the upside in the future - who knows! My gut is it won’t there are a lot of very fast hybrids either out there or coming and Ferrari can only live on its history for so long. From an F1 point of view its been under performing for quite a while now so I wonder if coming generations will care at all.

 

I'm asking this from a place of genuine curiosity: on what roads are you driving the 296 "approaching and at the limit"?

And I ask that because I agree with both you and willcrook when you said:
"Not only is the 296 much faster than a 488, but it puts it’s power down better and is easier to drive approaching and at the limit."

And he said:
"most people won't be any faster on the roads in a 296 vs a 488"

That doesn't mean you can't feel the power difference on the road when you step on the gas (specifically because of the torque fill that the 296 has), but "approaching the limit" is a whole nother ball of wax. I know I can't approach the limits of any of my cars where I live (Florida) unless I want to go to jail. I'm probably an outlier but I've been looking at buying a slower car so that I can actually push it harder on the street without hitting ludicrous speeds. The old adage about driving a slow car fast...

Will, I do disagree with your statement: "the demand of cars isn't relative to their ability". If that was true, you wouldn't see the obsession with 0-60 and nurburgring lap times. But I think we are well into the realm of diminishing returns (and limits of physics) in terms of pure pace on the street.

Also:
V6 stigma is real (it doesn't bother me personally, and it sounds better than 488 imho)
Hybrid stigma is real (it is new tech and reliability and maintenance are unknown)

The explanation of 296 prices is quite simple in my mind. Ferrari charged a very full price for the 296 and many dealers probably led customers to believe that they wouldn't lose money buying the car and trading it back for a GTS or something else (furthermore, I heard some had to buy the GTB to guarantee a GTS allocation, or to maintain status with Ferrari). This created a distortion between 1st buyer demand (higher than with prior models) and 2nd buyer demand (unchanged or down due to V6 and hybrid stigmas mentioned above), which resulted in oversupply of second hand cars and hence the prices dropping.

FWIW, I think the 296 is beautiful and underrated.