Ferrari Australia says its current extended wait times for new vehicle orders are part of the ownership process, but to help matters the company is prioritising its loyal customers before it looks to expand its ownership base.
Even though existing Ferrari customers know that waiting for a new car is nothing new, Australians hoping to get into a new Ferrari might be waiting longer than was once imaginable, a situation the company’s boss says is part of the process.
Current wait times for all new models are over 12 months, with some potentially more than 24 months,
“For something that is special and good, people are willing to wait,” Ferrari Australia president Jan Voss told CarExpert at the Australian Grand Prix.
“I suggest people make the waiting time a little sweeter by picking up a pre-owned Ferrari while they wait and either trade it back or hold on to it by the time the new car comes around.
“Waiting is part of the process and there is such a high level of love, passion, engineering and customisation going into our cars that it’s a unlike [any] other production.”
Given Ferrari has a global production limit of just 15,000 cars a year (including race cars), the number of cars coming to Australia is very limited.
In 2022, Ferrari registered just 203 new cars in Australia, up from 194 in 2021.
If that trend continues and we include the numerous race cars the brand also sold locally, it puts us at around 1.3-1.4 per cent of global allocation.
That’s rather high, considering Australia’s population represents around 0.03 per cent of the world.
Ferrari is also very conscious of keeping the resale value of its existing cars high, by managing supply and demand and planning for the long term.
“The cars that we put on the market right now are really worth the wait,” said Mr Voss.
“The product is getting better and better, it takes some discipline to manage it well, we want to make sure we take the right amount of cars in, always sell one less car than the market demands.
“You don’t want to get greedy and try and show strong numbers because you don’t do yourself any favours in the long run.”
One particular model that has managed to attain an even larger order bank than most is the new Purosangue SUV.
The first four-door, four-seater V12 Ferrari is capped at 20 percent of production (3000 cars per year) globally and if we take the same allocation percentage of around 1.3-1.4 percent, Australia will likely get around 30-40 cars per year.
“The car has been a huge success right off the bat, it is in such high demand that I obviously have to reward my loyal customers first so in the short term, I need to give the privilege to the customers that have been with me forever,” said Mr Voss.
“In the short term it’s not so much about enlarging the Ferrari family, that will eventually happen”.
According to Mr Voss, the Ferrari business in Australia has never been as healthy as it is today and the focus going forward is making sure any additional growth for our market comes organically.
