Ferrari launches its 488 GTB supercar in Australia, but there’s no point in rushing to one of its five Australian showrooms to get one when they arrive in December.
Ferrari Australasia President and CEO Herbert Appleroth tells reporters a 2-year allotment for the A$469,888 ($344,004) car already has been pre-sold.
He says “well over 100” Australian customers signed up for the 488 GTB with the first deliveries due to begin in December.
“We have been overwhelmed by the response to our new 488 GTB,” he says at the car’s Sydney debut.
“We haven’t seen this level of demand since 2007,” Appleroth tells The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
The average age of Ferrari owners in Australia is decreasing and now is at 48 years old, Appleroth says, with demand accelerating as confidence levels rise among small-to-medium-sized business owners.
He says the confidence levels among the affluent in Australia are back to where they were before the global financial crisis.
“I have a pretty good idea of confidence levels among our client base, and I can tell you it’s pretty strong,” Appleroth says.
Ferrari usually sells 110 to 115 vehicles in Australia each year, but the first half saw 93 sold.
Appleroth tells the newspaper it is solely traders and successful business people who buy Ferraris, rather than CEOs of the large share market-listed companies.
“When you’re letting people go, it’s not the coolest thing to be seen driving a Ferrari,” he says. “There’s been a period of abstinence since the global financial crisis.”
The orders for the new 488 GTB are evidence of the change in sentiment, he says.
“The demand for the 488 GTB is at record levels even before a customer has had the chance to see her,” he says. “The waiting list now stretches beyond two years and no doubt the 488 GTB will go down in history as an all-time great.”
The 488 GTB features a new 3.9L twin-turbo V-8, rated at a massive 660 hp.
Despite a host of performance upgrades over its predecessor, the 458 Italia, the price of the new model is A$55,529 ($40,648) less. Appleroth says that’s because of a currency shift halfway through the lifecycle of the 458 Italia. Ferrari held the price and made more than A$50,000 ($36,591) worth of options standard.
For the 488 GTB, Ferrari has passed on the savings by removing some of those previously standard options.
Despite this, Appleroth says Australia’s standard 488 GTB is better equipped than its equivalent in any other market in the world.
