One of the side effects of the worst economic downturn in many decades has been a weak U.S. dollar. As the dollar has declined over the last 18 months, the asking prices of American-based collector cars suddenly look like bargains, at least when compared to asking prices in Europe. There […]
Author: Michael Sheehan
Michael is a Ferrari historian and broker with over three decades in the business. He operated a 30-man Ferrari crash repair and restoration shop for over two decades. He has a passion for racing and has competed in the Mazda Pro Series, Trans-Am, IMSA GTO, and IMSA Camel Lite, and has three drives in the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring. His regular column, “Sheehan Speaks,” has been a part of SCM since 1993, and this month, on p. 38, he takes us to a Brunei prince’s compound that holds hundreds of decaying, melting exotic sports cars.
Chasing the Market Down
These days, the state of the market is the focal point of almost every conversation, whether you are talking to a buyer, a seller, or another dealer. The good news is that prices of old Ferraris have started to recover, but those of newer cars haven’t and never will. They […]
Death of a Dynasty
A three-billion-dollar car business, a garage full of collectible vintage Ferraris, including a 250 GTO, and franchises strung across Europe like stars in Orion’s Belt. This impressive empire was 100 years in the making-but in the last three years, it has come completely apart. Frits Kroymans is the Ferrari and […]
Personalized Road Jewelry
Today’s vintage and collectible Ferrari buyers are usually male Baby Boomers in their late 50s or early 60s who have owned many cars, from Alfa to Zagato, over many decades. They can have one to a dozen or more collector cars, and their Ferraris are usually the top of the […]
Defining the Pre-Purchase Inspection
Last month’s column detailed a threatened $182,000 lawsuit against a Ferrari shop because of decades-old damage to a 37-year-old car, which was discovered but not mentioned to the would-be buyer during a $300 pre-purchase inspection. The many lawyers I spoke with all declared that any claim against the shop would […]
Pre-Purchase Ferrari Inspection Becomes $182k Lawsuit
In November 2005, I wrote a column entitled “The Punch of Deferred C/4 Maintenance… And How I Leaned Into It,” regarding a 365 GTC/4, s/n 14965, that we had sold to Hawaii and bought back 21 years later. This C/4 was a poster child for deferred maintenance, and we paid […]
Cautious Buyers Raising the Bar
As readers of SCM know, my day job is finding new homes for old Ferraris. Over the many years I’ve been involved with the market, I’ve seen it undergo several permutations. Now, the digital revolution has really hit the market full force, and it’s changing the ways cars are marketed-not […]
The New Reality
The inspiration for this column occurred in March, when I returned from lunch to find an email from a Lusso owner who wanted us to sell his car and net himself $700,000-about $200,000 over the retail price for his Lusso in today’s market. The very next email was from a […]
Ferrari: The Myth of Low Miles
Columns beget further columns, and my June story, “When 25 Miles Doesn’t Matter,” which dealt with an Enzo that had crossed the magic 1,000-mile mark, resulted in a flurry of emails regarding the desirability vs. the perils of ultra-low-mile Ferraris. I’m amazed at how many would-be Ferrari buyers have an […]
The Lambo Dealer, the $12m Swindle, the Slammer
In early November 2008, I received multiple early morning phone calls and emails telling me that Lamborghini of Orange County had just closed its doors. My first thought was how could the largest Lamborghini dealership in the world possibly go broke? My second thought was, why had it taken so […]