(car engine roaring)
(ululating)
(beep)
(upbeat music)
- I'm gonna be honest, supercars aren't really my thing.
Exotics are so outside of my price range,
so far from my grasp that I never really think about them.
But there's an entire side of the car community devoted
to these exclusive rides.
So I'm pretty sure that I'm in the minority.
And that got me thinking.
Every couple of months a supercar manufacturer
like Ferrari, Bugatti or McLaren will announce
a new limited run variant with a price tag
in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
But then in that same announcement,
they'll also say that the car's already sold out.
How, how do you buy car before it's announced?
Is there some sort of shadowy billionaire car club?
Well, kinda.
I talked to supercar owners and exotic dealers alike
to find the truth.
(upbeat music)
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Did you say action or are we recording?
Sorry, I have my earbuds in.
Yeah, sorry, we'll go again.
This is Misha Mansoor.
If you like metal music,
you probably know he's a guitar god,
and you've probably heard of his band Periphery.
He also likes cars.
- I have a Lamborghini Huracan Performante
and I don't know if this counts
but I have a Porsche GT3 Touring as well.
- The easiest way into supercar ownership
and the avenue that's the most similar
to the normal car buying experience
is gonna be the used route.
- I like lightly used,
preferably certified pre-owned.
Yeah, any one of these cars,
unless it's like extremely limited
and you and I can't get it
is gonna lose a substantial amount of value.
And the most of it,
basically when you drive it off the lot.
That first year is gonna be particularly brutal
and then it does taper off.
- You don't have to be looking for a supercar
to apply that advice.
But what if you're a big time YouTuber turned,
I don't know amateur boxer and have the cash
to buy straight off the lot.
Is it that much different than a normal dealership?
Depending on the manufacturer, not really.
In fact, some brands like McLaren try to make it
as easy as possible because believe it or not,
they have some catching up to do.
- I've never actually bought a McLaren,
but I've come very close because I do love their offerings,
I do love their cars.
They're a very aggressive company.
Their business model is super interesting,
because they've been trying to create this sort of legacy
and this pedigree that these other companies
like Porsche and Ferrari have had for decades,
and they've done it in about a decade.
Like they haven't even been selling these production cars
for that long and they're already being spoken
in the same sentence as these other brands.
But the way they've done is by being super aggressive.
So anybody can buy a McLaren, they are aggressive.
They wanna make a deal and they're trying
to get you in their car.
I'd assume that when the terms have all been agreed upon
that everything from that point on is fairly similar.
- Even though McLaren's first road car
was the super exclusive F1 in 1992,
their extended absence in the supercar game
in the following years put them at a distinct disadvantage
to other manufacturers.
Their relaxed sales policy is actually really smart,
helping the British company close the gap
with their competition.
(buzzer ringing)
In Europe, McLaren has seen huge growth since 2011
when they came back on the scene with the MP4-12C,
a jump from 40 cars that debut year to nearly 1100 in 2019.
Their revenue in 2019 was up 18% compared
to the previous year as well.
When combined with their rising presence in motor sport,
McLaren's open door policy is obviously a great idea.
But how does the story change when a supercar manufacturer
also builds consumer cars that your uncle Bill would drive?
What kind of advantages does a company like Porsche
have over their supercar competition?
- So one of the big advantages of owning a Porsche
over those other brands is that if you're ever taking
your car in for service, you can likely get a loaner.
You can get like a Macan or a Cayenne,
a base car but it's still a nice car.
And it's little perks like that and sort of the fact
that they are a bit more grounded and normal,
their cars are a lot less exotic,
which in a lot of cases I think makes them
a more attractive brand,
at least from a practical point of view.
Not like I have a press car for a week,
but like I have to live with this thing.
And I think that their dealerships
are really awesome for that reason.
- So far buying a supercar doesn't seem that much different
than buying a regular old consumer car,
it's just a lot more expensive.
But there's one manufacturer that stands out, Ferrari.
(upbeat music)
Before the Performante, Misha owned a Ferrari 488.
I asked him to explain what sets that experience apart
from other cars he's owned.
- If you wanted to buy a brand new car from them,
they kinda want their clientele
to be passionate about Ferrari.
So oftentimes they would sort of encourage you
with maybe not the car that you want
or with buying some used cars.
And they kinda want you to have a relationship
with that dealership.
Ferrari's just one of those brands
and I think that's why they could play the game
the way that they do.
And then everyone else has to sort of dance around it.
- But I couldn't just take Misha's word for it.
I had to research this for myself.
(upbeat music)
Ferrari is unique when it comes to they do their business.
A typical car dealership will try to up sell you a car
that you didn't even come to see.
How many of you have gone to look at a used sports car
and then been shown a new crossover.
But according to a few articles I've read
and hearsay in the industry,
Ferrari will actually do the opposite.
You can be the biggest high role in the world
but if you've never bought a Ferrari before,
they'll only let you buy a used car in their inventory.
Like Misha said, Ferrari dealers do this
to really get a feel for the client
and suss out whether or not they're really
about that Ferrari lifestyle.
But why go through all that trouble
and potentially lose a customer?
The answer itself is simple
but opens up a much bigger conversation and that is demand.
(upbeat music)
Ferraris are truly limited production cars.
Ferrari produces about 8,400 cars a year.
To put that in perspective,
Honda produced just under 386,000 cars last year
making Ferrari's numbers look tiny.
But there are huge differences in how Ferrari
and Honda build their respective cars.
Ferrari tries to build
as much of the car by hand as possible,
which adds to the brands aura.
Handcrafted will never go out of style.
But this way of building things is much slower
and caps production in the process,
which can cause some customers to wait over
a year for their car.
Ferrari is not the car maker for those looking
for instant gratification.
In spite of the limited production,
there are still tons of people out there
who want a prancing course of their own
and are willing to wait for it.
So many in fact, that it becomes way easier
to understand why Ferrari and their dealers
can afford to be more discerning when it comes
to who gets to buy one.
So that begs the question who gets to buy one?
(dramatic music)
In an interview with Drive.com,
Ferrari Chief Marketing Officer,
Enrico Galliera revealed the process for getting
into the company's good graces.
Ferrari personnel set guidelines for every limited run model
with presumably more stringent demands for rarer cars
like their LaFerrari for example.
Not only do prospective customers need to have
an extended history with the brand,
including owning multiple Ferrari's
but the customer must maintain a relationship
with Maranello by attending events
like the Cavalcade Road Rallies,
where Ferrari's meetup in the hundreds and go for a drive.
Another way to curry favor with Ferrari
is a sign up for their exclusive racing school in Italy,
as well as attend high profile motor sports events
like WEC and Formula One races.
Basically, you're doing a lot of networking,
making sure the people that matter know your name
and I'll tell you right now there's no way
I'm approved to buy any Ferrari's.
They definitely know I'm in the wrong tax bracket.
Getting in Ferrari's good graces
goes beyond buying a few cars
and it's its own side hustle basically.
And the crazy thing is going above and beyond
to develop that relationship doesn't even guarantee you
a spot on their supposedly titled Preferred Owners List.
Ferrari won't publicly acknowledge
the existence of this policy,
but people who have tried and failed
to buy a prancing horse will tell you it's all too real.
I won't name any names out of respect
but plenty of Ferrari heads,
huge fans of the brand have checked all the boxes
and still came up short in Ferrari's eyes,
missing out on super limited cars like the Enzo,
the LaFerrari convertible and the SF90.
It's insane to me that even when it comes
to something as expensive as a Ferrari,
money can't buy you everything.
But I also kinda respect that as well.
In a world where high fashion brands
have become street wear with labels begging celebrities
and influencers to wear their clothes,
companies bending over backwards chasing clout,
Ferrari hasn't sold out.
If they don't like you they won't sell to you.
And honestly, I think that's pretty sick.
All right, say you do have a (beep) ton of money,
don't qualify to buy a Ferrari
but still want something exclusive and fast.
Luckily, there are a lot of options.
Pretty much every brand we mentioned earlier
has their own super exclusive limited run hypercar.
Porsche had the 918 Spyder,
McLaren's got God knows how many limited edition cars,
and Lamborghini has some seriously crazy stuff
in the oven like the cyan.
Then there are brands that deal exclusively
in hypercars like Koenigsegg and Pagani.
The difference between hypercars
and regular old supercars is that manufacturers
will not build a hypercar to have it sit on a lot
and wait for a buyer to walk in.
The building and buying process is much different.
Every manufacturer has their own process
but the steps usually the same as I'll now list.
If you wanna buy a car
like the Pagani Huayra or the Buggatti Chiron ,
you first approach a dealership near you
and tell them you're serious.
Now, remember they don't have new cars on the lot.
You're gonna have to wait awhile.
That's the first big difference.
Then you're gonna need to give the manufacturer
an allocation or security deposit
so they know you won't bail out.
Allocation just sounds so much fancier
than security deposit, doesn't it?
Next comes the fun part.
Specking the car out exactly how you want it.
This can be done remotely or you can fly out to Italy
or wherever your car is being built and tell them yourself.
If you purchase a Pagani,
you're gonna be sitting down with Horatio Pagani,
the guy who founded the company not service.
After you've picked out things like the paint,
stitching color, seat material,
and other options that make your car one of one,
it's time for it to be built.
This is the not so fun part.
hypercars can take anywhere between six months
and two years to be assembled
because they are being built by hand.
Something I think is really cool is that most manufacturers
will send you photo updates,
which makes it feel a lot more personal.
How many of you have given your project to a shop
and they've done the same thing, that's awesome.
Then finally, after months of waiting your car arrives
and you can finally take it for a spin.
Just kidding, you probably park it in the garage
and bring it out once a year.
But hey, it's your car, I won't judge.
So what about those hypercars you do see time to time
on a showroom floor maybe in like Beverly Hills or Miami.
Well, those are either customer cars
that the dealership is looking after or a used hypercar.
Like we talked about earlier,
the used route is the way to go if you missed out
on some super excited use the car like the Enzo or
Pagani Zonda but don't expect to bargain.
Pretty much every hypercar holds its value
or even gains it.
The car doesn't even have to be that expensive
for that to happen.
Factors like a global pandemic can do strange things
to the used sports car market.
COVID actually caused the factory
that built the C8 Corvette to shut down.
So if you had one before quarantine hit,
you can sell it for a profit
even if you put a thousand miles on it,
people wanted that car that bad.
Demand alone does tricky things in the market, COVID or not.
- So a lot of these companies now
if you are to buy a car brand new from them,
especially one of these special additions
or limited edition cars,
they'll sometimes have clauses on how you can sell them
and what you can do.
If you could sell it at a profit
or what happens with that profit.
There are a lot of companies
that don't really love the whole spec game that's going on,
like speculation on the values of these cars
where people will start to treat them more
like they're stocks and less as like
these driving experiences which is what they were engineered
over the course of many years to be.
So I understand the frustration
- These cars are super expensive
and are capable of truly amazing things.
But at the end of the day,
they usually don't get a chance to.
I don't feel discouraged
that I can't afford one of these things
because I'm willing to bet money.
I've had more fun in low car than any hypercar owner
who only brings out their cars once a year
to stunt on other rich guys.
These cars are status symbols for the most part.
Really cool status symbols but objects nonetheless
- What's up guys, welcome to my house.
I've got some huge news.
The Pop Up, Up and Down T-shirt was a huge success.
Not surprised it's the coolest shirt we've ever designed.
We worked really hard and hard work pays off.
We liked it so much that we decided
to carry it over to a hoodie.
Because if you think about it,
a hoodie is a Pop Up, up and down sweatshirt.
(dramatic music)
I'm really stoked about these.
I can't wait to get my hands on one, that's right.
It's so new I don't even have mine yet.
So go to JonahMedia.com, it's available now.
The T-shirts sold out super fast
and I guarantee the hood is gonna go just as fast.
Pop Up, Up and Down sweatshirt, donutmedia.com.
- A huge thank you for Misha Mansoor
for taking the time to talk with me.
Check out his band Periphery
and his businesses GetGood Drums and Horizon Devices
if you wanna sound like him.
Another huge thank you to Amber Blonigan.
for explaining the buying process for super exclusive cars.
You can follow her on Instagram @amber_blonigan,
her knowledge was a huge help.
So thank you very much Amber,
for taking the time to talk with me.
Build your car out, have fun with it.
Don't worry about these stupid expensive cars
that don't get driven anyway,
that's my tip for the end of the day.
Follow Donut on our social media, @DonutMedia.
Follow me @nolanjsykes.
Let me know what your fantasy hypercar
is down in the comments.
I would like a first gen, Pagani Zonda.
I still think that's the craziest looking car
that's ever been made.
Be kind, take care of each other.
See you next time.