How many hide their Ferrari from employees?

hehehe I hide mine from my boss

 

Right, I pay for mine eating junk food all the time, they all have Suburbans with cow catcher grills. We all have the same vehicle allowance, I just had more imagination!

 

Well said! i know bubbas here that drive a $40k truck to tow a $28k bass boat with a $25k engine on it, and its all financed for forever. my plans include a 308 soon and a V12 something one day in the future. its so hard to explain that one can find some nice older cars for way less than most of this new computer-car crap "THEY" are trying to force us to buy. LONG LIVE CARBS!!!!!!
for the record, i am not going to tell a soul i know or work with when i get my fcar. only those who know me well enough to be welcome at my home will know. thats only if the alarm is off and both bays of the shop happen to be open!!!! one of my neighbors kids knocked on the door to look at the trans ams in the garage, he was thrilled when i let him start them both up ( they needed to run anyway). he was shocked they they had been in there for months and he never knew it. privacy fence is up now too so that will help as well. great thread! michael

 

I would imagine that this thread could also go a bit further and ask how many Ferrari owners hide their Ferrari (or other exotic car) from relatives.

I have a physician friend with a 348. When his folks were coming to town to visit he would swap his 348 for my Alfa Romeo Spider. He didn't want his parents to think he was being foolish with his money and possibly be written out of the inheritance plans. Now, I loved the arrangement since I got to drive the Ferrari, but, it does make me wonder how many people are hiding their cars from their relatives.

 

Alan,

You know that friend of yours you have with the communist mailman? I think to solve your problem, send him the yellow 355. He said he will pay for shipping and take care of it. Thus you will not have to post such ludicrous threads. He also wanted to say Hi to your wife

 

I hide my Ferrari from everybody, including myself. Come to think of it, I've never even seen it. But I know it's out there, somewhere, just waiting for the widow, er,... I mean owner, to sell it to me at a bargain price.

 

I say just leave the car at home. It could cause resentment in the work place towards you.

Many employee's already feel that they are working to make you rich. And showing up in a Ferrari only solidifies their suspisions. This may cause moral and productivity to suffer, maybe even some will just quit on the spot.

Leave the Ferrari as a private pleassure to be shared by you and your family and friends. Don't rub it in you employee's face. Put yourself in thier shoes and really think how you would feel.

 

Good question, Janet! A lot of relatives wouldn't understand.

 

interesting thread.

if you're in the service business, it's a tough call. people have a funny way of drawing their own conclusions regardless of what you or i or we think.

if you're not in the service business, it's your call.

i don't buy the "if your employees can achieve the same gains" argument. the fact is that the vast majority of your employees will never be willing to make the sacrifices you (at least i) made to achieve the success you've achieved that permits you to own stupid sports cars. and that's the same whether you bought an enzo after taking your tech company public or you bought a 308 by scratching and scrimping and sacrificing for ten years to save up. most people won't fixate on a professional goal and fight tooth and nail for it (i'm sorry to say) - it's too hard.

there's also the issue of whether you acquired your spoils as a result of your current gig or a previous gig. i was able to buy stupid cars as a result of selling one of my companies. i was relatively thoughtful about flashing the financial success about while i was still there. but on to the subsequent companies, i have no real issues with driving my cars to work. i achieved X and it allowed me to do Y and it has nothing to do with company Z i'm at/running now.

my tuppence.

doody.

 

I don't hide mine from my employees. I have 63 employees some of which are car nuts and enjoy the car. I pay my employees above average wages with bonus profit sharing for the last 15 years or so with 401K matching funds. It's how you treat them that counts. I have some non-college people making 100k with benefits. I have a very low turnover and several that have left have come back after they find out what they are missing. Whenever family functions come up, we are the first to accomodate their special wishes. It all depends on how your employees are treated.

 

I hide the car. It's quite sad because my office is about 30 miles away down some great twisty roads. At this point, only 3 co-workers know about the car -- and they've all go similar secret car hobbies (one races a Rousch Mustang, the other two are hard-core AutoX'ers). Everyone else is in the dark.

Here's the real issue however: my IT staff probably knows EVERYTHING - they must notice that I spend 99% of my day reading ferrarichat.com !!

-Daniel

 

Imagine someone who is in the closet gay and a Ferrari driver! Double that for them. Seriously, I don't like to adverstise that I have one. It would do no good to tell people it's a Mondial and cost less than their minivan. It is just a wierd thing that evokes strange responses from people. Its a complication I don't need.

 

This is excatly how I feel.

If your employees have harsh feelings if you show up in a Ferrari, it means there is a problem deeper than that. Let everyone know how hard you work or have worked/studied.

 

Hide it...no!! However I am rather discreet about it. Most of my co-workers are francophones and (unfortunately) a few still have a stereotype image of what an Italian is all about. Hint...Don Corleone. For these few narrow-minded souls, the Ferrari only re-enforces the stereotype.

 

My future 330 GTC will not be know to any of my family. There is no advantage there.

 

I hide the car. Letting employees, customers, prospective customers see the car opens up a can of worms with regards to perceptions.

I own the car because I love fast cars. Unfortunately, other people often see it differently – often people think that I have the car because I have so much cash that I can “blow” cash on whatever I feel like, or that I am a flashy, show-off type of individual. The individual who compared Ferrari ownership to blowing $25K on gambling perfectly illustrates my point.

I own the car *only* because I love fast cars. It is that simple for me.
Unfortunately, it is not that simple for people’s perceptions.

 

A few weeks ago my wife's SUV broke down so she was forced to take my sedan. I had no choice but to take the Mondial, my best-kept secret, to work for week while the vehicle was being repaired. The news spread like wildfire, and pretty soon I was deluged by people wanting to take a ride/ask questions, etc. etc. (all this for a sub-$40k car). Not once did I get a negative reaction, and in time it pretty much became a non-issue. I believe a lot of it had to do with the fact that I try to be a fairly humble, easygoing person who treats everyone, from executive management to the mail room clerk, with the same common front. Had I been some egotistic @$$hole I'm sure it would have been a different story.

Moral: it's not the F-car, it's the person driving the F-car that will determine the general reaction at work.

As an epilogue, some time later my co-worker drove in in a brand-new Prius. That generated even more excitement and attention, and rightly so.

 

I tried, but was eventually found out. Immediately, the Magnum P.I. jokes started. Kind of funny.

 

I noticed something when my wife was in the hospital giving birth to my son. The medical professional that spent the most time with my wife made the least money (nurse) and the one who spent the least time made the most money.(anestesiologist)(sp?) The Dr. who delivered him (C-section)was in between the other two. However, you need to look at the liability involved. Make a mistake with the epidural and they both could die. Make a mistake with the C- section and one or both could die. The odds of the nurse making a fatal mistake are much less. If you treat your people well then you should not feel strange about driving your Ferrari to work. If someone has a problem with that, tell them that you worked very hard to get to the position you are in today and the next time they would like to tell a patient that they have cancer and may die. They can be your guest. The responsibility of your position is justification enough. But only if you treat your employees well! If times start to get tough and you have to make cut backs then maybe lay off driving the Ferrari to work for a while.

 

This thread gives me a great idea. I could start up
www.yourbossdrivesaferrari.com

People could anonomously rat on their superiors about the flambouyant cars that they are driving while the working class slaves away in the sweat shops. I can hear the promotional ads now:

"SUSPECT THAT THE BOSS IS LIVING HIGH ON THE HOG WHILE YOU STRUGGLE TO BRING HOME THE BACON? Then nail down the truth at
www.yourbossdrivesaferrari.com . Find out once and for all who is dining on pheasant and caviar while they let YOU be the PEASANT who has to "eat cake"!!!