I walk into a Porsche dealer. Hello, I’d like a GT3. We’re sold out, but if you give us a $5k refundable deposit, agree to pay a $100k premium on full msrp, wait a year or more for your turn, the car is yours! Tough but fair, right? I walk into a Ferrari dealer . . .
Hello I’d like to buy an F8 Tributo. Ah yes, Mr. Farago. I’m afraid we’re completely sold out and we’re not taking any new orders. Was it something I said?
Absolutely. For the sin of starting this website, shining a light on the class action lawsuit charging Maranello’s minions with covering-up their potentially deadly brake defects, Ferrari will never sell me a new car.
As far as Ferrari is concerned, you’re either “a friend of ours” or you’re not. Despite my publicly avowed love of the brand’s vehicles, I’m not. And never will be.
If you’re thinking, I’m not a muckraking journalist. I’m not going to get on Ferrari’s blacklist! You may be right. You may not. Let’s have a look at three ways you can become dead to Ferrari (as opposed to being dead from Ferrari).
You’ve Got a Bad Rep
As autoevolution.com points out, “most dealerships will run a credit check to make sure you can afford payments on the car you’re about to take from them, Ferrari goes beyond that.”
Yeah they do. Exactly how Ferrari goes about background checking prospective new car buyers is not something a dealer is going to share with anyone who isn’t a made man (in the Ferrari sense of the term).
Without doubt, Ferrari blacklists “shady” characters. New car-buying Ferrari owners are a relatively small, tight-knit group of movers and shakers. There’s no hiding from the internet. A discreet phone call and a quick Google search can be enough to keep an aspiring buyer’s money in his or her bank account.
You can’t buy a hot ticket like the Ferrari F8 Tributo before purchasing at least two “lesser” cars. (If you’re vying for the special cars, ten to twenty Ferraris is a better starting point.) So the dealer knows you. If, they don’t like the cut of your jib – for whatever reason – you’re blacklisted from the good stuff.
The same rule applies on the corporate level, where the final decision rests. Whether a supplicant is a movie star, big swinging dick financier or globe-trotting billionaire, famous and FU money folk aren’t immune to Ferrari’s bad behavior blacklisting. No surprise, then, that Russian oligarchs are now Ferrari persona non grata. I wonder if Lindsay Lohan joined the club . . .
You Turn Down Ferrari’s Invitations
Ferrari ownership is an exclusive club. At the top level, Ferrari wants members closethanthis. These carefully selected owners are invited to Ferrari events: new model launches, track days, races, concours, black tie dinners and privileged pilgrimages to the Holy See (Maranello).
Sign-and-drive events and five-star soirées help maintain Ferrari’s image within that rarified air. The get-togethers also give the company a chance to see if a buyer is still the right sort, including a discreet investigation into their driving habits (a salted away Ferrari doesn’t help the brand’s image).
At Ferrari, brand loyalty is everything. If a high level Ferrari buyer turns down an invitation to hang with the Ferrari fam, if they regularly fail to kiss the corporate ring, if they’re given the chance to spend millions on a rare car and don’t . . . blacklist!
You Refuse to Sell Your Ferrari Back to the Dealer and Flip It Yourself
“Ferrari made more profit selling fewer cars in 2021 than in 2020 or 2019,” motorbiscuit.com reports. “In 2021 Ferrari’s operating margin increased to over 25-percent. So it made, on average, a tad more than $106,000 per car.” That’s corporate. As for dealers . . .
Set aside their “normal commission.” Focus on the contract forbidding a Ferrari buyer from selling their new car for a year and gives the dealer the right of first refusal when the buyer wants to unload his prancing horse.
Refuse the dealer’s offer and you’re on the blacklist. Obviously. Owners who sell their cars on the open market are taking food off the dealer’s table. The math couldn’t be clearer.
The pre-owned F8 Tributos above started life in the dealer’s fish bowl at $280k. Add, I dunno, $50k for options ($330k). In that case, the dealers above are looking at a profit of $145k and $119k per car respectively – assuming they paid the original buyer full retail for their car. What’s the bet they didn’t? Because next car.
Other Stuff
There are lots of other ways a Ferrari buyer can earn a spot on Ferrari’s secret blacklist. Modify your car’s appearance or engine. Drive your car irresponsibly (Ferrari investigates crashes). Disparage the brand. Yeah about that . . .
Reading this website won’t get you blacklisted. I’ll go to jail before I share reader intel with Maranello’s legal team. They couldn’t pay me enough money to betray your trust. But be careful who you discuss/share this or any other thetruthaboutferrari.com article. Truth be told, it be like that.
