Ferrari is Ferrari. It’s as simple as that. If you’re a Rolls-Royce customer you are buying a car made exactly to your taste. If you’re a Ferrari customer, you’re essentially buying their taste. That’s the deal.
The company is making it known, via a recent interview, that it’s not going to make you a pink Ferrari. It’s not going to let you lower the value of the brand. Sorry! There’s one notable exception to this, of course, but it’s going to cost you.
Porsche is another company that’ll basically give you what you want if you’re willing to pay for it, and they’d really like you to pay for it because the automaker sees a rough 2025 ahead. Mazda, on the other hand, sees a better year if it can cut down on expenses.
And, finally, the Supreme Court isn’t going to slow down consideration of California’s EPA waiver.
Ferrari Is The Taste Police
One of my favorite recent quotes was from the CEO of Rolls-Royce who, when asked about the company’s wide range of personalization options, said ‘We are not the taste police.”
Ferrari, I guess, is the taste police. At least according to CEO Benedetto Vigna, who told The Telegraph that he was worried customers were getting a little too weird:
“We have been thinking internally maybe to pre-define the (colour) combinations. We have to pay attention because we have to defend the values and the identity of the brand. We will not make a strange car, for sure.”
Going further, The Telegraph says that Ferrari will even consider blacklisting customers who go too far with cars they already purchased:
Whereas a few decades ago almost all new Ferraris came in the company’s signature red – known as rosso corsa – only about 40pc do so today.
However, one colour that it still refuses to apply is pink.
As well as the current crackdown, the company also seeks to police its cars once they have left the factory, as customers risk being blacklisted from future purchases if they subsequently go too far customising their cars.
Pink is rad. A pink Ferrari would look great.
Why is Ferrari being so weird about this? Because Ferrari is always weird about this stuff. That’s the point of buying a Ferrari. This is the company that allegedly blacklisted both Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian. Jim Glickenhaus, once one of the company’s most treasured customers, probably can’t ever buy another new car from Maranello ever again. It’s why I was so happy to see an orange one at Pebble Beach last year.
Ferrari gets off on saying “no” and customers get off on being able to convince Ferrari to say “yes.” It’s a club, basically, and the more you spend to be in the club, the more you do the right things, the more Ferrari will let you have. It’s quite simple.
There’s one glaring exception to this, of course. I briefly worked for Ferrari as a vendor. It was great, actually. Ferrari was one of the easiest clients I ever had because they were always straightforward about what they wanted. Unlike some automakers, you weren’t trying to deal with 14 committees and 900 voices. They told you what to do and you did it, or you didn’t have Ferrari as a client anymore.
Most of what I did for Ferrari revolved around motorsports, which means that I got to go to a few Ferrari Challenge races. If you’re making a race car, you can kind of do whatever you want (up to a point), even if it has a prancing horse on the front. My favorite car was from a guy named Dave Musial, who created a Heath Ledger-as-Joker-themed car.
A Dark Knight-inspired Ferrari is either the most ironic or the least ironic thing anyone has ever done, though I suspect Musial knew exactly what he was doing. Also, not every Ferrari Challenge driver is, uh, super talented, but this guy could actually drive.
Why so serious, Ferrari?
Porsche Had One Of Its Worst Days Ever
Porsche will let you paint your car pink. That’s not in question. It makes a lot of money from its personalization program, though not enough to cover for the fact that its EV ambitions haven’t paid off in the way the company had initially hoped.
The company’s stock is near a historic low. Why? The company is expecting to have to lower its margins significantly in order to reinvest in hybrids and gas-powered cars. From Investing.com:
Porsche surprised investors late Thursday by forecasting a profit margin of just 10-12% for this year, falling short of the 14.4% consensus estimate and well below its mid-term target of 17-19%.
Porsche stock dropped as much as 8% in early trading before recovering some ground. As of 09:22 GMT, shares were down 4.5%. The decline extends a year-long slump that has wiped out over 30% of the stock’s value. Since its 2022 IPO, Porsche’s market capitalization has halved from its May 2023 peak of €109.5 billion.
Here’s a little more detail from Reuters:
The luxury automaker said it will take an $832 million hit to profits as it launches new combustion engine and plug-in hybrid models.
Porsche was valued higher than its parent company Volkswagen when it made its stock market debut three years ago.
But it has struggled to live up to that since then as EV sales have struggled to get going and its endured weak Chinese demand.
Like a lot of companies, Porsche spent a bunch of money expecting to sell a certain number of EVs as it started to wind down its mass-market gas-powered car business. That didn’t happen and now Porsche is probably going to have to create new powertrains for its next generation of vehicles.
Mazda Has To Cut Back On Spiffs
When I first started working at The Autopian, Jeff or Beau mentioned the idea of giving out “spiffs” to people. In auto dealer parlance a spiff is a bonus attained by salespeople for reaching certain goals.
I heard it as “spliff” and used it for a while until someone finally corrected me. It’s a California-based company, it didn’t seem that weird at the time.
Mazda was one of the strongest automakers in the United States, growing its sales to a record 424,382 vehicles in 2024. Much of this is due to the fact that Mazda makes desirable cars with a range of hybrid options. Some of it is also due to increased incentive spending.
Per Automotive News, CFO Jeffrey Guyton says this spending cut into the company’s earnings:
Operating profit fell by more than a third to ¥45.3 billion ($287.7 million) in Mazda Motor Corp.’s fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31. Incentives totaled ¥20.1 ($127.6 million).
The three-month incentive outlays followed elevated spiff spending in the previous two quarters, but the costs are now trending downward, Guyton said at the earnings briefing.
“Mazda’s incentives peaked in September and began to decline,” he said. “Though spending continued to trend lower, third-quarter sales were the best in Mazda’s history.”
The timing of the incentives seems sensible to me given the struggles at Nissan and every Stellantis brand. Why not pick up market share while it’s there for the taking? Toyota’s production limitations probably helped a little, too.
Supreme Court Case Over EPA’s Waivers Will Go Forward
The current Trump Administration is pushing the limits of the executive branch power in its quest to, in a way, revamp the government. That doesn’t mean it’s getting everything it wants.
President Biden approved California’s waiver to enforce its own fuel economy standards, a provision that was given to it by Congress with the passage of the Clean Air Act and subsequent amendments. Oil companies sued, saying that California shouldn’t be allowed to do this.
The incoming administration asked the Supreme Court to delay this ruling since the EPA was going to probably roll back Biden’s requirements or, perhaps, make other changes. The court, without explaining why, said it was going to go forward with three cases related to the EPA.
What else did the court do? From Reuters:
The justices, however, granted a request to put on hold a dispute over a rule issued by Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration that would make it easier for students defrauded by their colleges to have their loans forgiven.
Caveat Emptor, I suppose.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Kendrick Lamar will headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show this weekend and I don’t know what to expect, but watching the entire Grammys sing “A Minor” last week kinda shows where the Overton Window has moved on Drake. Has anyone lost a rap beef worse than Drake and lived? Either way, enjoy “Squabble Up.”
The Big Question
What color would you paint your Ferrari?
Who around here would not enjoy getting a spliff from the Autopian?
I would then love to turn around and share said spliff with the whole staff. Matt, make sure you sit next to me, and not next to Debo (who is Jason, of course).
I mean, I’m gonna say I don’t disagree with Ferrari here. They know the value of their brand, and like Clarkson has mused before, it’s basically a luxury accessories brand that happens to also make cars. Having that full creative control is what makes something that much more special in the end. Think about Bugatti (old, real Bugatti) – he was a notorious control freak and designed everything, even down to the silverware of the Bugatti estate, truly viewing everything through that lens of a pure perfectionist ideal of what he wanted. There is a story that a customer was complaining to him about the car having a tough time to start int he cold and Ettore’s suggestion was “get a heated garage.” Bugatti’s are some of the most blue-blooded vehicles that exist, and that’s for a good reason.
So while I can get the control brand management side of Ferrari… that line kinda does end when looking at their current product offerings, of which basically none are really interesting anymore and there’s that horrid SUV thing
A slightly different shade of their red, only it needs to be on the build-sheet as “Rectum Red” in reference to the obvious pain in the ass of getting a custom color. F-hue Ferrari.
What colour would I paint my Ferrari? Pink of course, because I love pink and it would make them quite unhappy.
Ferrari just makes extremely fragile cars for pricks. Even if I could afford to buy a new one, their unwillingness to build a car (within reason) to my specs would be a turnoff.
I am absolutely building a Nyancatarossa
Get a red Ferrari just a little desaturated and lighter than Rosso Corsa so the paint looks faded from the factory. Malicious compliance
I always remember the “How Ferrari Spins” article from the other site. I’ll likely never be a Ferrari customer, but the least I can do is promote that article.
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Drake sued Lamar’s record label for defamation. What a kind of soft ass response is that? What a crybaby.
If Ferrari is going to be petty about paint colors, I’m finding the ugliest color Lamborghini ever offered and having my F80 painted that exact shade.
When you said Mazda is cutting back on spiffs I was genuinely afraid you were going to say they were going to cut costs in their (red) paintworks.
Don’t scare me like that.
I hate to sound too contrarian here, but I really appreciate the way Ferrari is working so hard to get people to buy McLarens.
When I worked at Radio Shack, there spiffs for selling the closeout items (like computers with a 286 or 386 inside), and for selling the Tandy Protection Plans. SPIF (or SPIFF possibly) stood for Sales Performance Incentive <something>.
Yep, I’ve heard the same! It’s an acronym that loses meaning and takes on a life of its own, like how “swag” is “Stuff We All Get”
(not swagger, that’s different; or shwag, which is low-grade weed)
I would paint my Ferrari rattle can gray primer, but only in patches.
What did Glickenhaus do to piss off Ferrari?
He built his own Ferrari based cars, to HIS specs and HIS desires.
I thought they signed off on the P3/4 and let him badge it?
If there’s one, and I mean a single, good thing to come out the EV transition, it’s that companies like Ferrari won’t be special anymore.
Who is going to subject themselves to this bullshit for a chance to buy something that has the same aero-optimized styling, uses the same motors and batteries as everything else on the road, but also has a horse on it?
I have some bad news for you…
There is something quite strange about some people and how they are drawn to things like a Ferrari.
I had a boss years ago that was like this. He had no desire for anything that was available to everyone. He had a deep need and desire to have things no one else could get. He wore some of the strangest outfits specifically because no one else would look the way he did.
These are the people that Ferrari is going after. They love this about the brand, exclusivity for the sake of itself. I have something you cannot have and therefore I feel better about myself.
He was also a bit of a sociopath in a socially accepted sort of way. Probably a narcissist but mainly just an asshole. I guess that fits with Ferrari and their target audience just fine.
So, even if they have the same motor as everyone else, the same battery as most of the cars on the road, it won’t matter. They will find a way to make them obtainable to only the most accepted clientele and that will be enough.
Although I still hold out hopes that when everyone is more focused on developing the battery tech we can start to see some differentiation, it just won’t matter to Ferrari buyers or Ferrari itself.
They need to update the definition of Ferrari owner.
You can’t just leave your red car sitting out in the sun for a long time until it turns pink, you know like the old days?
I would paint my hypothetical Ferrari multiple colors like the old VW Golfs. I’m sure Ferrari would love to see a 250 GTO Harlequin. An Enzo Harlequin would be equally amazing.
I’m in for a United Colors of Benetton Ferrari.
(Didn’t they sponsor an F1 team? Guessing it wasn’t Ferrari.)
What color would you paint your Ferrari? boring AF, but Nero Daytona with gold wheels. Although Viola Hong Kong is also fantastic
The original blue/yellow Brock Yates / Dan Gurney Cannonball livery on a Daytona coupe.
If the SCOTUS rules the wrong way, I’m gonna need one of those spliffs.
They will definitely rule the wrong way. Two thirds of them are corrupt, soulless Trump sycophants.
“Whereas a few decades ago almost all new Ferraris came in the company’s signature red – known as rosso corsa – only about 40pc do so today.”
This is so stupid, because objectively everyone knows the best-looking Ferraris are black.
Ahem… Fly Yellow would like a word.
*violently gestures to the fucking SUV they’re currently building*
You mean the Ferrari Utility Vehicle that just aped the design of the Mazda CX-30? What could possibly dilute the values and identity of the brand there?!
Maybe Ferrari should be the taste police.
I would buy only second hand Ferrari’s and then do horrible things to them just to try and piss off Ferrari. Metallic Neon Pink on Ronal Teddy Bears and a nice 5 ft shakotan exhaust? Don’t mind if I do! Maybe build another Purrari after that.
Ferrari makes better looking cars, but at least Lambo aren’t complete tools.
If you craft a Ferrari like that I will definitely follow your page, that sounds like awesome fun.
The cheapest one on Auto Trader is $39k. Make your dreams come true!
That California has all sorts of red flags. Sold on BaT for $90k less than a year ago, now for sale in AZ for less than half?
Ferrari’s brand is selling expensive cars to narcissists, so yeah that all checks out.
a nearly 100-year-old business plan.
So if you’re blacklisted what’s to stop you from buying a used one or buying through a middle man? Seems like they can’t actually stop people from obtaining a pink Ferrari if they really want one. What a dumb hill to die on.
Ferrari will stop you. My understanding is they control the aftermarket too. Plus, the person you bought it from may get blacklisted, and now you’ll have “Vinny” pissed at you.
I’m sure that only applies to those multi-millionaire losers. The 7th crown prince of Saudi Arabia could have his fleet of Ferraris gold plated and still buy a new one tomorrow.
LOL, so true. Imagine Ferrari being the only one in the world to say no to you. The peak “you only want what you can’t have” situation.
Nothing, really, except the middle man you buy through will then be blacklisted, so you’ll have to keep using someone different each time
Fucking Italians.
If they didn’t do that we would run out of them.
Heyo!