Porsche and Ferrari: As Smart As They Come?

Jameslist
by Jameslist

Ferrari singled out their Swedish dealer Autoropa at the brand’s 60th anniversary in Maranello, lauding their high sales stats. A reporter asked CEO Filip Larsson how they managed to sell so many cars in such a small country. “Easy,” Filip said. “We sell two cars instead of one.” Enkel. Unless you pay WAY over the odds to jump the queue for a hot new Ferrari—a practice which would earn some serious ire—there’s always a wait for the latest example of Maranello magic. While customers count the days until their nuova bella macchina assumes its rightful place in their humidity-controlled garage, Filip sells him/her a used Ferrari as a placeholder. ‘Cause it comes to getting a new Ferrari, Ferrari prefers Ferrari owners to own a Ferrari. Or two. Or three. Or more. Meanwhile, over at Porsche . . .

Porsche does the same thing only different. About three years into the production run, they release the second generation, or facelifted, version of their vehicle. It’s usually upgraded in the power department with some extra eye candy. A large portion of the first generation model’s buyers feel compelled to buy the new model just to own the latest, greatest Porsche—even though it’s basically the same vehicle that they already own. The dealers get to make their huge margins on all those expensive new car options AND sell the “hand me downs” for a tidy profit.

I suspect that most Porsche buyers couldn’t appreciate the performance difference between one generation and another in a blind test. But that’s not the point. Once you get to a certain level of exclusivity, he who flatters the ego banks the gold.

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  • Saponetta Saponetta on Nov 07, 2009

    True Story One day I had a customer come in to service about a scratch in the rear window of his humble little boxster he had been driving for a couple years. His car was ugly lapis blue and I told him to forget about that car and lets trade it on a different color boxster. Well I awakened a demon in this guy and now 6 years later he has bought 44 new cars from me. No bullshit. Hes driving a e550 coupe right now and at 3 months its the longest hes kept a car besides his wifes a4 cabriolet that they drove for one about a year. There is no rhyme or reason to what he buys. He would trade in a 997 turbo and buy an a3. Then he'd trade the a3 on a boxster, boxster for cayenne, cayenne for carrera, carrera for a4. Sometimes I'll have 3 or 4 of his cars in the used inventory with less than a thousand miles on them.

  • JJ JJ on Nov 08, 2009

    @saponetta And thanks to him, you now drive an F430?

  • Spitfire - p.culligan Spitfire - p.culligan on Nov 08, 2009

    In regards to the Porsche refresh strategy...all manufacturers do that. Mid model refreshes, special additions, even new colors are all ways to drum up new buyers cheaply. Mustang Bullet anyone, debuting the F1 tranny in the 355, 2004 S2000...

  • Rnc Rnc on Nov 09, 2009

    Not really about the post, I saw a panamera yesterday for the first time (turbo), in black, it is a much nicer looking car in person (driving) than it is in photo's.

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