Hello Everyone, Is it me or does it seem that there are not that many Pre-Owned F-cars for sale in New England and New York region? I have checked the authorized dealer sites in the area and it seems that their inventory is not that extensive. Does anyone else find this? When any of you have decided to purchase a Pre-Owned F-car do you end up getting it from much further away than originally planned? Any and all thoughts are appreciated. Thanks,
FoNE and FoLI have recently gone through or currently going through transfer of ownership. My understanding is that FoNE has started building up stock again. Your experience may be in some part due to this. Miller often has an extensive selection, ableit priced in an intersting fashion. However, it is not at all uncommon for cars to be shipped hither and yon. My 550 came from FoNE. My 355 came from down south. I shopped all over the country for the 355. My CS sold to CA. Transport is very often part of the game. You should talk to your local dealer (FoNE or Miller, I presume) and tell them what you want - they can try to find it for you. Good luck with the search. Doody.
Not too many owners would sell during the good weather months. Check the Boston Globe and the New York times January- February for private sales. That's when I found mine.I chased F-cars all over the country when I was travelling on business and found one in my own back yard in the end, in Providence. Although I have seen an ad or two in the Globe recently.
Not sure what type of car you are looking for but here is a link to my ad at Cars.com. Let me know if you are interested. Thanks http://www.cars.com/go/search/fsbo_search.jsp?affiliateadid=2002371&affiliate=national David
Hello Everyone, I am not sure what section it was in but there was a topic discussing Ferrari Dealers selling at market value. The other side to this issue is why do Ferrari dealers not get the Lion share of the used newer Ferraris? They have contracts with people who buy new F-cars that they need to sell them through that dealer. So why do so many non-Ferrari dealers sell the larger amount of newer Ferrais? Back sometime mind you when I would be interested in selling my F-car I would call Ferrari dealers and they would ask to consign my car or give me a price well below others. Is it that Ferrari dealers are worried about spending money to get their inventory? Why are they the ones paying the least? This is their specialty. In the other section / topic it was discussed that dealers are upset about not being able to cash in on the market price of new Ferraris. They want to be able to sell their inventory at current prices. I can understand their issue. But they have the opportunity to bid on pre-owned F-cars and do not seem to. Why? I realized I would have to search long and hard for my next F-car. But I do not understand why Ferrari dealers do not have more of the pre-owned cars? Thoughts? Comments? Thanks,
Tom, on what basis do you arrive at your conclusion that it's the non-franchised dealers that predominate in sales of used, newer Ferraris? Just from checking on-line inventory? I ask because I suspect that there are potentially two reasons for that possibly erroneous assertion. First off, online inventories for authorized dealers are notoriously inaccurate; out-of-date, or just incomplete. There has been a lot of back-and-forth over the years between dealers and Ferrari North America over who updates what on which websites, with FNA trying to centralize everything (great idea, so long as everyone cooperates). In my experience, checking out dealer websites for used car inventory is hit-or-miss at best. Second, lots of "newish" used cars that are "traded in", per pre-arranged deals as you said, are sold immediately to waiting buyers without any public notice. In fact, the majority of such transactions are handled this way. If you want a "new/used" 430, say, you'd tell your salesperson at the authorized dealership, who calls the current owner and tells him or her that "it's time", and the deal is done - without the car going into inventory, or showing up on a website. vty, --Dennis
Dennis, Good questions. No I do not make my conclusions based only on on-line inventory. I know potential buyers as well as previous buyers that have contacted dealers and either there is no inventory for the type of car they are looking for or they get your second thought as the answer, but with a slight difference. The difference is well they know of an owner who MAY sell his/her car for the right price. This is fine except it complicates the process. First, the dealer has to see if the owner really wants to sell now. If they do at what price and is there the right amount of profit for the dealer. All this makes it difficult and takes even more time. Why not if you are a Ferrari dealer and you know your clients and which ones want to sell just make a deal with them and buy it? If one is to go and visit a Ferrari dealer you will not see any real inventory. You will see lots of Maseratis though in the Ferrari showroom. Yet independent dealers will have Ferraris in inventory. Why? Because they are more willing to purchase cars. What are Ferrari dealers afraid of? Their business is buying and selling cars. It would be equal to a fund manager not willing to buy stocks. Some purchases are going to be great and some are going to be bad. Call a Ferrari dealer and you are lucky to speak to someone. And if you are looking for a F430 God help you. You can hear in their voices (oh no not another one). And I do understand that it gets difficult for them when every other call is either for a F430 or a 599 and they are sold out. But it is not like Ferrari Dealers have inventory of 360s and 550/575. They dont. And if some do the cars are on consignment. How many 360s were built? How many 550s/575s built? I am not saying that the process you describe is not the way it should be some of the time. What I mean is it should not be the only way. Consigning a car with your dealer makes sense some of the time. But you cannot tell me that some owners when they decide to sell dont want a price and for the dealer to write a check for their car. Deal done move on to the next. We all know that dealers have made side deals on current Ferraris and sold a car or two to someone sooner because of money and not because that person has bought every Ferrari from them and serviced it there always too. So if FNA decides to let dealers sell at above MSRP maybe it would not be so bad. Maybe it would remove a lot of the speculators who have no real interest in owning a F430 or 599 or 360 CS etc. IMHO, Thanks,
One word of caution if you buy from outside of MA. Check the lemon laws. We purchased an F355 spider from Foreign Cars Italia in NC for the club about 3 1/2 months ago. The first time it went out (2 weeks after purchase), the check engine light came on. We brought it to our local mechanic who said the code was that both catalytic converters were gone. Long story short, we believe that the check-engine light was reset before it was delivered to us. And, since NC has no consumer protection laws, we're on the hook for that (as well as replacing the exhaust bypass). And, they won't do anything to rectify the situation. Shocking for a Ferrari dealer. An expensive lesson and we clearly won't do business with Foreign Cars Italia again. We now only purchase our vehicles locally. For F and M cars, we make one call... to Natalia. Best, John
You didn't say what model you are looking for. The older you get, the fewer you will find. If you want a color other than Red you eliminate a large % of whatever model you want as well. Factor in condition and mileage requirements and you can end up with very few choices on older cars. If you are looking for a 360 Spider in Red, you won't have to go outside of the northeast or wait more than a few months to find one for sale. If you want a 250 PF Spyder S2, You could search the planet for years. I recently bought a 348 Spider. Ferrari sold something like 600 of them in the US. I didn't want Red, Yellow, White or Silver. I wanted a car that was driven regularly, so a few flaws on the body and slight wear on the interior was OK, but I wanted the car to be in top shape mechanically. How many cars out there fit what I wanted? I bought one in California after watching many websites for months. The one I bought had not been advertised. I learned about it by contacting a dealer who's name I was given by another F Chatter. I was lucky (very lucky actually) that the dealer was just taking it in and it was what I wanted. BTW, The dealer held title to the car so it wasn't a consignment deal either.
Thomas: I don't know what your data set or experience basis is for all this, but imo, you've been very unlucky or very ill-informed or perhaps you've got a predisposition to be displeased. It's a tiny community. There's a tiny number of cars. Buying and selilng Ferraris (esp. newer ones) is not really a web business - it's a f2f and handshake business. It's a relationship play, not an advertising or marketing play. Be educated though. For every buyer, there's probably nine guys who are yankin' their chains. If you think you can call a dealer and order a 430 for delivery in 30 days, you're not an educated buyer. Being educated is good for all parties. If you don't want to be educated, go buy from one of the dozens of brokers who'll gleefully deliver you a 430 tomorrow for whatever-over. Prior to their ownership transition, FoNE always had plenty of F cars on the floor and downstairs. I spoke with Natalia at Tutto and she said they're working hard to get the inventory back up now that things are stable again. When I was 355 shopping Philippe had one on the floor to test drive. I drove it but opted for a different color, and he worked hard to find one for me. I saw my 550 posted on their web page one day (they'd taken it on trade) - stopped by the next day to talk to Philippe, and bought it a few days later. When I wanted a CS I went in and said "Nick, I want a CS - what do we need to do?" and within an hour I had a CS on its way from Maranello with my name on it. No magic. No drama. Build a relationship with your dealer. Be educated (this forum is a great tool for that). Your dealer wants to sell you a Ferrari. You want to buy a Ferrari. There's no reason to let a bunch of BS get in between that. FWIW, Doody
Good Evening All, I want to apologize if I came off as extremely upset or extremely unlucky. That is certainly not the case. I have for the most part been fortunate when it comes to my sports car pursuits. Doody what you describe is how I bought both my F355. I went into the dealer and test drove it decided I wanted one and within a hour or so they had one on the way from FNA and I got a discount to boot. It was great. It is the way I think it should be. Maybe not the discount every time. But Doody are you telling me that everyone has the same experience? I do not know about FoNE. I have no experience with them. I do realize that there a lot of guys that say they want to buy a Ferrari and it is not that they do not want to it is they cant afford to or they cant come to terms with spending that much on a car but want to drive one for 20 minutes or so. I do not expect to be able to call or walk in and order a F430 and have it in 30 days. I know certain cars like the F430 are difficult to find and even if you find one it might not be what you are looking for like you described about your F355. Doody I have a question did you get a new 360 CS? Did you ask for one when there was a lot of interest? What did you think of it? How is it to own? I guess my issue is that I have moved several times over the last ten years and it has been difficult to build a relationship with a dealer. The dealer I speak to when I live in one place now cant sell me a car because I live out of their area. The car I am looking for is a F430 coupe. I have been tempted to buy a 360 spider as my search for a F430 has not been a good one. I am curious about the F1 trans on the F430. I have not liked it on the 360 at all (one disclaimer I have not experienced the 360 CS). I am also curious about carbon brakes. I have had them on my Porsches and liked them and they have been very reliable. I want to buy my next Ferrari from a dealer. It is by far my first choice. But it just seems that most of the F430s for sale are not by authorized Ferrari dealers and I think that is a shame. All of you are correct this site is a great resource to find answers to some if not all ones questions. I am not worried about going to another part of the country to see my next car or to have it delivered to me via a truck. I might even like to drive it home from where ever it ends up I find it. I also see so many posts about bad experiences with Ferrari dealers or dealers lack of interest in people wanting to buy a car from them. I realize demand is very high on certain cars, but that is not an excuse.
