Should Ferrari Listen?

Once Ferrari became a public company customers went to the back of the priority line behind shareholders, government regulators, unions, dealers, Wall Street analysts, etc.

Should they listen? Of course.
Will they listen? I see no indication of that. According to a recent thread they can’t even get the seats that the customer ordered into the car,

 

I think, my friend, you are the one that is tone deaf.

Have you seen the price of RACE lately?

If anything, Ferrari is not only listening, but they are understanding what they are hearing.

 

Perhaps they nick-named you Mr. GreenHouse?

 

If you want a manual transmission Ferrari with 500 HP, buy a 430. (Ok, it's 483 HP, you'll never tell the difference)

Ferrari is selling $500K cars now with the UglyHorse, and selling ALL of them. They're running at 100% utilization at the factory. Selling more cars means more capital expense. And the electric steamroller is almost here in Europe.

They are listening to their customers. You just don't like what those customers are saying.

 

Does a manual make sense in a 2,000-hp car?
That is the new benchmark.

Should Ferrari make simpler low-line cars? Well, they did that already, and how did that turn out? Folks hated Dinos to the point they took off the badges. Sure, they eventually came around, but Ferrari is not in the business of making money 20 years from now.

Let's charge more though, so it's a 'real' Ferrari. Would they make money with a 300 hp 4C with a stick? Enough to fill McDuck's vault.

That's not the right question, though- what would that do to the vaunted SF90? You can't have your youngest daughter (with a minor dowry requirement) be the prize as your oldest risks spinsterhood.

What is seen with all this pining for the 'good ol' days is rejecting the motoring world has moved on (and let's tell you, it's only going to accelerate; literally), and you're not happy with that. There is nothing wrong with feeling this way: different (cylinder) strokes for different (motor) folks.

But every time I stumble on this sentiment, I wonder what's stopping you from buying the vintage cars you mentioned. Did they get banned?

They have everything I think you want, and they are cheap. Isn't that a good thing? Knock yourself out; I know I do. What's more, what's wrong with having BOTH?

You like steak and hate lobster, good for you.

I'll take one of each please.

 

Ferrari is not going to listen in my estimation. I dont think HP figures are dictating F1 gearboxes, I believe it has to do with how fast the motors spool up. Manual gearboxes cannot be matched to said motors.

I believe just as excess HP is useless on the road, same goes for the ultra fast motor RPMs . As I said in most un liked previous posts, you almost never see anyone drive their Ferrari even close to the limit .

Just take a look at some of the videos posted of the guys driving the F40 and the 328, it does not get any more fun than that. I cant see how Ferrari continues to not build a modern new drivers machine.

I myself would love to have lets say a 458 Spider, Im just not willing to sell my 328 to try and buy one, and I dont have the means to have a second Ferrari.

G

 

https://www.motortrend.com/features/every-manual-transmission-car-for-sale/

The market is speaking. It looks like the BMW M2 is the closest thing out there to what you want.

 

There may still be hope. Even PG realized not everyone enjoys shaving with a 10 blade razor. DE razors rule!

 

I think Porsche is the go to for a driving machine these days. They have a number of models, Im not absolutely sure of every one, but I know some of them sill have manual gearboxes.

I will always love Ferraris. With that being said, several years ago my mother sent me an article in the New Haven Register about the average income of a Ferrari owner. It was 800,000 per year. This is who they are going to for their money. It is certainly not me.

As you can see from my presence on this site, I am not your typical Ferrari owner, but I can certainly say that Luca and Enzo would appreciate an owner like myself more than most here in the States. I will soon be posting videos to substantiate ..( Im very good looking, and my gut does not bleed out over the sides of the driver seat in my 328, so theres that . )

As I said before, most who buy a new Ferrari , their average time of ownership is one year. With todays society I would have to say most would not know a stick shift from whatever the **** else, let alone know how to drive one.

Keep watching said folks drive down the road while clicking the paddles one straightaway at a time. Or keep gazing an awing at those folks who have their multi million dollar Ferrari collection sit in some garage.

More of my thoughts say Ferrari should start to fix their quality and reliability issues first and foremost.

G

 

This.

Apparently three-pedal manual transmission sales are up to 1.7 percent of U.S. vehicle sales, up from 0.9 percent in 2022.

That tells me that it’s just not important to the overall market. For the nostalgic minority who are satisfied with less performance and want to move a rod around instead of pulling paddles, there are tens of thousands of Ferraris and Porsches to choose from.

Meanwhile these companies are managing wait lists for their cars… I remember when I could go to a dealer and actually buy a car. Now it’s a chat about prospects for an allocation.



Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat

 

But is there a market for half-million-dollar manual transmission sports cars? Ferrari thinks not, or they would be filling it.

 

This is the primary reason a MT GT3 is higher on my buy list (next year) than any modern Ferrari. Sound is another reason.

Automatics make for a flawed fun car….

Should Ferrari listen? Don’t give a rat’s ass

 

Incorrect.

 

Apart from the fact that the fashion for manual transmission is very US-specific (in the US, auto boxes have been the norm since the 50s so that a manual box is revered as exotic - whereas in Europe, all cheap cars have had, and still have, manual transmissions), there is now a technical difficulty - manual transmissions are not adapted to hybrid powertrains, which are now becoming the new standard (before full electric maybe...)
With a relatively limited production, Ferrari probably cannot go in all directions (Porsche does, to grab some additional US market share, but they're of a different scale).

 

How so ? I have read this exact reason here on F Chat. Manual gearboxes are not a match for Ferraris insane motors in the way that they build RPMs, so no , I am correct.

Everything is electronic these days, the transmission is controlled by the ECU same as the motor, they are all matched up.


G

 

Their stated reason for not making manuals is that they are slower, which they are.

 

There clearly is. Have you seen the markups on 911 STs? It's a $300K car with a $200K markup. Or the GMA T50 and T33 at a much higher level. Again, virtually all of them will be manual.

 

The best way to listen to anyone.. the BEST.. is to look when they reach to their pocket, put their hand in, take out their wallet and pay.

What they listened to is when they HAD a manual in their cars, all the buyer did NOT open their wallets and buy it. They bought the F1.

There are two Ferrari buyers, new and used. NOT the same. The used wants a stick, the new wants the newest model. Most can't drive it regardless of the transmission.