Source: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/enzo4.htm

How and why? Can someone explain?

 

Keep the exclusivity of the automobile, and so it was in the hands of the right owner.

There's quite a few people who can plunk down $1,000,000 on a car. Ferrari just wants to keep their prestige.

I remember back in 1996 when the F50 came out you had to have owned at least 4 previous Ferraris and had to know the president himself in order to get your hands on one.

 

there are tons of other ones too that make it very exclusive. the oil is like $60/quart, and only avail through ferrari, and you can't buy it unless you are authorized.....and also, you have to get so many hours a year at the track w/ the car and so many miles or they can repo it....there's the # of other owned ferraris as prev. stated and specs on how many per location etc.

 

It's not so much to keep the cars exclusive--the limited production numbers do that. It's to prevent speculators from buying up the cars, not driving them, hoarding them away in air conditioned garages under bubble wrap, and then selling them to legitimate collectors and enthusiasts at ridiculously high prices.

This is exactly what happened with the 288 GTO and later the F40. Each car within a few years of its introduction was selling at 3-5 times its original retail price, because speculators bought em up real quick andn then later gouged the enthusiasts.

So Ferrari starting with the F50 started qualifying buyers for it's top-line "milestone" vehicles. For example to get an F50 you couldn't buy it, you had to lease it. And the only way you could lease it was if you owned several other Ferraris, including an F40 (and I think, a 288 GTO, not sure on this one). That way the speculators who never really own a lot of cars at any one particular point in time were prevented from buying up the F50 and it went directly into the hands of legitimate enthusiasts and collectors.

The policy continued with the Enzo--you needed to have an F40 and F50 plus a bunch of other Ferraris to get on the list for an Enzo. That's why you see lots of pictures of Enzos being shown by their owners right next to their F40 and F50.

 

i think its great that they do that to such cars so they arent ruined by their owners........


just an example! highly unlikely .....what if say someone got one of the enzos and put a huge aluminum wing and type-R stickers all over it and a bunch of other things that just ruin the car stuff that cannot just be taken off of it.....it wouldnt be what it was anymore like i said they dont want people ruining a rare exotic which i think is great

 

More than you can afford, pal

 

That's not what I was really talking about, but okay.

 

i wasnt even talking about your post

 

I like the idea of making owners track them, if true. Really keeps the prestige and racing heritage alive. Keeps them from just being a car someone buys to get noticed in for being rich. Look at porsche, the average porsche owner is just some mid life crisis loser.

 

Anyway, slight correction. To purchase an Enzo as new, the prospective customer needed to be a current owner of at least three Ferraris, needed to have owned each of those three cars for a minimum of five years each, and one of those three cars had to be a 288 GTO, F40 or F50.

To get an F50 was the same deal (needed to have three Ferraris at the time, having already owned each for a minimum of five years, with one of the three being a 288 GTO or F40), plus they were only initially leased by the factory, and then later purchased after the leases were up.