F8 Ferrari Allocation Process - F8 Tributo

I posted an earlier request regarding the F8 pricing model and received fantastic help. As previously mentioned, I am a first time Ferrari buyer. In mid-December 2020 I made the first deposit on an F8 Tributo. Along with the Excel spreadsheet that fellow members helped me with, I was able to finalize the option package. Based on that info, the dealer gave me an Excel sheet with the "final" MSRP. I have since made two final changes and provided to the dealer. I now feel like I am in limbo because I do not understand the timing and the allocation process. Can members help out. Some of my questions are as follows:

1. How often are allocations made - weekly, monthly, twice a year, etc.?
2. When are allocations made?
3. Who is actually making the allocation - the dealer, Ferrari North America, Ferrari Italy? All three entities?
4. Does FNA give the dealer X number of allocations, and then the dealer decides?

After reviewing prior posts, my sense is that once I am officially "locked in with an allocation" - then the process becomes more transparent and predictable in terms of timing.

Thanks in advance.

 

What has your dealer said in response to your questions?

 

Based on my experiences:

Allocations are monthly, directly from the factory, they are "use it or lose it" and dealers always want to fill each allocation. The questions to ask your dealer include: how many orders are ahead of yours (in their "order stack") and how many F8 allocations have they been receiving each month.

Pricing is not locked at all, only once completed car arrives with FNA is pricing confirmed. The base price is most susceptible to change over time and is usually set annually at beginning of each new model year (MY), if your car is MY2021 (i.e. arrives to FNA prior to end of August 2021) any price changes will likely be minimal but if arrives as MY2022 there well could be an increase in base price and maybe some options. Further, FNA sets the VIN, the factory only assigns a "chassis" number.

 

Every individual dealership gets a certain amount of allocations for each type of car. The larger dealerships and dealerships that typically sell more options will get more allocations. The dealer does not have any say in that and those decisions are from the factory. Your dealer will have a wait list for most cars. Most will have deposits and some may not. This list is not set in stone as people can be moved up or down the list. You could be next in line and someone that has bought 20 cars from the dealer could walk in and walk an F8 and the dealer could bump you down and give him your spot. You will probably not get a truthful response from the dealer on where you are on the list. They play games and will claim the computer is down, they can’t tell you right now, etc. when the factory assigns the allocation the person next in line gets locked in. You should expect a 18 month wait and don’t be surprised if that gets extended. When I bought my 488 a while ago I was way down on the list. I had a 458 spider and the dealer had a very good customer who was looking for my exact spec. They called me up and amazingly were able to give me the next allocation for the 488 as they needed my 458. Unfortunately there is lots of games that are played.

 

I'm in the same boat. My dealer told me that it should be about 8 months. I was hoping to get the car around August, but if the MY change occurs around then, then my dealer told me that we should push a couple months so that I get the latest year. I'm in no rush, but I totally am in the dark in this process as this is my first Ferrari as well.

 

Thank you for the responses.

MalibuGuy - my dealer told me to anticipate "locking in" the build spec by the end of January, a build start in May, and a delivery end of June/beginning of July. This is for a Coupe. I originally inquired about a Spider and was told a minimum of 12 months and more likely an 18 month time frame.

When I asked more specific questions, I did not get direct answers - just the end of June/beginning of July time frame. The dealer that I am working with has received great reviews on FerrariChat. As such, I am comfortable with the general time frame, but to be fair I am more accustom to specifics, details, etc., which I guess is just not the "Ferrari" way. Hence my reason for reaching out to the community to better understand this new process for me.

When I log into the Ferrari website, the site only shows "Ordered" but no date of Order, which is blank. The web site also says, "The request for the Key Holder Gift has been correctly submitted". I have no idea what this means.

JTSE30 and mkraft3003 - thanks for the interesting background info, especially regarding the final price.

 

Ferrari sucks with timelines. Their web portal is useless. If they tell you June/July- see if you can wait a can month and get an after august build so it will be a 2022 model.

Good luck on the journey. It’s a great wait!

 

SoCal to az - thanks - good idea on the one month push to 2022.

BTW I have followed some of your other posts - great stuff.

 

I think that many dealers now ask for a non refundable deposit. If they invite you to place the deposit then you’ve got an allocation.

The earlier you get your deposit in makes a huge difference. Customers quickly express their interest even before the new car is launched. Since Ferrari and FNA a territory system. I think that this year has been complicated by the virus and lockdowns.
Also if you choose a popular model or model variant such as an F8 / Spider vs Coupe expect that many other customers want that car too.

Did you ask how long it would take to review a Portofino? That might give you an idea of the demand / waiting time

 

MalibuGuy - I made the deposit on my second visit to the dealership - mid December 2020. I paid and was told that the deposit was fully refundable until such time as my options were "locked in". I could make any and all changes up to the lock in point. But, after the "lock in" my build would go into production and there would be no further changes. And, at that point the deposit would no longer be refundable. This seemed logical and fair to me.

I asked about an F8 Spider (12 - 18 month lead time) but not the Portofino.

 

There is nothing written in stone.

We were all once in the same position you are in. Only advice I can give you is be patient and look for something to do while you wait. I just spent my wondering time, here learning from everyone. This is a great support group. I have made a lot of virtual friends I have never met from different states and other countries.

With all that said, Ferrari does a great job at keeping everyone guessing, even your dealership. When your dealership tells you they don't know, they likely don't know. They have access to build status once the build has started but they can't tell you timeline. There are estimates in this forum that you can go by and they are pretty accurate, provided there aren't any errors that require repairs or second looks. Remember, just like you are one client, they have many other with the same questions you have, so give your dealership a little space and breather.

If you are able to have the Ferrari app working, you will have a rough idea of status once you get pictures. By the time you receive them, it is pretty safe to say that your car is near completion of that phase or onto the other. Pictures are sent by Ferrari to your dealership and to the app, if you have no issues. I had all 3 pictures sent to me from my dealer by the time their IT department fixed my app issues, so the app was worthless. Still to this date, my car shows pink on the app. Not sure if this is true for everyone, but I want to believe that it is also an error

Allocations are given and filled first come, first serve basis. However, the dealership has the ability to move you up or down and nobody will ever know. It won't be until your order is finally locked by Ferrari Factory that you will have a very rough idea on build, price and delivery, which will vary depending on port and customs status. Final price will be locked at completion of your car, pretty safe to say when you see the window sticker. Other than that, don't lock the idea of a final price.

Every build after August will be the following year model and you can expect a 5k increase in price. For some reason, I didn't get that increase on the base price; perhaps they snuck it in "other options". I still don't have the actual detailed list of options with their prices. They just placed some options on my window sticker and then placed 77k "Other options". I am having that looked into by my dealership.

Hope this helps

 

GT2goneF - thanks! great advice.

I have already had two people reach out to me directly with their phone numbers to assist with option selections, etc. All great!

 

Post your options here. We can drive your crazy with advice......err I mean help you.

 

Yeah... if you want to thousand guess yourself with option selections, go ahead and post all your options here. They will be dissected like forensic evidence. I never posted my all my options here. I had enough with my own second guessing, if I put them all here, I would have gone crazy. With that said, I did discuss some individual questions here and they were super helpful. However, the decision won't be any easier. Only advice I can give you is go with what you like. Anything you have questions with, bring it up here.

 

If money is no object then be all means do all the options you want. If you want to save dollars- to me the only list have options are the Goldrake seats, shields and carbon steering wheel. Everything else is personal preference.

 

Options were easy! I posted under a different thread and was harassed, I mean helped, with regard to my color choices!! Lot's of passion on color choice!

Actually the feedback was great and really helped me to refine my choices.

 

On par with what I was told when I placed a deposit with an F8 Spider. Haven’t spec’d the car with the dealer. Will probably do so informally in the next few weeks at the grand opening of FOCF’s new digs in Orlando.

Whenever an allocation is received, the options list will be considered locked in and the deposit non refundable.

I can’t control whether folks get moved up or down, and decided to let nature take its course.

Timing-wise, early purchasers have been waiting just over 12 months, personally I’m fine with this as I’m building new garage space and still have the 458 to kick around.

 

December 2020 ! That is like 30 days ago!
Maybe you meant Dec 2019 which is about 12 months ago. I think coupes started to arrive a few months ago.

18 months isn’t a bad forecast. Dec 2020 deposit which has not been locked (locked status is non refundable) would mean July 2022

 

Yes December 2020. And it has been 30 days. I was told to expect delivery late June/early July this year. Basically a six month wait on the coupe and eighteen months on the spider.

 

Probably due to our higher prices we don't have changes in our pricing. Ordered March 2017 received August 2018 no increase ? 488 GTB

 

Congrats to you for a July delivery. That’s fast compared to So Cal territory.

 

It is possible, mine could have potentially been in that same timeframe if it wasn't for factory shutdown. Of course, this is all speculation. However, I would remain cautious about those expectations (6 month build/delivery). I just talked to my dealer guys two days ago, and they told me that Ferrari sales have bumped and they are expecting 12-18 month wait time from allocation deposit to delivery. I am not in the market right now for another one, so I don't see the need to tell me a white lie.

 

Thanks - this is exactly why I posted - basically to verify a realistic ballpark time frame based on others who have gone through the same process. I don't mind the wait. But, I don't want to be told six months, when the time frame most likely 12 to 18 months. I know that the dealers have no direct control. But, they can set reasonable expectations based on what they are seeing day to day being in the business of selling cars and dealing with orders, allocations, deliveries, etc. Thanks again.

 

I Ordered January 2020 and I was told 8 to 10 months on delivery. This was pre-covid so I expected some delay but my salesman called me about a month ago and said I should expect delivery around june or july of 2021. I'm almost a full year ahead of when you started your process so I would say if you can order in December of 2020 and jump ahead of all of those orders that I'm sure are ahead of you then you've got an awesome dealer that you're dealing with or just very lucky. I'll be at 18 months if my car is delivered in July. Also it's a coupe so the timeline isn't much different for spider or coupe from my experience.

 

Jwootson - thanks for the info. I have no idea what to expect, hence the reason for my post. I was in the market for a "higher-end" car and took a hard look at McLaren. However, the new 720S Spiders that I looked at were 2020 cars, but built in early 2019 and had been essentially sitting at the dealers - for +18 months. So, I walked into the closest Ferrari dealer and on the second visit made the deposit. I was told end of June beginning of July 2021 time frame for the Coupe and closer to 18 months on the Spider, which I really wanted. The dealer suggested that I buy the Coupe based on the summer 2021 delivery, drive it for a year, and then if I really wanted a Spider there would most likely be some available on the used market in 2022.

After reading about other delivery times, I am not sure what to anticipate and am relying on the dealer and his representations to me. I did speak with someone else on this forum who, like me was a first time Ferrari buyer and had ordered a Coupe in the summer of 2020. His car was to be delivered at the end of this month - I will call him to find out about delivery, etc. He is also on the East Coast - not sure why that would make much of a difference, other than a slightly quicker delivery to the East Coast vs West Coast.

I will report back as I make it through the process. Thanks again.