Ferrari Test Drives for Tourists Are Annoying Italian Locals

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Push-Start was the first Ferrari test drive business to open in Maranello six years ago, but others have popped up since. (AP Photo/Marco Vasini)

The highly valued and much-desired Ferrari brand is at the center of a free-market struggle that has nothing to do with its successful Wall Street stock listing, its impending spin-off or even chairman Sergio Marchionne’s grand plan to command an even higher premium by transforming the super car maker into a luxury goods company.

Just outside the gates of the Ferrari Museum in the carmaker’s birthplace of Maranello, entrepreneurial spirit is clashing with communal concerns for safety and even decorum as a growing gaggle of unaffiliated, independent Ferrari test-drive businesses say they are fighting for survival amid tightening rules imposed by the city.

“We are entrepreneurs, and we are in a tourist town, and I can’t promote my business,’’ said Maja Corluka Valestri, owner of Pit Lane Red Passion, adding that the economic damage from the new rules was already evident. “We have lost 80 percent of business. I’ve already sent all the documents to my lawyer.’’

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The test-drive businesses have been cashing in on the super car maker’s global appeal by offering aficionados without the wealth to buy their own hot wheels a high-powered spin “for the price of a dinner out,’’ as one business owner put it.

That translates to 80 euros for a 10-minute drive in a Ferrari F430 Spider. For a two-hour spin around the nearby hills in a Ferrari 458 Special, the check goes up to 1,400 euros. All test drives are accompanied by a trained race car driver, per uncontested city rules. While such businesses exist in cities around the world, from London to Paris to Las Vegas, driving a Ferrari around Maranello is an unrivaled experience for the true Ferrari fan.

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The price list for a Ferrari test drive, which can range from 80 euros for 10 minutes to 1,400 euros for two hours. (AP Photo/Marco Vasini)

“We tried a California and a Berlinetta in Moscow at a dealership. My husband wants to buy one, if possible, so we came to Maranello,’’ said Anna, a tourist from Russia who declined to give her last name. Her only disappointment: “I wanted to go faster.’’

Now accessible to the masses, the Ferrari roar through the streets of Maranello is no longer the bragging right of a new owner. It’s become a constant backdrop as dozens of would-be Schumachers and Vettels rev up and peel out, complains Maranello Mayor Massimiliano Morini.

And with new startups competing to attract potential customers among the 300,000 people who visit the Ferrari museum each year, Morini says there have been some unruly scenes as barkers board tour buses and scuffle with competitors in the museum parking lot.

“They are obviously big cylinder cars that are very powerful, and the cars are circulating on the same streets with regular traffic,’’ Morini said, prompting both noise complaints and the added expense of increased traffic patrols. “You can understand that this creates a very big problem of cohabitation for those living nearby who understandably want and have the right to rest.’’

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So far, there have been no significant accidents, according to city officials, and the test-drive business owners say the most damage has come from scraping wheels on curbs. That hasn’t lessened safety concerns.

Maranello and neighboring Fiorano have teamed up on a set of rules limiting hours that the test drives can take place, basically cutting out a couple of hours in the early afternoon, and banning companies from soliciting customers near the museum. To tighten compliance, Maranello has imposed an eight-day suspension after the third citation, which Morini says is a bigger deterrent than the previous 500-euro fine.

Business owners say the rules have cut off oxygen to their enterprises, creating an unseemly cat-and-mouse game with authorities and solicitors, not to mention having to turn away customers during what have been business peak hours.

“It has certainly limited our service, it’s like asking a restaurant to close between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.,’’ Stefano Ravazzini, owner of Push-Start, which was the first to launch the test-drive service six years ago.

Valestri complained that the rules regime was imposed a year after her business launched, undermining her business plan, and a loophole that had allowed her to shift pickups to Fiorano, just 100 meters away, has now been closed.

“Clearly the rules are not OK,’’ she said. “They were never OK.’’

Having lost a court battle challenging the rules as anti-business, business owners are evaluating the next step to save their investments, which for the largest can include 10 Ferraris and facilities such a souvenir shops and cafes.

The everyman enterprises are in many ways an anathema of Ferrari’s exclusive market position — although a spokesman for the carmaker declined to comment on the business model.

The centrifugal push back into a leather-clad seat as a Ferrari accelerates from 0 to 100 kpm (62mph) in just over 3 seconds is meant to be a thrill attainable only for those who can afford the nearly 200,000 euro starting sticker price, and that is limited to just over 7,000 new cars a year.

It’s not entirely clear, however, that the businesses actually harm Ferrari’s well-tended image, even as Marchionne devises a plan to turn Ferrari into a luxury goods maker in the image of say, Hermes or Armani, tapping additional revenue with a yet-undisclosed new products while also seeking a premium stock value. Part of that process includes spinning off Ferrari from its mass-market parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, expected in January accompanied by an additional stock listing in Milan.

“In some ways, it almost highlights how special the true Ferrari owners’ experience is,’’ said Robert Haigh, an executive with the London-based Brand Finance asset value consultancy.

While the short-term test-drivers “will go away empty-handed,’’ Ferrari owners get a VIP experience, including a factory tour, atelier experience personalizing cars down to contrast stitching on the leather seats and maybe even a few laps around the famed Fiorano Formula 1 test track.

“It sort of brings home that it is not just a personal pet project of yours,’’ Haigh said. “You see what demand there is in the rest of the world, and you get to have the real experience.’’

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