I agree. They aren't producing less cars to try and create exclusivity. Italians will lie whenever for whatever. Europe sucks and they know they can't sell as many cars as they would like. All else is BS. Just notched another reason why I won't buy another Ferrari.

 

This feels like backing into a strategy. There are so many Californias on the road and available used and new the brand exclusivity is already kind of so-so. At the same time, I know a lot of 430/Scuderia owners who are not turning their cars in ton 458's. Soon there will be 4 or 5 Maserati's to choose from as well. So Ferrari probably can't expand production at a time when the demand is not what it used to be and the step brother is trying to become BMW.

 

During the late 80's at the end of Enzo's life and into the early 90's, Ferrari's philosohpy was "to make one less car than we think we could sell." Hence, that is why there were 349 F50's created and not 350. At this point in time, Ferrari was a culture. It was a special thing to drive down the road and spot a Ferrari. A Ferrari, or a piece of their legendary, Italian racing heritage was highly sought-after by many and it was deemed very exclusive. If you noticed someone sporting a Ferrari hat, they had just as good of odds of being in a pit-crew as being an average Formula 1 fan.

Into the new millennium, Ferrari completely sold out. For goodness sake, you could buy anything from a Ferrari skateboard (no exagerration) to Ferrari aftershave, bath towels, etc. All of which is made in China. And the contract they signed with Puma? Forget about it. 99.99% of people wearing the emblem could not tell you who sits in the seat of their F1 cars or what an F1 is for that matter. Quickly emerging was what was coined on the street as "Ferrari fags" who would buy an old, cheap 308, which are a meesly $25k dime a dozen and drive it around wearing Ferrari from head to toe. After that, Ferrari built a theme park in the Middle East, knowing they had to woo the oil-rich gajillionaires to get their money. A theme park. With rides. At this point, one could compare Ferrari with the image of Walt Disney pictures. After that, they proceeded to buy AWD technology off of Chrysler after the merger with FIAT for their Ferrari FF, as if creating a snow-going, tennis shoe-looking car was going to contribute to their "exclusivity." Lastly, if any real car enthusiast pays a visit to their offical museum in Maranello, they would rather chew their own arm off than walk through the place. I made it about halfway through before witnessed possibly the biggest atrocity I have ever seen; a dumb, belligerant blonde broad screaming at her boyfriend to snap a few shots of her as she crawled all over the hood of a 15 million dollar, black 250 GTO, paying no attention to her metal, hipster belt buckle as it clapped up against the worth-its-weight-in-platinum hood. This was followed by children using a 642/1 F1 car (Alesi's & Prost's car) as a jungle gym and some guy trying to climb into the cockpit of a 333SP and getting stuck. Bottom line is, Ferrari holds nothing sacred anymore and they are doing whatever they can to get more peoples' money in their pockets. With the McLaren F1 team being funded primarily by their technologies that are commissioned by the bottomless pockets of the U.K. government, Red Bull's funding by the gajillionaire who owns the team, Ferrari has no choice but to sell their souls and everything they have come to be in exchange for the few extra racing dollars. It's quite sad, actually, and that's why I, personally, have moved on to appreciate smaller, more exclusive companies like Pagani Automobili and even Koenigsegg who is substandard in quality. At the end of the day, companies like that are the ones walking away with dignity, regardless of whether or not they participate in F1. Besides, F1 is a whole other riot in itself. You would have to have the personality of a dentist to even be remotely interested in "F1" these days, especially with WEC cars running the same lap times. Anyway, Montezemolo saying they wanna "get exclusive" is like saying North and South Korea want to be friends again; it just aint gonna happen.

 

I see your point and i have to admit that you're right. Ferrari and some other brands really lost it the last decade. Too many 'special editions', a lot of useless parts and products based on the profit. I think the new series like FF are totally useless but they have to do something to be able to build cars like Speciale, LaFerrari etc.

 

Can't say that I agree with everything but you make some valid points. Great post.

 

Thank you. My apologies for ranting, I just miss the good old days of motorsport and what it used to mean.

 

The brand recovers its magic by becoming odder, no layoffs for the blue-collar workers (they're actually transfer), and current owners may see a bump in their car's value. People on the waiting list may not feel so good about the decision though. We are making at max dimensions and have no intention to advance in new capacity". This makes sense if you think that Ferrari makes almost all its workings in house, increasing capacity would require large investments. Very smart move by Ferrari.

PREVENTATIVE VEHICLE MAINTENANCE