488 "must have options"

[Dblue]

STICKY3 said:

friends just put down deposit on a 488, wants to know what options are a must, looking at spending an additional £15k

I am always amazed at how buyers of new Ferraris and others in this market casually spec 10s of thousands of pounds worth of extras that they will never see the value of when they sell.
How did you guys get so rich in the first place!!

It is not "reasonable" to spend 30-40k extra on top of a near £200k list price to change perfectly good lightweight plastics for non-functional Carbon Fibre instead and get charged through the nose for the privilege. A decent colour scheme, including calipers, shields maybe but much more than that is just burning money.

[chris5150]

Yep 20k down with my dealer, expected qtr 1 2016...but not holding my breath. To be fair to them have been invited across to the factory 19th feb to see the new car, unfortunately will be on a different continent so cannot make it, but I have faith in the dealer, Ferrari is a different matter, but that's the way these things work, you have to be relaxed about it & have faith your dealer will want a good relationship with you & do their best for your slot.
put your cash in , sit back & relax , pointless umming & arrhing & speculating...its going to be really interesting to see this car unfold in the press & tests over the next 6 months

[br d]

STICKY3 said:

friends just put down deposit on a 488, wants to know what options are a must...

Value.

Am I doing this right?

[STICKY3]

From memory his spider was £242k new , sold it with 5000 miles and struggled to get £210k back,

[Cheib]

NEFOC said:

Anjum said:

If the car isn't of a high spec, you'll be waiting a longtime for delivery........

Now that is true. Salesman commission / dealership targets must be met. Pay the premium for an early car.

Even then you have to take your place in the line behind the list of established customers and people that have friends in high places.

A mate of mine knows someone connected to the F1 team....having been given a carte rouge by his local dealer when the 458 was launched he spoke to the bloke he knows who got him one of the first ten cars in the country. He went back to the dealer and gave them his order number He ended up with the first car that dealer had delivered.

[Emonda03]

I don't know why people struggle with that, its one of those strange hypocrisy things. If you have dealt with a company for a longtime & have been a good customer , then you feel entitled to be prioritised over other customers that have just walked in , as it were.Thats the way things work,business's like loyal customers and hence like to make them feel special, repeat customers like to feel special.
In Ferrari land, of course people that buy regularly the new model are going to be front of the queue, not rocket science is it.A company making a premium high value item always values repeat regular customers highly, and as I say those repeat customers expect a bit of preference and want to feel valued, that's the way it works

On top of that if you are going to spend ££££ on options then again more profit all round for the dealer & the factory so yes I would expect those particular orders to rise to the top a little more
supply & demand as always law of the jungle

Edited by Emonda03 on Thursday 12th February 15:26

[Durzel]

Dblue said:

I am always amazed at how buyers of new Ferraris and others in this market casually spec 10s of thousands of pounds worth of extras that they will never see the value of when they sell.
How did you guys get so rich in the first place!!

It is not "reasonable" to spend 30-40k extra on top of a near £200k list price to change perfectly good lightweight plastics for non-functional Carbon Fibre instead and get charged through the nose for the privilege. A decent colour scheme, including calipers, shields maybe but much more than that is just burning money.

What's to say they necessarily care about resale value?

The horse bolted a long time ago on "must have" options on prestige cars in general. I'm sure the base 488 will be a fantastic car, but in practical terms no one is going to be buying the basic option-free car, not least of which because they'll be way down the pecking order if they try. To coin James May talking about buying his Porsche Boxster, "the completely standard Boxster S is something that only really exists in theory".

Edited by Durzel on Thursday 12th February 15:42

[Dblue]

Durzel said:

Dblue said:

I am always amazed at how buyers of new Ferraris and others in this market casually spec 10s of thousands of pounds worth of extras that they will never see the value of when they sell.
How did you guys get so rich in the first place!!

It is not "reasonable" to spend 30-40k extra on top of a near £200k list price to change perfectly good lightweight plastics for non-functional Carbon Fibre instead and get charged through the nose for the privilege. A decent colour scheme, including calipers, shields maybe but much more than that is just burning money.

What's to say they necessarily care about resale value?

The horse bolted a long time ago on "must have" options on prestige cars in general. I'm sure the base 488 will be a fantastic car, but in practical terms no one is going to be buying the basic option-free car, not least of which because they'll be way down the pecking order if they try. To coin James May talking about buying his Porsche Boxster, "the completely standard Boxster S is something that only really exists in theory".

Edited by Durzel on Thursday 12th February 15:42

I am sure they dont worry too much about losing money as they have a lot of it. I am just amazed that people that are smart enough to make sufficient money to spend a quarter of a million on a car, happily specify completely non-functional aesthetic options on them for which they get no value at all for when selling on. Its pretty poor business sense for them (But fantastic business for the manufacturer)

And , yes , a standard Boxster is a non-existent animal but thats caused by Porsches poverty specs rather than financially over-endowed clients wanting carbon fibre ash trays at a very reasonable £4,000.

To put it in perspective , the Becker Radio/CD/sat nav unit in my Scuderia was all but identical to Beckers off the shelf units but cost £2,600 as an option in 2009. That's 4 times the cost of the unit from Becker without a prancing horse logo.

Its laughable how much Ferrari charge for their options, offensive really. But i don't blame them for trying it on.

[Durzel]

Don't disagree with anything you've written there, particularly the price of options which I'm convinced are just pulled out a tombola at that level. I don't suppose you can really blame Ferrari though when the market seems willing to bear these prices.

[graeme4130]

Durzel said:

Don't disagree with anything you've written there, particularly the price of options which I'm convinced are just pulled out a tombola at that level. I don't suppose you can really blame Ferrari though when the market seems willing to bear these prices.

They're only satisfying demand. If people want to pay £1500 to have the lady that stitches the seats change the thread from grey to red before she inserts her needle, they'll charge it

It's a good business model for the company, and you can't fault them on how they execute it, that's for sure

[Cheib]

458 said:

graeme4130 said:

They're only satisfying demand. If people want to pay £1500 to have the lady that stitches the seats change the thread from grey to red before she inserts her needle, they'll charge it

It's a good business model for the company, and you can't fault them on how they execute it, that's for sure

I think the '"colour upon request for stitching" is the best value on the whole price list at £297.
I know what you mean though, a better example would be when you remove leather and replace with a man made fabric, you pay more.

Or racing seats instead of electric adjustable seats....I'd bet the racing seats are cheaper to make because they'll be so much simpler to manufacture.