Is Ferrari going to underproduce the F430?

If they significantly increase production, they might kill the golden goose.

Besides, a jaw-dropping price could be the deciding factor.

 

Two suggestions:

Try to have some legislation passed that requires certain under-produced goods cannot be sold, but rented only. Cuts on speculation greatly. That would also make Ferrari think twice, I don't think they have enough capital to afford that solution.

Also some legislation to penalize firms that intentionally underproduce goods would be a nice one. Ferrari is italian, Italy is in the European Union and the EU has a stated policy to reach 100% employement figure in 15 years (that means zero jobless people). If a european company underproduces goods, that company is acting against against this EU directive as less production means less workforce gets hired. Remember all Ferraris are built by hand.

Maybe just write some EU politician and complain that Ferrari lefts able-bodied people on the streets to maximize profit. European public opinion is less tolerant about getting rich without regards to others.

 

Haven't they always?

As I read in another thread, Ferrari builds "one less than they can actually sell"...

/Peter

 

Are they?
It is still too early to conclude this shouldn't we wait for a few more months until we see the total numbers of F430 delivered?

 

It will be just the opposite. Ferrari will build a small percentage (4%) more of the 430's.

 

yes they'll underproduce it. and how many 360s did they make anyway. i dont think ferrari is gonna meet demand anytime soon, imo its kinda snobish as to what they do to purposely keep prices up. and ferrari aint the most exclusive marque anymore.

 

Seems that I remember back in 88 they did change the way they sold Ferrari's due to folks snapping em up and selling them as commodities. I heard that the Testarossa during that year was later selling for almost 1 mil a pop this way.

When the folks at ferrari saw this, you could no longer buy a car outright. They instituted a 2 year lease and at the end of the lease you could buy the car. It put a stop to the commodities trading.

I may be wrong about this, but it is what a Ferrari dealership told me way back when.

I personally do not think a company should be told how many products they should put on the market. Would you guys who are already in line for the F430 want to know that ferrari has been pressured to release 50,000 f430s in the next 5 years? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want a car knowing that everyone in the world would have the opportunity to purchase one just like it.

 

Free,
As far as I know, the only time they required a lease was with the F50 and then only in the US. Ferrari did not like the speculation that occurred with the F40, so they made more F40's than planned. The lease was supposed to keep the speculators away from F50. They wanted to sell them to their best enthusiast customers.

Everyone,
Ferrari can't increase production significantly without expanding their manufacturing facilities. They know a severe worldwide economic downturn would hammer them. What if the 430 and 575 successors are dogs on the market? If your infrastructure and cost structure is based on 10K units a year and you can only sell 2K, bye bye Ferrari forever! Most of you probably don't remember 93-95 when 348's sat in dealer showrooms begging to be bought! The fact that you can't walk into a dealer and drive one away no matter how much money you have is a big part of the appeal and adds significantly to the value of ownership.

Dave

 

Thanks for the second paragraph, I was going to say that. Their production is already streched to the breaking point.
I do remember the 348's , also the 512's were hard to sell.