Comment on Sales Process of SA APERTA

try to buy one, probably is sold out, but call your dealer and ask. Also the 599 gto is officially sold out since the pubblic unveil, but in fact there are few new car on the dealers in europe...

 

Mike- I figured out a long time ago I was not one of the "big boys". Sounds like you have not figured that out yet. Were you in the running for an Enzo, an FXX, a 599 FXX, or a GTO and will you be on the list for the Enzo replacement? I know I was not and will not be and those are the folks that got invited to the premiers and also were asked whether they wanted an SA Aptera. I am sure they did not get too far down their prioritized list before they ran out of cars and they probably have quite a few on the reserve list if one of the promised drops out of the running. It is always good business to have your product sold out and have no risk for making a profit.

A man's got to know his limitations.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I'll repeat my comments from the "official" thread, since they fit better here:

I don't understand the low production number. They built 448 550 Barchettas and 559 575 Superamericas. Each of those has held their value a damn sight better than their coupe counterparts, and I doubt they had any trouble selling them new either.

Building 80 just ensures they'll be packed away in bubble tape only to be seen at the 2040 Barrett Jackson.

At least this kid is getting one...
http://jalopnik.com/5631714/meet-the-21+year+old-student-with-30-supercars

 

In the old days Brock Yates biog of Enzo implied the way to get on the preferred list was to offer up your wife

I don't know what the criteria are today but there's family and then there's family and I'll wager for the latter the buying process doesn't really begin with the dealer

I would imagine the VVIP list received a call from the importer or the factory about this car a few months ago (and the Enzo etc etc) and local dealers only found out about it today when customer's who thought they were special found out about it and told them

Now if Sir would like a 599GTO perhaps that could be arranged.....

 

I agree completely!

 

"Like buying three new Ferrari's from the dealer is insufficient to warrant the courtesy of an opportunity to buy this car, however remote the possibility I may be offered the car?"



You are correct, buying three new cars is hopelessly insufficient to warrant an opportunity to buy the car. May I suggest a spending level of, say, $1 million annually?

Whatever made you think it's a "family?"

 

I agree totally. Let's see if I understand. You're good enough to buy a special xmas boxed die cast for 256E but only good enough to receive news that you weren't offered this one and you can't buy it anyway? These guys are clowns and the guys marketing Mclaren/MB/RR/Bugatti/Pagani/Porsche/Aston/BMW/ aren't.

A cold wind will soon shake their windows and rattle their walls.

 

A Man's got to know when it's time to say **** You.

 

Mike,

How would you propose Ferrari distributes 80 cars otherwise? Serious question... you're disappointed with how they did it, what would you have preferred?

With only 80 cars being built it's inevitable that many were disappointed and many feathers were ruffled.

 

Surely many manufacturers announce their limited edition cars only after the favored few have ordered them - I'm thinking of the Reventon various extreme MB etc etc - the only recent significant exception is the Aston 177 but even that I'll bet they really wanted them all gone first and end up making fewer than planned

 

I feel your pain but the reality is it's nowhere near enough to be on the 'Ferrari VIP list'......to give an example there are customers at my dealer who are on their 25+ new Ferrari and are part of the XX program etc etc......now i'm fairly sure those are the type of people who got the initial call.

I know it sucks but that's the reality......at least you now know what to aim for to be on the calling list for the next 'limited edition' car.

 

+1!

 

Ferrari is full of themselves and it is nothing new. It is sad that such a great brand is managed this way where good customers are left with a poor taste in their mouth after spending several hundred thousand dollars.

It seems that this comes from Ferrari Spa as every dealer i have met have always been great.

 

If it is any consolation, I am a GTO & Enzo owner and I didn't get the call either... I don't know how these guys can run their business by sh****ng all over their clients

I wouldn't have bought the car, but I would have appreciated being invited to the private viewing and having the opportunity to register my interest... They obviously thought that after the GTO I was tapped out!

 

Why build only 80? To keep more factory workers laid off? To leave millions of euro's on the table? Real demand is probably about 500 at 300ke 150,000,000e vs 32,000,000 (80@400K).

Does anyone seriously think that anyone really gives a **** if they build 80 vs 500?

 

Initially, these cars are all sold out. So, should the interest stop there? No, of course not. They will be sold again. And then again. The people who have millions of dollars worth of Ferraris sometimes get bored, sometimes run out of space, sometimes have a reversal of fortune or sometimes like to make money. It is important that these "dream cars" be well known and popular. I would imagine that some magazine is negotiating, either with Ferrari or one of the blessed owners, to do a test drive and report on this bad boy.

I'm extremely interested in it even though I'll never own one and I would be grateful for a heads up on its existence and I would go see one if I knew where one happened to be.

 

The point, the whole point and nothing but the point. Their marketing department are total idiots. You should have been invited PERIOD. Anyone who thinks you shouldn't should be fired immediately and I'm being serious.

 

My friend If I were them:
1. I would announce the car BEFORE the order book opened
2. I would explain to my clients that I will only make 80 and give priority to current owners who have owned multiple cars
3. I would then select 80 and write a very nice letter to all those who got rejected thanking them for their interest and telling them how much I hope I can interest them in our next car

And before anyone says that they had to gauge interest and pre sell everything before building it, we should remember that we re talking about 80 cars only...if Ferrari need guaranteed sales to build 80 cars, it means they have no confidence in their product

 

They'll build 150, and claim only 80. It's some kind of compulsion, I think,

Carbon, start counting those serial numbers, ok?

 

That would be Ture.

 

Agreed, that is the way they should have done it but alas for some strange reason they didnt, one wonders who exactly came up with the current stratergy? I speak under correction but in the past the way you describe is the way it has worked with cars like the Enzo etc.

Why 80, I mean its a strange number, why not 200 at least....that would still make the car rare. Sad thing is of the 80 I bet 80% will never get driven any decent distance....

 

+100
Ferrari will build more than 80 cars anyways, and look idiots for doing it. "Let's piss off our core customer base and then we'll build more cars." Way to go Ferrari. I wonder when they finish building number 120 of 80 if this will still look such a great idea.

This is a blatant attempt by Ferrari to keep an air of exclusivity around the brand.