More bad PR for Ferrari?

[camshafted]

First Harris's rant, now Sutcliffe has a little dig at Ferrari with their extra charge to collect a 458 from the factory which he rounds off with a "McLaren know how to do it" line.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/autocarconfidential...

[kambites]

If he gets Ferrari to ship it to a UK dealer near me, I'll happily drive it to the Ferrari factory for him so he can drive it back.

[E30M3SE]

Porsche charge for factory collection also.

[Zod]

You get laps of the Weissach track thrown in though with the Porsche, don't you?

[LukeBird]

I wonder whether there is anything else included beyond the factory tour?
I've seen the charge from Porsche for their collection which is a bit of a pisstake, although that's £800-odd isn't it? £2500 is an absolute pisstake IMO.

[epom]

I guess its like everything, if there is/was people out there that are willing/dumb enough to pay for it, then why not charge what you like !!

[jonstable]

I know a guy with a 599 GTB, he's been buying brand new Ferraris every 3 years for the last 35 years or so. They still won't let him off the charge for picking up a new car from the factory so he's never done so. Seems ridiculous to me.

[Davey S2]

E30M3SE said:

Porsche charge for factory collection also.

But that is about half the amount Ferrari charges and includes flight out, overnight hotel and evening meal, factory tour and lunch.

Why would anyone want a 458 and a McLaren?

[E30M3SE]

Davey S2 said:

E30M3SE said:

Porsche charge for factory collection also.

But that is about half the amount Ferrari charges and includes flight out, overnight hotel and evening meal, factory tour and lunch.

and what does the Ferrari collection include?

(Genuine question, as I do not know).

Sutcliffe does not say either, so as the OP has said, it's just a dig.

Davey S2 said:

Why would anyone want a 458 and a McLaren?

...because he can.

[Dan S]

Another passenger jumps on the slow moving Ferrari bashing band wagon.

Harris bleated on about Ferrari "cooking" the figures to massage the coverage the cars got. Now we see two journalists openly criticising Ferrari, and openly praising McLaren, in the same pieces. Does anyone else smell the ironing here? Both pieces sound as bent as the historical ones they are calling into question, maybe deliberately so?, who knows.

Sutcliffe is even going as far to tell us that McLaren are better than Ferrari at something they haven't actually done yet.

I can small kippers.

Edited by Dan S on Tuesday 22 February 15:47

[ZeeTacoe]

doogz said:

You mean you don't?

I'll take the Ferrari. The Reason mclaren don't charge is the same reason KIA give out free 7 year warranties, they've got to have something over everyone else

[Carfiend]

Worst I have a MP12-4C and a 458 on order blog ever.

[LukeBird]

dibbers006 said:

LukeBird said:

I wonder whether there is anything else included beyond the factory tour?
£2500 is an absolute pisstake IMO

A few years ago maybe you had a Lolo tour first?

I can but hope!

If there was an optional happy ending or the chance to use Enzo's crapper then £2.5k would be fantastic.
To just drive the car you've bought seems a bit steep though!
What does it cost to transport to the UK?

[Jgtv]

Not really bad PR is it rich mate of motoring hack is pissed of about paying £2500 on top of his £195K car.

So little over 1% of the cars value to collect it from Italy. Not exactly crisis stuff is it!

[char5]

Jgtv said:

Not really bad PR is it rich mate of motoring hack is pissed of about paying £2500 on top of his £195K car.

So little over 1% of the cars value to collect it from Italy. Not exactly crisis stuff is it!

It doesn't matter how wealthy someone is, they don't like getting ripped off.

[greygoose]

Jgtv said:

Not really bad PR is it rich mate of motoring hack is pissed of about paying £2500 on top of his £195K car.

So little over 1% of the cars value to collect it from Italy. Not exactly crisis stuff is it!

+1

It is just seems another reason to have a dig at Ferrari (who are always the villains on this site).

[jamieboy]

doogz said:

Or you could say that he's saving Ferrari a load of hassle and money, by not wanting the car delivered, and they have the cheek to tell him that even though he's paid £195k for the car, it'll be another £2.5k, for no reason basically.

That's true, but it's an accusation that could have been levelled at Ferrari years ago (how long have they been doing factory collection?) and could be levelled at other manufacturers too. So why single out Ferrari, and why choose to do it now?

[MitchT]

Perhaps Ferrari is actually an elaborate experiment being run to examine just how stupidly people can be made to behave before they realise that they're having the p*ss taken out of them.

[matc]

doogz said:

You could look at it like that. Or you could say that he's saving Ferrari a load of hassle and money, by not wanting the car delivered, and they have the cheek to tell him that even though he's paid £195k for the car, it'll be another £2.5k, for no reason basically.

Actually there is a cost involved to the factory, such as flights (for 2 presumably), transfers, hotel accommodation, food, PDI cost of new car (usually done at the UK dealer), Insurance of car until it is registered in the UK, Channel Tunnel/Boat home, Fuel at collection, valeting/polishing the car (also usually done at the supplying dealer) and the personnel involved in handing it over at the factory.

So it's not £2500 for absolutely nothing, however it is a bit on the steep side. FWIW you can have all of the above for nothing if you buy any Merc!

[jamieboy]

doogz said:

Because the thread is about a guy buying a Ferrari.

Sorry, I meant why did Sutcliffe suddenly decide to write a piece about his friend and the Ferrari factory collection costs, given that it's neither a new thing nor something that is specific to Ferrari.