Who Is Buying a Ferrari In This Economy? Part 1 of My Conversation with a Longtime Ferrari Salesman
Ralph Cestero remembers August 17th of 1977, his first day selling cars, because it was the day after Elvis died. He was racing cars as well, but he said that it was going nowhere and so through a friend he got a job selling Porsches. He went on to sell Jaguars, Lexus, and then Mercedes cars at American Service Center in Arlington , Virginia . At that time American Service Center had the only Ferrari Factory authorized dealership in the Northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC area.
According to Cestero in 1993 Ferrari sales were not particularly brisk. They had 0% financing on the 512 Testa Rossas and they still had seven of them in stock. In 1995 Ferrari of Washington took over as the exclusive dealer for Ferrari and opened up the dealership in a small office complex in Sterling , Virginia near Dulles Airport . Cestero had always wanted to sell Ferraris and he joined the team a year later. You meet the most incredible, different kinds of people, says Cestero.
They buy them because they ve always wanted them as a child. They get 1500 cars per year and those are divided by 37 dealers. According to Cestero, most buyers in the DC area are CEO s, doctors, real estate developers and defense contractors. Cars that are priced over $200,000 there s still no doubt that they are going to be purchased. So has the troubled economy affected high end auto sales? Cestero answers that question with examples of some recent sales.
We have had some cancellations, a gentlemen in the real estate business who has been on the list for six years, he could afford it but he couldn t justify spending that kind of money at this time, so I went down my list to see who was next. The next man on the list was given a short time to live by his doctor so he gave up his spot on the new car list to look for a used Ferrari. When Cestero told him about this car he was thrilled to have it, and is now driving the 430.