Have you seen the car in real-life? I said the same as you when I first saw the car on photos. Then I saw the car in Geneva and I totally changed my mind. I trully love the look

Well, when I got a brochure for the Gallardo at the L.A. show this year, the salesman let me in the stand, gave me his card, told me to call him to schedule a testdrive. That's quite simple if you ask me, didn't take much on my part other than express very keen interest in the car. I have also driven a 996TT cab, and didn't have to say a word to make it happen.

As long as Ferrari does not slacken off in what they do - because demand for their cars are always high - then it's definitely worth the money.

Hype is all about keeping the supply lower than the demand. Just look at the Enzo the hype around the car is enormous and not becasue it's better than the CGT or Zonda but just becasue the supply is extremly low. Thorught out the years and even today Fiat has keep and make sured that Ferrari is the most exclusive brand in the world.
Any new millionaire can in less than 5 minutes makes a phone call and get themselves a Bently GT, 911 Turbo or a Gallardo but not a F430. Getting hold of a brand new Ferrari is probably the hardest thing one can try to get hold of. Either you have to have good contacts in terms of dealers and people working for Ferrari, or allready own a Ferrari or place a deposit on the car before you even know its name and what it is going to look like.

Bingo! This is a large part of what keeps them selling. The newly rich or new to the brand want in on this so bad it hurts! Even when the cars weren't as awesome as they are today they still sold because of this. When buying a Ferrari you aren't merely buying a car you're buying into a club or better yet a "lifestyle". This is marketing 101 and ever other brand on earth wish their cars had this type of following. That said even Ferrari has limits, but they're so careful not to overbuild/produce to ensure that legendary waiting list. When you only build 4-5K cars a year between the F430, F430 Spider, 612S and now 599 GTB of course you'll have a waiting lists. All of those are white-hot and the only one that isn't (the 612S) isn't missed because production of the others make up for it being merely "warm" compared to the others...that way they can can still make it seem like even the 612S has a "waiting list". Its a really unique situation and position Ferrari has. Look at how they sold/marketed the FXX. Ferrari appears or at least creates the illusion that they are actually doing you a favor by selling you one of their cars - to be able to pull that off is priceless!!!! Then you combine all of this with their recent run in F1 and you have the perfect street-car selling, marketing machine. No other company has this position, not Mercedes, Rolls, Bugatti, BMW, Maybach, not even Porsche or the recently revitalized Aston-Martin. Porsche would be like Ferrari if they weren't such a volume producer relative to Ferrari and Aston-Martin is some years off from retaining their former glory to stand toe to toe with Ferrari. Lamborghini is trying, but they don't have the same draw either. No racing heritage and an even more spotty existense over the years compared to Ferrari.

Bentley had better be careful not to get too carried away with their newfound success you don't want to have start discounting them to move them because of excess production.

M

Couldn't agree more!