News item: Ferrari to park showroom on Park Avenue

Advertising is never, ever bad -- especially when your parent company is billions of dollars in debt and small percentages of your company are being sold and rehashed like hotcakes.

What I don't like is the first line of the article,

What the hell? That sounds inherently fruity to me...

 

The article said that the showroom is for display purposes only......Imagine some wealthy individual spots a car he wants and is told that he will have to wait for them to contact another dealer in order to locate a saleman. Seems strange to me!

 

LOL Richard!

That's cool, I'll be going to check that out, along with the porsche, aston martin, rolls royce, mclaren(there's is pretty much just for display puroposes too?), mercedes, maybach, mini.....probably some I've forgotten....Park Lane is heaven for a car enthusiast!

 

BMW operated the BMW Gallery directly across the street from the Waldorf Astoria for a number of years before turning it into a company owned dealership. When it was first opened they used it to display many of their older vintage cars, race cars, art cars and such. They usually put in themed displays. Once while I was there they had the art cars on display and on different days brought in some of the artists who painted them.

Also used for private functions, receptions and such. It was quite an attention getter.

 

At 645K a year it cheap for advertising esp. as they may float the co. soon. Good idea.

 

Does anyone know the expected date that this showroom is to open? I will be in the City first week of March to see a show and would love to stop by.

John

 

My initial reaction was, "what a waste of $645k a year", but it's actually a good idea. You see, they can get people all excited about the cars and the marque without having to turn inventory every month. They just want to showcase their products without the hassle of managing a car lot and delivering cars to customers. From a marketing stand point the showroom makes total sense, but not from a financial perspective considering how much debt they're already in.

 

Debt?

 

I was under the impression that Fiat is in debt, no? After all, Fiat is selling of parts of the company and restructuring.

 

The FIAT you're referring to is a different Co. and it's debt is not Ferrari's. Ferrari's debt/equity ratio is quite healthy.

 

Given the tourist numbers in Manhattan, sounds good.

But I'm surprised they wouldn't arrange some orders from there, but they probably have to honor their dealers in the area. Maybe they'll eventually lease out desk space to a high-bidding local dealer.

But what they REALLY need to push are Maseratis!

I think it's time for some television advertising. 97% of people couldn't even tell you if Maserati is still around or not, let alone visually identify any Maserati product (people see a Porsche and can recognize it as a Porsche, even if they don't know the model). They have to hook them while they're young.

 

Chinetti use to be at 59th and 2nd years ago. I use to stare at the cars there when I was a kid. That was Ferrari's first in Mahattan

 

I'll let you know the first week this Ferrari showroom opens. I live in Manhattan and will take pictures of the place while driving there in my 360 Modena

 

Well, at least Ferrari sells cars.

McLaren had such a display with a McLaren F1 in London in 2001... unfortunately there was nobody there for me to ask: "Thanks for being here... but... why are you here??"

 

Hey Brian, I hear there is a Grigio Titanio CS going in the window right away!
Sorry, just hadn't heard update...hope you get it soon.
Lee

 

The McLaren Park Lane display is still there. Occasionally the display car gets switched. Weeks go by with the door closed, then it's left up and open for a while, then the engine bay cover goes up instead... then... then... that's how they ring the changes at McLaren

 

Isn't it just the XP40 prototype(the only one that could actually go 240mph) that stays there? How many cars does the official dealership sell a year? They respray and retrim to whatever colour you like when you buy a used one from them!