HyperCar Cost Inflation


Joehand1

Joehand1

Tungsten GT Owner
Sep 20, 2007
602
Hattiesburg, MS, USA
I've been astounded by the prices of the new hypercars, the 918 Porsche, the McLaren P1, the recently unveiled Ferrari LaFerrari and the Lamborghini Veneno, so I did this little exercise:

1988 List Price 2013 List Price
Ford Taurus $12,000 Ford Taurus $21,700 (1.8x)
Mercedes SL $61,000 Mercedes SL $120,000 (1,96x)
Ferrari 328 $71,000 Ferrari 458 $260,000 (3.66x)
Porsche 911 $51,000 Porsche 911 $90,000 (1.76x)
Porsche 959 $300,000 Porsche 918 $950,000 (3.8x)
Ferrari F40 $400,000 Ferrari LaFerrari $2,000,000 (5x)
Lambo Countach $120,000 Lambo Aventador ($376,000) (3.13x)

So base 911s and Tauruses have not quite doubled in price, but the hyper Ferrari is up 5 times, with everyone else in between.
While I think it is very pretty, a two million dollar price for a Ferrari is just crazy..

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/fe...en-p1-vs-porsche-918-spyder-geneva-2013-03-06
 
Last edited:
It's not crazy if someone going to buy all that you make.
 
That's trying to lie with statistics. The 1988 prices should be adjusted for inflation first. For example, the Taurus is probably close to just inflation numbers. I'd bet the Mercedes SL isn't too far off. The Ferrari F40 comparison to the LaFerrari as a "one off limited" might be the tell for a very low production car.
 
BlackICE said:
It's not crazy if someone going to buy all that you make.
Click to expand...
Yes very true, but it's still nuts. I guess my point was that regular and even premium cars prices reflect inflation but that at the high end they are charging many multiples of that.
 
The ultra high end car market has exploded. 25 years ago, there was none of this:

[video=youtube_share;4wUJV0hl_8I]http://youtu.be/4wUJV0hl_8I[/video]

[video=youtube_share;4klT24u3SQQ]http://youtu.be/4klT24u3SQQ[/video]

[video=youtube_share;ZbB1RwpuTRY]http://youtu.be/ZbB1RwpuTRY[/video]

Between the explosion of wealth in Asia and the Middle East, Ferrari could probably sell 1000 units without blinking at $1 mil. I used to think "Wow! A guy with a Ferrari 456!" when I lived in London. Now, for most of the summer, the guy in a 599 is the teenager from whatever Gulf Oil state in the Enzo's man servant.
 
LaDBK said:
The ultra high end car market has exploded. 25 years ago, there was none of this:

[video=youtube_share;4wUJV0hl_8I]http://youtu.be/4wUJV0hl_8I[/video]

[video=youtube_share;4klT24u3SQQ]http://youtu.be/4klT24u3SQQ[/video]

[video=youtube_share;ZbB1RwpuTRY]http://youtu.be/ZbB1RwpuTRY[/video]

Between the explosion of wealth in Asia and the Middle East, Ferrari could probably sell 1000 units without blinking at $1 mil. I used to think "Wow! A guy with a Ferrari 456!" when I lived in London. Now, for most of the summer, the guy in a 599 is the teenager from whatever Gulf Oil state in the Enzo's man servant.
Click to expand...

You are right, I really didn't think about all the new Russian,Arab and Chinese billionaires..

And most folks I guess would think $167k for a Ford is crazy..
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I didn't even add in the Russians. Check out any of the Moscow Unlim videos. Tons of ultra high dollar hardware.

You can see how focused Lambo and Ferrari are in Asia. They tailor plenty of "editions" right to that area. Lambo gets stupid with it. I think they have a special edition for every city in China now. I believe Lambo added 6 dealerships and now has 20 over there. That's pretty explosive growth when you're selling a product that is probably $300k at the cheapest in that market.
 
Yea Dave, this car is worth a billion dollars in revenue for Ferrari, wonder what their margins are..probably better than Apple's..
 
I couldn't believe it the last time we were in Shenzhen, China. Black 458 blazed past us on the highway. We saw many more exotics in Hong Kong.
 
Those Russian and Asian markets are the only growing markets where these are bought not for the passion for the cars but mainly as a luxuoury item to demonstrate their succes. Even in Italy luxuoury cars or hypercars have become a rare sight ... You get and ecen stopped by the police and have to prove how you can afford such a car. In order to be left alone even those passionate guys hardly take out their price beasts.
Its quite obvious as we've become experts to impose ourselves with regulations - enourmous employee rights - max hour labour week - impossible health care contributions - making it impossible for our companies to remain competitive with those Asian countries where employee rights aren't even applicable. So what we do is we move our production/ labour to those countries where we get the best earnings. Those Asians simply copy entire plants and become the major competitors and not a thing you can do about it. All those years of research simply copied in a few months. All these products are being cheaply shipped with high poluting vessels - even imported duty free - and all containors distributed again with high poluting trucks. Oh yeah lets's add again some Co2 emmissions and global warming taxes to compensate the loss of taxes.
What are we kidding ourselves we can't be competitive with these markets an fu.ed it all up ourselves.
I got a little carried away didn't I? Some frustrations
 
:agree:
 
Another take on the subject, including Mr. di Montezemolo's perspective.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/automobiles/autoshow/echoes-of-the-30s-inflation-adjusted.html
 
Xcentric said:
Another take on the subject, including Mr. di Montezemolo's perspective.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I'm surprised the branded merchandising profit is that low at Ferrari. €50 million euro profit may sound like a lot, but if you've ever been to an F1 race and seen a grandstand full of people in Ferrari shoes, socks, undies, shorts, shirts, hats, glasses, it doesn't seem like that much. I bought my Dad a Ferrari keychain for some laughable price like $140 at the local Ferrari dealer. Better than a $600 piston shaped paperweight.
 
Exactly the same thing happened in australia, we used to make everything ourselves,, Then the Govt signed the Lima agreement and shifted all our manufacturing to 3rd world countries, and our taxes have been steadily climbing ever since.. Who benefits ultimately, Multinational companies I guess,(, Sorry couldn`t help myself)
 
I would never call anyone a liar using statistics.
 
BlackICE said:
:agree:
Click to expand...

+2 or is it +3 at this point?
 
While I agree with the economic comments above, the real issue for me is that the GT was the most UNDER priced (@ MSRP) supercar ever. It's still a wonder to me that the car was ever made.
 
I agree with you guys.

The russians are crazy and joining us at many events around european tracks.

This picture says allot, they even mod their cars like never before !!!

Single Turbo
Russianlowriders_700.jpg

Hybrid
car.jpg

Bad joke, but they have the most modded cars and they drive and party like crazy !!!
 
My favorite Russian was the one with the Heffner TT. I heard he didn't survive it
 
Kurt you mean the White GT TT? That is what I heard as well, he survived the first time he lost the control but not the second.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top Bottom