Quote:
Turbo Al said:
Yes, VK, I understand your point about the pseudo-Ponzi scheme of F marketing in the USA. I was only alluding to your statistic to emphasize that the current relative scarcity of F cars in the USA makes their cars "exotic."

I know F talks about increasing F car numbers in the USA, but don't know if this is just talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Things like increasing official dealership numbers, increasing unit #'s sent to the USA (and presumably also total worldwide production rather than merely shunting current production #'s to the USA), this could all impact the Ponzi-esque setup here, but Porsche/PCNA at least publicly seems to be the envy of Ferrrari, Aston Martin, Lambo and others from the marketing/profitability standpoint.

Do you think Ferrari has bonafide plans to expand its market in the USA by large amounts or is this mere PR from Maranello?



Good ques, Al.

I think F marketing is doing a great job in the high-profile, global brand-image-relevant US mkt. F faces major risks in increasing alloc to US mkt....risk that resale value game unwinds and F's US demand plummets when speculators/poseurs scurry away from rather expensive F's (when they have P/MB/L-like resale value)....

And F struggles w/how to increase MSRP pricing on cars.....F has adopted P-like options pricing, esp on CCM, racing seats, cf, etc ....so the base price (assuming 100% resale value ) isn't too onerous for the poseur crowd ....but, still, F is sensitive re: loaded 599 pricing not easily crossing the psychologically important $300K level.... ....and consider that, from what I understand, loaded 430 pricing in EU is not materially different from loaded 997TT Tip pricing...and in EU the F 12 premia over 8's isn't as dramatic as in US.....shrewd, sensitive marketing IMO.....

Despite all the hoopla/chatter re: mythically long waitlists in US, can't say I know of any affluent young hedgie/techie in NYC/SF who doesn't know a slightly older guy in his business who is a VIP at the local F dealer/FNA who can't get him "prioritized" appropriately on the 430 waitlist....after all, FNA would rather build a buyer base on 30-50yo hedgies/techies who'll buy a new F every 1-2 yrs for the next 20+yrs (no matter the economy/divorces/pvt school tuition, etc etc ), than on rndm 55yo+ guys who own a widget factory in Podunk who'll buy their first new F when the waitlist clears and then every ?5-10 yrs until they're incapacitated from driving and will revert to S-Class only