Aussie Ferraris growing richer

FERRARI has defended its high prices for Australian customers, saying rather than lowering prices, it is making the cars more feature-rich.



Ferrari Australasia chief executive Herbert Appleroth said the brand had offset the steep rise in the value of the Australian dollar by making the cars sold here some of the best-equipped in the world.

“We shouldn’t be moving our prices based on currency, because it (Ferrari) is an investment,” Ferrari Australasia chief executive Herbert Appleroth said.

“We have great pride in the resale value of our cars, so alternating the price based on currency is not the Ferrari way.

“What we do is alter the standard equipment inside the cars. The (Australian) currency has gone up 25, 30 per cent and what we’ve done is added an enormous amount of standard equipment.

“The Australian model range is one of the highest specification as standard in the world to compensate,” Mr Appleroth said.

Mr Appleroth said potential customers still could not walk in off the street and negotiate their own price for a car, and instead would be politely shown the list price.

“That (negotiating over the price) is altering the market,” he said. “That is not our strategy – we believe we are delivering fantastic value.”Mr Appleroth said an indication that customers here were happy with where Ferrari’s prices sat was the introduction of the luxury car tax, which made Australian-bought cars much more expensive than in other markets.

“Our volume hasn’t been affected, so our customers are still believing we deliver very, very good value,” he said.

Ferrari used today’s announcement in Melbourne to roll out its latest model, the $600,000 F12 Berlinetta grand tourer.

Formula one pilot Fernando Alonso was on hand at the luxury supercar’s Richmond showroom to drive the new model out at a function organised to announce Ferrari would take over Australian importation rights for the brand from April 1.

The front-engined V12 coupe goes on sale in Australia later this year.