Ferrari promises to cut delivery times

Expect waiting times – but not prices - for new Ferrari models to be cut when the Prancing Horse brand makes its transition to direct factory distribution in Australia from April 1.

The famous Italian sports car manufacturer’s pricing is much higher here than the UK, which is also a right-hand drive market.

For instance, the new F12 Berlinetta is priced at 250,000 pounds in the UK, which equates to around 360,000 high-value Aussie dollars, but the F12’s Australian price is $691,000! The same discrepancy applies across the range, be it 458, California or FF.

“That pricing relationship has nothing to do with whether the distributor is independent or a factory subsidiary,” said Herbert Appleroth, the managing director of Ferrari Australasia, which will manage New Zealand as well as Australia.

“It is a matter of currency fluctuations, and as a golden rule with luxury goods you don’t fluctuate your luxury price, because this is an investment.

“So what we have done in Australia this year is increase the level of standard equipment in the car.”

Those improvements include making HELE standard across the range. ‘High Emotion Low Emissions’ is a suite of fuel-saving initiatives including a idle-stop system and weight savings.

Mr Appleroth said the F12 Berlinetta’s Australian spec was much higher than European versions.

“The Australian and New Zealand cars are the highest specified in the world,” Appleroth claimed. “We have basically created more value for the clients rather than altering the price.”

While an F12 was shown off at Ferrari Australasia’s media launch in Melbourne last week, customer cars won’t be arriving until mid-year.

That means some paid-up customers will have waited 18 months or more for their F12 to arrive, something Mr Appleroth acknowledged that was too long and needed to be cut to no more than 12 months for all future models.

“I think now with globalisation... everybody knows what is going on around the world and we need to alter the production accordingly,” he said.

However, Mr Appleroth acknowledged there would always be a delay on right-hand drive models versus left-hand drive, and that European countries almost always got their cars ahead of overseas markets.

He said the increasing alignment between Australian Design Rules and European ECE regulations would help shorten lead times, as would the better voice a factory distributor has versus an independent distributor.

“Having someone kicking and screaming as part of a subsidiary saying ‘come on guys, let’s investigate what engineering has to do -- is it really that much?’ So we will be trying to cut down the delivery times.”

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site…