There’s mass luxury, like, say Starbucks. There’s affordable luxury, like the occasional trip to Saks or Neiman Marcus. And then there’s unaffordable luxury, like Ferrari, the Italian car brand whose entry-level vehicles start at around $190,000.

Amid a generally blah spring for car sales, Ferrari just turned its best half year in history, with revenues up nearly 20 percent from the year before. Worldwide, it delivered 11.8 percent more cars in the first half of 2011 than it did in the first half of 2010. And the U.S., its largest market, is booming. Sales in North and South America (with the U.S. accounting for the overwhelming majority of sales) were up 23.9 percent in the first half, to 939.

The numbers are impressive given the many headwinds to Ferrari sales. Rising uncertainty in the economy and the weak dollar, which makes Italian imports more expensive, would be expected to put a crimp in sales. You’d also think that the new normal of careful purchasing and concerns about flaunting wealth in an era of 9 percent unemployment would hamper sales.

It’s not your normal car dealership. Only two vehicles are on display. Much of the space is filled with accessories —- luggage, clothes, model cars that go for about the price of a gently used Hyundai. Vivaldi plays in the background as visitors sip espresso in little glasses.

If the rich have done well in the past few years, the extremely rich have done extremely well. Ferrari North America President Marco Mattiacci notes that the number of high net-worth individuals grew last year and is back to the level of 2007. “What has changed is that people now want to spend, they want to enjoy life,” he says. While anyone can walk into a Ferrari showroom, it’s very hard to walk out with one. “Our philosophy is always to deliver one unit less than the market demand, as a way to keep exclusivity,” says Mattiacci. The current wait for a California coupe (price: about $192,000) is six to eight months. (Mattiacci himself drives a Jeep Cherokee, made by another unit of Fiat.)

Unlike other luxury car makers, Ferrari hasn’t adjusted to the new era by introducing a lower-priced, more accessible version. In fact, it went in the other direction. “We don’t define our segment on price, we define it on best-in-class product,” says Mattiacci. “Our customer is looking for something extremely exclusive. They don’t want to see the same car in the parking lot.”

The newest entry is the FF, a true four-seater, roomy, fit for a family. It costs about $300,000, and is the perfect bauble for the type of guy (almost all U.S. Ferrari buyers are male) who wants to drop his kids off at the soccer game in comfort. Why did Ferrari develop what could be described as a crossover? “Different Ferraris for different Ferraristi,” says Mattiacci. “A lot of customers said, ‘I would like to go Colorado to my ranch, I would like to go to ski, I need a Ferrari to go there.’”

There is one significant difference from the pre-crisis days. Most buyers can afford to pay cash, but today some 40 percent of car buyers in the U.S. rely on a lease or loan from Ferrari Financial Services, a financing unit started several years ago. (The typical customer using financing has annual income of $1.5 million a year and liquid assets of more than $10 million.)

Matiacci foresees more growth and new dealerships in the U.S. But as with luxury brands, Ferrari may find that the greatest prospects for growth lie in China. Sales in China more than doubled in the first half of 2011; its network of dealers in the former worker’s paradise is expected to rise from 10 to 15.

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Source: finance.yahoo.com

The Ferrari 458 Italia was chosen from an initial entry list of fourteen new cars from all over the world to finally be crowned 2011 Performance Car of the Year. The Ferrari 458 Italia beat the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and the Porsche 911 Turbo, which were also considered amongst the top three finalists for this coveted award.

 “Our goal in engineering the 458 Italia was to match the technology and extreme performance developed for our racing activities with the demands of our drivers, who wish to enjoy their cars on the road and experience the unique emotions that only a Ferrari can provide” said Marco Mattiacci, President and CEO, Ferrari North America.  “Today’s award as 2011 World Performance Car makes us very proud and confident that we achieved our goals” concluded Mattiacci. 

 Voicing their opinion, the jurors on board for this year’s World Car Awards stated that the 458 just happens to be brilliant both on and off the track. It’s 570 metric horsepower engine is far superior to the competiting V8 engines and considering all the technology on board, the 458 Italia is one of the finest thoroughbred GTs to roll out of the Ferrari Factory. It’s a car that takes motoring to a whole new limit and all this is coupled with a very beautiful sounding engine!

Candidates for the World Performance Car award must demonstrate a specific and overt sports/performance orientation while satisfying the same availability criteria as for the overall World Car of the Year award.  Candidates may be chosen from the World Car of the Year list of eligible vehicles, or they may be newly introduced variants that satisfy the same criteria, but are derived from existing rather than brand-new models. In all cases, they must have a minimum annual production rate of five-hundred  vehicles.

 Previous World Performance Car winners were the Audi R8 V10 in 2010, the Nissan GT-R in 2009, the Audi R8 in 2008, the Audi RS4 in 2007 and the Porsche Cayman S in 2006.

 Vehicles are selected and voted on by an international jury panel comprised of sixty-six top-level automotive journalists. Each juror was appointed by the World Car Steering Committee on the basis of his or her expertise, experience, credibility, and influence.  Each juror typically drives and evaluates new vehicles on a regular basis as part of their professional work.   Through their respective outlets they collectively reach an audience of many millions world-wide.

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Source: zigwheels.com

Ferrari Store-New York

The Ferrari Store of New York, located on the corner of 55th Street and Park Avenue, celebrated its grand opening last Wednesday – with help from Zach Braff, Olivia Palermo, Matthew Settle and Justin Theroux – and showed off its collection of Ferrari-branded clothing and accessories in addition to its cars.

“A monobrand space is stronger than having two different brands from the same parent company,” Max Ferrari, Global Head of Licensing & Retail, told Huffington Post. “The idea was to make a very exclusive statement in New York, so we decided to put together the showroom of the cars and create a real store.”

But while some customers might think there’s no need for, say, a Ferrari-branded teddy bear or polo shirt or pair of sunglasses, the company’s North American president and CEO explained the purpose: indoctrinating kids into becoming Ferrari-lovers for life.

“The moment where a man or a women, any human being, defines his greatest aspirations and dreams are from 8 to 12,” Marco Mattiacci told New York Magazine of the brand’s strategy to feature children’s clothing and toys in the store.

From now on, those visiting the Ferrari Store will be able to chose from all types of Ferrari products (except cars, of course, but anyone can do that in the nearby showroom), including lifestyle, fan collections, miniatures, accessories, sportswear and so on.

So far, the Italian manufacturer operates, through Forza Retail, 5 official stores (including the NY one) in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Miami. In the past two years, Ferrari engaged in a world wide offensive to open such locations across the world, with the target being to open 60 more the next two years all around the world.

By far the most exclusive store opened in early June in Dubai, on a 1,000 square meters of single-story floor space and after a considerable investment.

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Source: huffingtonpost.com and autoevolution.com

Marco Mattiacci is the new CEO of Ferrari North America Inc.

The new CEO of Ferrari North America Inc. hopes to boost U.S. sales with the new lineup of models coming soon. Marco Mattiacci took over the position on January 1st, replacing Maurizio Parlato, who was fired after seven years of leading the North American operations.

Mattiacci was placed in charge in a middle of a sales slump in the U.S. Volume fell 14% in 2009 to 1,467. In a response to the situation, Ferrari has stopped the delivery of cars to dealers. Instead, the cars will be built only for customers who possess signed contracts. In addition to giving this report, dealers have pointed out also that the late arrival of the new California coupe that was scheduled for early 2009, was delayed and arrived only in midsummer. As a result, it was missed an opportunity to increase sales in the prime selling season.

The 458 Italia that was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September is already getting rave reviews from critics. Deliveries for this car have just started, replacing the older 430 version, which many dealers have referred to as their bread-and-butter seller.

Ferrari saw a drop of more than 7 percent in revenue last year to 1.78 billion euros. The employee strength was cut by 182 last year to 2,835. Mattiacci expects that the two new models should do well in the market. He expressed confidence in the brand’s heritage and product lineup. Having been the head of marketing under Parlato until 2006 when he became CEO of Ferrari Asia Pacific, he knows the American market well enough to turn things around.

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Source: nitrobahn.com

Actor Patrick Dempsey with a Ferrari 458 Italia at the Haitian relief auction

 The first Ferrari 458 Italia to arrive in the United States was auctioned off for $530,000 for relief efforts in Haiti by the CMMB (Catholic Medical Mission Board) and the William J. Clinton Foundation. The sale took place on the expansive grounds of the Saperstein estate in Holmby Hills (an extra exclusive area of Beverly Hills in southern California, not too far from the Playboy Mansion) the evening last March 18th.

The auction was a star-studded event. Grammy Award winner John Mayer donated his time to perform, and such luminaries as Michael Bay, the director of Transformers, and actor Parick Dempsey were in attendance.

Other things to go under the hammer was Fernando Alonzo’s original racing suit (which raised $31,000) and two “experiences as a Scuderia Ferrari team member” at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in June, which went for $20,000 and $21,000.

Classic car auction promoter David Gooding and motojournalist Dan Neil conducted the sale, and the crowd held its hands high, paying about $350,000 extra in the name of a huge tax write-off, and for the privilege of having the first Italia to be delivered in North America.

Company Vice Chairman Piero Ferrari and worldwide CEO Amedeo Felisa flew in from Italy for the occasion. Marco Mattiacci, the newly appointed North America CEO was there also. They addressed the eager crowd just days after Ferrari won the first F1 race of the 2010 season. All of the sale proceeds went to the foundation in the name of relief efforts; Ferrari took no money for the car. In total, Ferrari raised $601,000 for Haiti.

It was also announced that the Department of Orthopedics and Hand Surgery of the University of Modena will make its knowledge and resources available to help CMMB in Haiti. A team of hand and microsurgery specialists, whose studies have been financed by Ferrari, will help out in the earthquake wrecked Caribbean nation.

The 570-horsepower Ferrari 458 Italia will hit showrooms here in June with an estimated price tag of $225,000.

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Musician John Mayer performing at the auction

John Mayer at the Ferrari 458 Italia auction

Motojournalist Dan Neil at the auction

Source: blogs.motortrend.com, paultan.org, allworldcars.com and insideline.com

A Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano China Limited Edition was sold on Wednesday night, the 4th of November 2009 for nearly $1.77 million (1.2 million Euros) to an anonymous bidder from Shanghai at an auction in Beijing.

The auction took place at a gala dinner held to celebrate Ferrari’s fifth anniversary in China and proceeds from the sale will fund engineering students and teachers from Tsinghua University to study in Milan and at Ferrari’s headquarters.

Michael Schumacher had previously unveiled the car designed by Chinese artist Lu Hao which is decorated with Song Dynasty (960-1279) Ge Kiln pottery patterns. “It is a very good mix of Chinese inspiration, an artist’s eye and Italian technology,” said the seven-time Formula 1 champion.

The 40-year-old Lu is one of China’s most influential contemporary artists. His works have been collected in many museums around the world, including the Museum of the University of Cambridge, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, and the Singapore Art Museum.

The light blue-colored body of the car looks like a patchwork of jade fragments, with all the characters on the dial and buttons done in xiaozhuan, an archaic form of Chinese calligraphy.

“I feel extremely honored to be the first Chinese artist working with Ferrari,” said Lu Hao. “The creative inspiration for this unique model came from those elements of Chinese culture that have profound significance. This work embodies my understanding of the essences of Chinese culture and Ferrari brand.”

His commission began when Ferrari decided to make a special model for its Chinese customers this May, and approached Lu. Lu said he had nothing in mind when he got the assignment. One night, after work, he strolled into a small restaurant near his apartment. He asked the waitress to pass him an ashtray and noticed its Ge Kiln pottery pattern. “Suddenly, I knew what I should do.”

“There are less than 300 works of Ge Kiln pottery in the world, and each of them is priceless. I wanted to show this,” says Lu. He took just five minutes to explain what Ge Kiln pottery is, and why the Chinese love jade and its culture. To his surprise, the Ferrari staff thought highly of his ideas and accepted them enthusiastically.

Lu says he has always wondered why numbers and pamphlets in a car sold in the Chinese market were in foreign nomenclature.

Taking his chance, Lu changed all the Arabic numbers on the dial in the Ferrari car into xiaozhuan. “Why should these buttons be in English, and those numbers in Arabic? I was determined to change all the foreign elements into Chinese this time,” Lu says. He used xiaozhuan, he says, because it is a “language known to those who have a deep understanding of Chinese culture.”

“Ferrari is really excited for this initiative which reaches two important goals for us: first of all, as our chairman Mr. Luca di Montezemolo always underlines, helping young students to enrich their preparation, as investing in them means investing in the future; on the other hand we celebrate five years of Ferrari in China with a work of art which represents innovation and tradition, two values that Ferrari and China share,” says Ferrari Asia Pacific, CEO Mr. Marco Mattiacci.

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Source: chinadaily.com.cn, motorcrave.com and caradvice.com.au