crayphile:
RC - I sense what you are saying when I have been in Germany/ interacting with German business associates. I find the public restraint in very wealthy Germans ( at least the ones I have met) very refreshing and to be respected .
I don't respect this attitude at all, I think it is a reflection of a deeply embedded hypocrisy or simply the fear that one could provoke excessive envy or hate.
However, I have always found this difficult to match this up with actual Ferrari sales figures , which if I remember correctly had Germany ahead of the UK in sales figures. Until the Far East took off this made Germany Ferrari's second largest market after the US. Any explanations / thoughts on that ? Do the cars just sit in the garage and the owners never admit to owning them?
We have a couple of large cities where Ferraris are quite common. I also know a couple of Ferrari owners who keep their cars in the garage and only use them a couple of times per year for special driving events, mostly in Austria or Italy. Also, there is quite a number of collector cars over here, people buy them just to own them.
Let me give you an example how "bad" the situation over here is: Many years ago, there was an international Ferrari meet in Baden Baden. I went there because a good friend was there too with his Ferrari. At some point of the event, my friend told me that he has to be careful because a TV team was looking for him (he was the youngest Ferrari owner in the German Ferrari Club at that time) and he really didn't want to appear on TV for obvious reasons. When the TV report appeared on TV, I understood why: They actually portrayed the event as some sort of "the rich elite meets in Baden Baden" kind of event. Many of the Ferrari owners there weren't rich, some had their cars for years and/or bought them used, this was really a meet of enthusiasts but the media didn't seem to care about, they wanted some sort of sensational story. I think nowadays, it would be even worse.
Most Ferrari cars I've seen so far over here in Bavaria were in the Munich/Starnberg area but I see much more Porsche than Ferrari on the streets (usually in a 100:1 or so rate, at least).
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche Panamera Turbo S, Cayenne GTS (958), 991 Turbo S (ordered), BMW X3 35d (2013)