Cautious Buyers Raising The Bar
As readers of SCM know, my day job is finding new homes for old Ferraris. Over the many years I’ve been involved with the market, I’ve seen it undergo several permutations. Now, the digital revolution has really hit the market full force, and it’s changing the ways cars are marketed—not just for me, but for […]
The New Reality
The inspiration for this column occurred in March, when I returned from lunch to find an email from a Lusso owner who wanted us to sell his car and net himself $700,000—about $200,000 over the retail price for his Lusso in today’s market. The very next email was from a client who had been web […]
The Myth of Low Miles
Columns beget further columns, and my May story, “When 25 Miles Doesn’t Matter,” which dealt with an Enzo that had crossed the magic 1,000-mile mark, resulted in a flurry of emails regarding the desirability vs. the perils of ultra-low-mile Ferraris. I’m amazed at how many would-be Ferrari buyers have an odometer fetish, defined by low […]
The Lambo Dealer, The $12M Swindle, The Slammer
In early November 2008, I received multiple early morning phone calls and emails telling me that Lamborghini of Orange County had just closed its doors. My first thought was how could the largest Lamborghini dealership in the world possibly go broke? My second thought was, why had it taken so long? We begin with a […]
When 25 Miles Doesn’t Matter
In late January, the owner-principal of an authorized Ferrari dealership emailed an unusual question: “Do you think there is a retail price difference between an Enzo with 990 miles and one with 1,015 miles? We have a service customer with an Enzo who is concerned our road testing after the service put it over 1,000. […]
The Bottom Line in Scottsdale
Last summer’s Monterey auctions defined the top of the collector car market, and Scottsdale has delivered a new bottom line. It’s pretty hard to argue the collector car market isn’t on solid ground when collector cars generate $133m in Scottsdale in one week. Barrett-Jackson did nearly $61m, Gooding just over $32m, while RM sold $18m […]
How Many Ferraris?
In my two previous columns, I divided Ferraris into the Enzo-era cars (1947–73), the Fia-era cars (1973–91), and the Montezemolo-era cars (1991–present), and I outlined how each generation fared differently in the current economy. But I didn’t go into how many Ferraris exist and where they are, which elicited a request from Chris Current, Chief […]
Ferrari Tests Its Brakes
In last month’s column I discussed how Ferraris have evolved through three distinctive eras in the past 60 years: Racing-based evolution of the Enzo Ferrari era Mass production of the Fiat years Even-higher-volume of the di Montezemolo era I concluded, in part, that the Enzo-era cars are the most collectible and highest valued, while the […]
60 Years and Three Ages of Ferrari
Over the last 60 years, Ferraris have evolved through three distinctive eras: the Enzo Ferrari era, the mass-market Fiat years, and the present high-volume exotics from Luca di Montezemolo. The Enzo era began modestly enough in 1947 with a pair of 125 Barchettas, s/ns 01C and 02C. Powered by a diminutive 1,497 cc V12, putting […]
New Day, New Rules
Six months ago we received one or two calls or emails a day from people who wanted us to help them to market and sell their Ferraris. Today we receive half a dozen calls or emails every day, and the number is growing. S/n 3909 sold for $13,300,000 in 1989 With each call I laboriously […]