Thoughts on this about Ferrari's future:

I guess I knew that it was the direction of their heading...for sometime... the design of the 612, 575 show it all. Ferrari is now a very large company which need greater income than before in order to survive. They are now aiming at a larger market. No longer a nich market. Design of the cars has to be able to accept by most, weather the Ferrari enthus. like it or not. The 612 is somewhat the same market as the Bentley GT where Ferrari never looked at these market before. The car is higher, easier to get in and out, luxury, comfortable, quiet, useless electronic features....... these never the features of the Ferrari we knew...... In a way, I am glad, because this will only increase the value of the classics.

 

Sorry, Ferrari has been making cars like the 612 in series production since 1960, and in one-offs for almost their entire history.

Now, that's not to deny that cost cutting, if done poorly, could be a disaster for the company. But, it could be done right as well, and could improve the products and the distribution.

 

Am I correct in assuming this only partains to the GT cars, not Ferrari as a whole? (though we know Ferrari has been trying to rethink itself)

 

If Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking is hired by Ferrari Spa.

He changed the face of Porsche from extremely high build quality to Japanese style mass production with substantially lower build quality. Has sold lots of cars and made lots of money, but the Boxster/996 don't come close to the 993 series (ended 1998) for build quality. IMHO

 

Ferrari builds and sells production cars to fund F1. F1 costs are skyrocketing, even with the attempts to control costs via rule changes.

So, if Ferrari is to continue to be successful in F1 (2005 notwithstanding), they must either 1) support F1 cost cutting, 2) increase production volume at the same profit margin, 3) increase profit margin [increase price or decrease costs] at the same volume, or 4) some combination.

Appears that Forbes thinks that increasing price and volume are out...which leaves reducing costs either at Ferrari or at F1. Ferrari has complete control only of the former.

However, the news from Ferrari suggests that they are quite willing to increase volume (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84703)

Complicating this is that Father Fiat is in trouble financially and is likely increasing presure on Ferrari to contribute to the corporate bottom line.

 

I was just going to make a similar statement. This is why I have a 964, and would never buy anything newer than a 993. I take that back- when we need a nice truck, I'd consider a Cayenne S- I think it's a great truck....just not a great "porsche", and it wouldn't be replacing my weekend sports car.