New Auckland Ferrari showroom opens as luxury car sales boom

A $1.6m Ferrari F40. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

A new Ferrari showroom is opening in Auckland today and the local boss of the brand says there is a record number of Kiwis waiting for the high-performance cars.

The new Ferrari showroom, Continental Cars Ferrari, opened on Manukau Rd in Epsom today.

The 450 square metre space will display the new 488 Spider, California T "Handling Speciale" and F12berlinetta, alongside the classic 1966 330 GT 2+2.

Ferrari Australasia chief executive Herbert Appleroth said there was a record waiting list for Ferraris in New Zealand.

"We're very much expanding in New Zealand because it's a significant market but it's also a great growth market for Ferrari. We're finding quite high levels of consumer confidence - the economy is going quite well compared to other markets, and there's just a level of confidence among our owners that things are good and it's obviously spurring a level of demand that we've never seen before."

He said Ferrari sales were closely aligned to certain economic indicators.

"Things like the stockmarket is a very strong indicator for us, property prices is another. So not so much the normal New Zealand economic data - GDP growth and unemployment - it's more to do with confidence and that's driven by the investment portfolios of our clients."

The Ferraris in the new Auckland showroom are not actually for sale, with each vehicle sold being tailor-made to the buyer's specifications. It usually took one to two years for a completed Ferrari to be delivered to its new owner.

He said Ferraris start at about $375,000 for the California T, going up to about $800,000 for the F12tdf.

Figures provided by the Motor Industry Association (MIA) show that 8647 luxury vehicles - which includes brands like Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Porsche and Maserati - have sold in the year to date. MIA estimates that close to 9500 will sell by year's end, compared with 8679 last year.

The number of luxury car sales has nearly doubled since 2010 when 4429 were sold, and has continually increased year-on-year since then.

Already in the year to November, 23 Ferraris have sold compared to 19 in 2015, 36 Bentleys compared to 30 last year, 439 Porsches compared to 444 last year, 22 Lamborghinis compared to 12 last year, and 339 Jaguars compared to 175 in 2015.

MIA president David Crawford said the sale of luxury vehicles was a good indicator of an economy's strength.

"Luxury vehicles were the first to decline when we entered into the Global Financial Crisis and they were the first to climb out, so we tend to treat them as a lead indicator of how well the economy is doing.

"The sorts of people who buy them tend to be well attuned to how the economy's doing and they've obviously got some discretionary money to spend. So the figures are quite good and show there's a feeling of buoyancy."

The vehicles on the list cost upwards of $70,000 and many fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"We sold a lot of Aston Martins in '15, not as many this year. Bentleys are up, Ferraris are up, Lamborghinis are forecast to double and McLarens, we sold nine in 2015 and we've already sold 24 in the year to date," Crawford said. "The price of the McLarens, you're paying $200,000 - $300,000 and up so those 24 cars represent a lot of money."

See the full list of vehicle sales below