Tuesday, May 12, 2009

No Ferrari for me!

I hear this more and more and I think it's just sad! I totally agree with "no furs", no flashy jewelery or no yacht over 30m but what's wrong with Ferrari? You can buy now a decent Ferrari for less than one of those soulless corporate cars.
Let me tell you what's wrong: the trouble is that you can also buy “Felipe Massa's original overall” for little under 9000€ and this, to be honest, has nothing to do with either style or Ferrari. It's just opulence and bad taste. The auction took place at the newly opened Ferrari store in London – one of 40 more to be opened around the world in the next 3 years.
Cups, bicycles, pens, t-shirts, soap and shampoo – a plethora of cheap byproducts that transformed the name of a respected car manufacturer in a brand with an identity crisis. Like a “Puma” tail coat or bow tie. Between Ferrari drive days (ex.) and Ferrari stores and Ferrari underwear and... the brand acquired quite a stench of noveau rich. And this is just sad.
Or is it?Despite the slip into mercantilism, Ferrari, while milking the brand in an almost obscene way, it's still the car-maker that gave us, for example, the 308 GTB now going for 20 to 50k€ for a really exquisite exemplar. Due to brand errosion (and some overcommenter crisis) the second hand prices drop constantly. Even icon models like the 250 Dino could be found for under 200000€.

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