Ferrari Customers Go for First Available Car to Avoid Waiting List

We have to admit that the new Ferrari FF is not the prettiest car ever to roll out of the Maranello factory, but there is already an 18 month waiting list to get your hands on one. So what’s a rich tycoon to do if he doesn’t want to be seen in something as average as a Porsche or even worse... a BMW.

Well, some Ferrari clients are understandably so impatient that they just buy the first thing with a Prancing Horse on the bonnet, then trade it in for the wheels they really wanted in the first place, sometimes just a few months after.

Brisbane Times reports that some Australian customers are doing just that. And we totally get where they are coming from: who cares about the depreciation of a quarter-million dollar vehicle when you what you actually want is that sharp-looking 458 Italia, painted in the most outrageous color you can think of?

“We had our first trade-in swaps on 458s barely four months after the car was bought. We actually have pre-owned 458s now because one set of customers literally ordered two cars — one with a very straightforward specification that would come straight down the production line as early as possible, and at the same time they ordered one with all the special spec they wanted. When that car turned up, they traded in the first one,” says Edward Rowe, spokesman for Ferrari’s official Australia distributor.

But Rowe is not at all concerned about any detriment to the Ferrari brand, as there are some really loyal customers in the Land Down Under: “We have one owner who bought his first Ferrari in 1973, and I think he has bought about 15 since then and is yet to sell one. The very first Ferrari ever sold in Australia is still on the road in Melbourne, a (1950s-era) 212.”