Portofino M Sudden Price-list increase the day before car delivery

It is common among car manufacturers to have price increase possibilities included in cars ordered and not presently on the dealer lot. The longer the time from order to delivery, the greater the chance of price increase. By my experience, inclusion of price increase possibility goes back at least to the 1980s in the car industry. One factor in car price increases is that parts, manufacturing, and shipping costs change over time.

 

Don't care.

Don't care if it's common practice. Don't care if it's the industry "norm." This is DIRTY DEALING and it should be illegal. I would never treat a customer like this, and in point of fact would probably be put out of business if I did.

When you hear people complain that the big corporations have too much power, this is what they're talking about.

 

Common practice for Ferrari, not so much for others.
Easy peasy way for them to rip off otherwise intelligent clients since they are confident that after waiting so long for your car you'll just cough up the $$$ without a peep.

 

Sell it aftermarket and you’ll make more than even the price increase if you really don’t like it.


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That's not a very good way to do things. As far as I'm concerned, when the order is placed at the dealer and accepted by Ferrari, that should lock the price.
The wait for my C8 was a good deal longer but the car was "price protected", so I avoided MSRP price increases and one option price increase.

PS. I should have gotten a 2020, ultimately got a 2021 at the original release MSRP

 

I placed my order in August 2021 and got a call last week that my allocation is ready for production. Price has increased $8,000 but now includes as standard a $4,000 option in my original pricing. Handling and shopping also increased $800.

 

This practice is one of the major reasons Ferrari dealers have such a "questionable" reputation in the exotic market. They very much understand the concept of supply and DEMAND. While it is true that other brands also do this, McLaren has publicly eschewed this practice, trying hard to differentiate.. There is a very famous Jay Leno 1 minute video on YouTube(worth watching), where he explains candidly how little love he has for the Dealers while still loving the cars.

 

These are all increases taken at the factory and reflected in the sticker. Dealer has no participation in the decision.

 

Every word you said is true. I was not being so literal as to suggest the increases were instigated by the Dealers, but rather that the dealers do not even tell you it is a possibility. I have experienced this first-hand. If you read MauBra76 's compliant it has primarily to do with being SURPRISED by this practice. The dealers are criticized for not being upfront of the many little (and big) negative surprises one gets in the process of ordering a Ferrari. That mixed with the large helping of condescension you get from them, makes it a humbling experience.

 

Not something to condone that’s for sure but if you have a product people want and you’re not worried about someone backing out….

A consumer might call it bad business but a business might call it smart business. It just is what it is and it’s not going to change, not until less people buy/want Ferraris….

 

Not sure I think Jay Leno is worth much here.

He seems to have a chip on his shoulder, stemming from a bad experience 30 years ago. By his own admission, he has not sat foot in a dealer in decades and never purchased anything. He bases his assumptions on hearsay and not his own experience.

Furthermore, he has on multiple occasions said that he was not into the cars, because he thought they were too high tech with paddle shift etc. He also criticized them for being too complicated to work on. He does this while purchasing a 12C and a P1. That's laughable.

He then praises McLaren for their reliability and great down-to-earth approach to customer service. He apparently did not get the memo about all the issues, not to mention the stories about shockingly poor service. He is treated as,a celeb client and has apparently not that much knowledge about what's going on in the real world.

Maybe he should try and order a new Ferrari and see if all his assumptions are correct.



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Precisely. Every dealer from Seat to Ferrari does this. What some dealers will do to better future customer relations, is to agree on a price, and if it changes, the dealer will eat the difference. This I have experienced with Ferrari, Porsche and others.

A dealer cannot be blamed for this and nor can Ferrari really. Things change and so does prices.

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Simple answer. Totally normal.


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Delete

 

This is not dirty dealings. When you order is placed years in advance, you have to accept that pricing may increase. If that makes your purchase a financial issue, sorry but then the car is too expensive. A few thousand Euro should not pose a problem on a car this expensive.

If you order the car at a time later on in its life and delivery is quick, then obviously pricing will change very little, if anything. Here we are dealing with an almost two year period from order to delivery. Prices have changed two or three times in that period.

If the dealer can be blamed for anything, it would be to not have made it clear that the price would increase. On the flipside, the OP could also have enquired about possible changes, knowing that delivery was so far out in the future.

What does your dealer tell you when you purchase,a new Ferrari? And what what was the price increase on your latest Ferrari purchase? You are very strong in your wording about this practise, so I take it you feel wronged because you were asked to pay more than the list initially led you to believe.


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I don't agree that this is typical with other manufacturers. I have ordered a few cars where msrp went up by the time it arrived, but I was still guaranteed the original msrp. There have even been times where I got the following model year while still paying the same price as the previous year.

I get that Ferrari does this differently and it is typical for them, but I wouldn't say this is typical for the market. At least not in the U.S.

 

I would venture to say that the otherwise astute, successful business people in this discord would not accept this disagreeable Ferrari business practice from any other "contractor" they deal with. If you signed on the bottom line to have your custom dream house built for an agreed upon price and then the price of lumber increased you would still expect the builder to proceed at the previously agreed upon price. For some odd reason these same astute folks become all googly eyed when ordering a Ferrari and accept whatever distasteful business practice is thrown at them.

 

My two cents:

I wasn’t thrilled when I saw the base cost increase, but I blame no one for it. I do blame myself for my original post. “Bad Bill!”

We’re all aware of supply chain issues and other inflationary pressures putting pressure on manufacturers. My guess is Ferrari is experiencing those same issues. And at 10,000 vehicles a year it’s tough to swallow those costs.

As my original post stated Smart Phone integration is now standard. It’s something we all need and previously it was an option priced at $4K. What! $4 K for something standard on most cars? Yes, $4 K, take it or leave it. I took it.

I was more POed when my 2021 Mercedes was delivered to me without the Kick open truck feature that was not an option, but standard. And the window sticker showed a credit of $150.

And as someone said previously, if an $8K price increase makes one shutter perhaps buying a Ferrari was a poor choice of rides to start with?

No one likes being taken “for a ride”, but if you’re being taken for a ride in a new Ferrari maybe that’s not the worst thing to happen?

Enjoy the day people and enjoy your Ferraris!

 

I personally have not had an issue dealing with it but since I love a good debate:

It's not about the $$ amount.
It's the principal of what's being done.
If you consider $8k to be ok then at what amount would you find it to be an issue and make you shudder ?
$10k, $20k, $50k ?

 

You are contradicting yourself. As you say, it is the principle of how ìt is dealt with, not the money. Yet you then talk about when is enough enough depending on the amount.

Any dealer should tell a client that when a car has this long of a lead time, then they should expect a change in price. That is the issue, not the change itself or the amount. They don't do this to cheat anyone, it is just not worth it.

It all boils down to delivery times. Any car would more than likely see a change if the lead time was 20 months. On the flipside, if you place your order and it takes the usual 4-6 months, then there rarely is a change in base price.

And if you think the price change here is an issue, then my advice to you is, never order a TM car. That program can surprise you quite a bit.

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Not contradicting anything.
It is called a rhetorical question.

 

I could not agree more. Ferrari has the single most aspirational brand in Automotive history, why not be honorable and respected as professional business people along with it.

 

I just don't get this. On the papers you sign after doing a configuration, it clearly states that pricing might change. On the price list, it clearly states pricing us subject to change. A sensible dealer rep will usually tell a new client that the price on a car with a long lead time might change.

Normally the changes are tiny. 1% or less. To call Ferrari dishonest based on this, makes zero sense to me. Nobody is trying to hide it, and to claim that this is unique to Ferrari is plain wrong. Maybe US car manufactures or dealers in the US do things differently, but I have seen this done by the three big German companies, the PSA Group, the FCA Group and some of the British manufactures.

Maybe Ford or GM in the US does not do this with their sports cars and popular models, or maybe Porsche or Mercedes dealers in the US don't, but they have their own way of screwing customers out of literally tens of thousand dollars without even blinking. They add insane ADM's to allocations, Mercedes even outright refuses to hand over cars and sell them to other buyers who pay more, despite them having specced the cars and paid deposits etc.

I'd personally take a tiny and transparant mark-up because of a slight increase in production costs or long lead time, over being blatantly ripped off and treated like I don't even matter.

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Porsche have exactly the same wording in their Purchase Agreement Contract when you order and place a deposit on a new car. This clause stipulates that pricing and specification are liable to change and there is no need for Porsche to inform their customers. Its basically common sense !
With Porsche the price and spec is only fixed when the factory order status is locked, after which any price increase cannot be passed onto the waiting customer. Up to this locked point they can charge and change to their heart's content !