Quote:
Originally Posted by S griffin
It seems the road cars were driven by a desire to compete in GT endurance racing. Certainly wasn’t their worst idea at the time at least, but I worry for those jobs in their road car sector, as no doubt the F1 team will probably be seen as more important
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I think Ron D was going for the Enzo Ferrari model of making road cars to fund racing and the racing to market the road cars to sell more cars and get more income to spend on more racing...
Ferrari of today is brilliant at marketing, they keep production below demand, they have a product range of not essentially similar versions of the same (ish) car and they have the special versions that they limit even further to key customers, so even hardended businessman feel grateful to Ferrari for allowing them to buy one of their cars.
You need good build quality and reliability, long gone are the days when this profile of buyer will accept a poor car or poor reliabilty.
Many supercars are sold on finance so the residuals are key to enabling your customer to move into the next model.
Possibly some or all of the above are allegdly where McLaren's Road cars problems sit. Even with the world as it is, the number of people who can afford supercars is tiny in the scheme of things, then factor in the number of those who want them and then it is smaller still.
Even on PCP finace you would proably have to put a deposit down equivalent to what some people earn in a year, with monthly payments of more than most people earn - and this is for a 3rd or 4th car aside from all their other commitments.
On another point, I read that a sale and leasback of the McLaren factory is one option being considered. Many struggling retailers and care home groups have tried this before, often they are disasterous and end up with the business losing their key assets and gaining a liability, which can become unaffordable.