488 GTB (458 replacement)

I miss seeing an unveiling of a F car with Luca making the honorary speech. Lot of flair and passion vs the antics of sweater boy!

 

Were the stand personnel temporary contractors just for the show, who tend to know very little but appear to have been told to smile or frown condescendingly through clenched teeth at everything, or full time F SpA marketing employees?

Either way not acceptable, no matter who you think you are. Geneva is a marketing exercise that must cost millions to put on with stand rental, (although it wouldn't surprise me that like F1, F are paid to turn up as it will increase punter numbers for the show organiser on the general paying public days), stand dressing, vehicle logistics, chosen few ego stroking etc. Why cock it up by staffing the stand with morose arses? If you're too good for the show, don't bother going and save the cost. However even F need to maintain brand awareness and there is the FF over capacity problem to try and solve and flog some metal.
Unless they think that by being so aloof they preserve the "mystique" of F. Which I would suggest to be BS - not that they don't think it, but it's efficacy.

 

I know, I'm just saying that 240K isn't really that high for the car.

 

I had a very nice experience yesterday with a young man who was very enthusiastic about the cars and the brand. He was respectful and tried to be helpful tho this was my first time inside the booth so I've nothing to compare it to.

On the other hand I could see where some other conversations going on might sound pretentious I managed to avoid that. And no one bothered me when I took a ton of photos.

SV

 

Too close to V12 pricing is the biggest problem.

 

To be allowed inside the booth you need an invite from a dealer that you give at the entrance. That invite is then used by F Spa to bill the relevant dealer something like 30 or 40 bucks for letting you in because they assume you will get a drink (or two). Same thing with free factory visits charged back to the dealer. Ferrari is very good at making money everywhere they can and it works. If your dealer is there you will get a great service (all Swiss dealers + some intl coming up for a day or two) but if you don't know anyone indide you are left to deal with the junior guys who have the keys of the cars. They seem like 20 year old students trained for the occasion but I suspect one or two of them to actually work for Ferrari. In any case this is unacceptable to treat prospects with arrogance; I have not seen these juniors behaving badly but I have seen prospects trying to get in the cars with their champagne glass, their cocktail food....and the attendants have instructions. At the show, I have personnally never had a bad experience but my dealer was always there and he is friendly, professional, not overselling (I know it sounds strange for a car man but it is true) and I have bought 2 cars from him in 3 years. All cars from all brands after the show are sent to reconditioning because they age 10 years after a show (doors, scratches, greasy marks). For brands with no private access to their booth like mainstream brands, the cars are almost destroyed.
BBR

 

That's alright because the F12 is old news. It's 3 years old already. I think it's safe to say that every 488 in the first year will be sold to people who want the 488 and nothing else. No first year customers will have been cross shopping the cars. If they wanted a F12, they'd have gotten one by now.

After year 1, the F12 is 4 years old and the perception that it's of a higher class is long gone. Why should a 4 year old model carry a premium to a way better, brand new model? What about the F12 would warrant the premium aside from the cylinder count?

 

The staff started with not accepting my dealer invite letter "no not good enough they said", then I showed them my FOC card, still not good. Then I showed them my dealer's business card and still not good enough. At this point I became a little annoyed and was taken a bit aside down the table and they started asking me personal details (not the usual stuff you fill out), such as my marriage status. I said "What do you have to do with these things, I am here looking at a car not a interrogation". After some further arguing they let me fill out the form for entering the stand as a "freshman", when they asked which Ferrari I have I said "none right now" they didn't want to let me in. So back to square one. After some further arguing they finally let us in since we were several others with invites. The guard noticeably snorted when he opened the red chain to let us in.

At the stand, things were not better. Dealers and personnel pushing people aside so they could look with "their clients" and a staff employee tried to prevent me from entering the lounge (which was open as usual). I spoke with my FOC president about it and he said he would word a complaint.

Maserati were the opposite, they even let us in the lounge without the vip card. For me, the highlights of the show were SCG003 (WOW!) and visiting my friends at Koenigsegg. In production form, the Regera will be able to do 300-0 km/h in 5 seconds. Think about that.

 

Rather poor indeed.
Similarly as rude when I last went to the factory with the dealer. Bearing in mind I was stood with the dealer in the reception area, the statements made to me were as follows:
"You have no booking, please leave" apart from the email I have a copy of between you and the dealer confirming the booking.
"We don't do tailor made tours" apart from the one the dealer always books and the one that just left.
"There is no charge to dealers for tours" I suggested they refund the dealer the amount they had been paid if they wouldn't do the tour.

Butt rude. The dealer didn't want to make waves, but I had no issue with some petulant child action.

Apology and leather trinket from F Slough a week later.

 

Hilarious But SM got the last laugh by forcing Luca out

 

Of course, their lack of service did have an effect on my 'want' of the car. But I went to look at it several times, and it never triggered any one in our group esthetically. I'm not sure were the people saying the front is much more volumptous in real life are coming from, because I did not get that impression. It really is very flat. From a distance the front has a relatively cool look because of the headlight LED clusters, but when it gets closer you are let down by the lack of detail at the front. The side scoops were certainly the most positive surprise about the car. As a matter of fact, I quite like them now!

I did not fall to like the new Racing Seat padding, but they were miles better than the standard seats which are too flat-bottomed. So yet again there is only one way to go.

I have to mention it again, the size of the new engine makes the engine bay area look goofy. It resembles a small LEGO brick bolted down there. Ferrari should've perhaps done some changes to the glass to give the impression of less open room around the engine.

 

You think the 488 would look better in Nurburgring silver ?

 

The car is already somewhat anonymous so I think it would suit black (i.e. Nero Stellato etc.) well. Don't think Argento N would be my choice, adds to the generic feel.

 

We will see what will happen later, after initial hype about the 488. F12 could be very attractive in coming years primarily because of its sound, not freshness. Take a look on quotes below:

 

Well they make more money per car than anyone else in the world. They have more f1 world championships. Most consider the 458 the current benchmark for mid engines sports cars. People buy cars just to get on waiting lists for other cars.

That still isn't a reason to be rude to customers. There is a distinct line between confidence and arrogance.

 

Most of the people who were arrogant to you probably will never own one of the cars. Who cares what they think or how they act.

 

It's reasonable to care a fair bit when you're travelling several hours and putting an effort into seeing what they have on offer.

 

and Mr. SM has $72 Million for his compensation this year,not too shabby I'd say

 

I agree but it does put a damper on one's enthusiasm and from a pure business perspective has no place in any type of customer service contact!

 

What MisterMaranello described above is very similar to how some, if not many, salespeople at high end clothing boutiques act. The psychology is designed to make the goods seem more exclusive because the goods are "above" most patrons. It's entirely a psych ploy since of course almost every real customer makes far more than the clerk with the attitude. Whether this strategy makes sense or not where most Ferrari owners are already the cream of all consumers, and are enthusiasts, is highly questionable. I can see that losing more customers than gaining, but since everything sells out anyway, there's little empirical feedback telling Ferrari this isn't working.

Back to the main topic, I'm not sure cars are getting more fun. Especially with the 488, they are definitely getting faster and easier to drive fast, but more fun is very subjective. For example, video games can be fun, but are they really always more fun than playing a board game or some game with much less sophisticated equipment? I think I have more fun driving my stick shift 360 Spider in most situations except perhaps the track. Anything from a 430 on up goes roaring by (except turbos, which "whoosh"), but I mostly don't really care. (In fact, passing 430s and faster cars is often the same fun a Miata owner must have passing almost any other car. For the track, I'm thinking it could be fun to get the new GT4 Cayman.).

I just hope everyone with a 458 dumps their cars in the next few years so 458s come down in price. Current owners of 458s will react with horror at prices dropping on their cars, of course.

 

Ferrari has held the V12 as their top of the range offering for some time now.... Ferrari isn't going to forget about or discount the F12 because a new v8 came along. They'll do a facelift Give it some more power and hype it up and run it out.

A 488 At 240 it wouldn't out price the v12 but be getting up there in affordability for some v8 buyers. Over the last couple years the v8 price has been creeping up anyhow by adding base features etc.

20% would be a big hike and I hope it's only 5-10%. The higher the base cost, the more we will lose on them in the first couple years. 210-215€ base, nicely optioned at 265€ would be just right in my book. I guess we will see where they land on it.

They'll end up like the 12c if Ferrari shoots too high. Good car for what it is but Mclaren over shot the pricing and the market corrected it for the owners.

 

Just to clarify, I'm used to the stereotypical high-end "seller", and I expect very little from people working at events like this, because I'm familiar with how they usually act. But yesterday was an absolute low. I've been to some of the dealerships with the worst reputations in Europe, and they acted like gentlemen compared to the imbeciles at the Ferrari stand.

Anyone else think the cars displayed at the stand were boring? The F12 was the only car with a somewhat interesting spec. I wish Ferrari had models in more striking and unusual specifications at their stand, so it doesn't feel like walking around at your local dealer.

 

I love cars, all types, makes or models. When I'm going to purchase one that's the price of an average home, I'll put my money towards the people that show some modicum of respect.
If my Ferrari dealership treated me as above; I'd probably be driving a Mclaren or Lamborghini now.
I love my Speciale, so I thank the stars my dealer was decent!!!

 

Is that a typo? Do you actually mean 15sec?

 

I agree. Porsche already experienced that kind of problem with their (over)priced 991 Turbo S. Price was rocket high in comparison with outgoing model, new owners were satisfied with car but not blown away for price they paid. Result is pretty fast price drop and too much used cars on market.

Ferrari`s slow price drops compared to McLaren are strongly connected to the emotion of the car, not merely for its performance figures. This time, 488 have strong performance figures but questionable emotion regarding sound. Add to that possible (over)pricing and 488 owners could experience similar scenario seen with 991 Turbo S and McLaren.