The Restrictions of Buying a Ferrari in the Fine Print

The Restrictions of Buying a Ferrari in the Fine Print

Do you want to own a Ferrari? Hello, this is Reinhard von Hennigs. And if the answer is yes, well maybe you want to drive a Ferrari. You don't want to own one, but if you want to own a Ferrari read the fine print. And no this is not just the lawyers’ talk as in reading as a fine print. It is the last talk to read the fine print because what's in, it may surprise you.

The fine print in the Ferrari contract as it's used in the United States, and I've seen this implemented in other parts of the world as well, is that there are multiple rules and restrictions as to what you can do with the car.

I'll highlight two. Number one, you cannot resell the Ferrari the first year after you bought it if you buy a new Ferrari directly from them, why? They want to make sure that you're not flipping the car, that you're not trying to buy a new car at the dealers' price, and then flip it because it's such a rare collection car and you want to make money out of that. 

So if you want to flip a car, don't get a brand new Ferrari from Ferrari. And number two, don't cover the logo. Ferrari issued a cease and desist letter to an artist who covered the whole Ferrari logo. And instead of the famous horse, put something different on it.

Ferrari was not amused about the wrapping of the car, but also about the logo is covered. So part of the cease and desist is that the wrapping did a cut-out. So where the logo is supposed to be, a logo was not visible, even though the wrapping was rather ugly. 

A few more things come to mind what you need to do. And I wonder if you're exporting the car. How does this work? I also wonder if you buy a car in a country where certain rules are different and certain rules are restrictive concerning general terms and conditions how this would play together. But my takeaway today is if you want to protect a brand, do it on all levels and make sure that your brand is adhered to even in the smallest fine print of your contract.

#398, April 2021, Ferrari, fine print, contracts, brand, logo.