Just one new Ferrari was sold in Greece in 2012 in the depths of Greece’s austerity, and it seems even that lone Ferrari came to the UK.
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None of which is particularly surprising considering the mess Greece has got in to since its tied itself to monster economies like Germany when it joined the Eurozone.
There’s no doubt there are still plenty of gazillionaires in Greece, but how many of them would want to risk parading their wealth in a brand new Ferrari when Greece is in such a financial mess, more than one in four are out of work and soup kitchens are springing up as normal Greeks struggle to even feed themselves?
But the ‘Ferrari from Greece’ bit rang a bell when we got the email, so we made a couple of calls to verify what we thought we remembered from a conversation last year.
The Ferrari 458 Spider is in very short supply, and waiting lists are running at around eighteen months in the UK. So an intrepid Brit, with a desire for instant 458 Spider gratification managed to order a 458 Spider from Greece, where Ferrari managed to deliver it in just three months instead of eighteen, and the price was a tad lower too.
It appears the whole process was a bit of a nightmare, but in the end the 458 Spider was delivered in the UK to one very happy new owner.
So, as far as we can tell, that means Greece didn’t actually sell a single new Ferrari in 2012. Or at least not to a Greek.
Cars UK says
Tramp12 is right – you can buy any car from any dealer in the EU. With Greece in meltdown, the Ferrari dealer in Athens obviously had slots it hadn’t sold, so the UK buyer was lucky and got his 458 Spider in quick sticks.
The small price difference would have been made up of currency fluctuations (Ferrari price their cars ex-factory in Euros and they are the same across the Eurozone) and small spec differences. Ferrari UK buyers get a 4 year warranty (Greece only gives 3 years) and a Tracker is fitted as standard in the UK and not in other European markets.
But the UK buyer of the Greek 458 Spider could have trotted along to his local UK Ferrari dealer and had the tracker fitted and stumped up for the additional warranty. But the impetus for this deal was not the small price difference, but the huge difference in the waiting list.
We’re surprised more UK Ferrari buyers aren’t looking at the same options in European countries where Ferrari sales have dropped below expectations (like Italy) to speed up delivery of their new car.
Tramp12 says
EU regulations say you can buy a car from any dealer in the EU and the car makers have to deliver the same service as in your home country.
Sacha says
Can you do that? Go to another country and buy a Ferrari for England?