Welcome to our new segment WeTALK.
In this segment we talk about the automotive industry, the trends, the fun & dangerous and our opinion on current market trends.
We start of with a market trend that I have been seeing over the last couple of years.
That's being the insanity of the Supercar and Hypercar prices in current days! I am going to explain why, but this also goes for cars like the BMW M5, Audi RS6, AMG etc. These cars just a couple of years ago were around EUR 155.000 new, and now are EUR 250.000.
I will focus on Supercars and the current Hypercars, as a showcase.
When I grew up the ultimate Supercar was the Ferrari F40. It has been a poster boy car of mine and the standard in the classic car prices.
Ferrari built 1,315 examples from 1987 to 1992, with approximately 211 U.S. spec cars coming stateside starting in early 1990. The list price was USD 400.000.
In my opinion when the market is doing great, the F40 is over USD/EUR 1 Million, if the market is down the F40 dips below the 1 Million price. So an easy price point to remember how the current market is.
A quick search shows that the cheapest Ferrari F40 now on Mobile.de is: EUR/USD 950.000
With the most expensive being: EUR/USD 1.380.000
In this article I would like to compare the ultimate car in the 90's (being the Ferrari F40), to the ultimate car you can buy now.
To do this we must take into consideration that inflation and prices have changed significantly over the last 30 years. I am not comparing performance because when these car came out, they were the ultimate cars in performance, like in today's hypercar world.
So to compare these cars with each other on pricing, we have to look what the price in 1990 would be in 2020, and what the average income would be. Fortunately we can take the statistics which already calculate the average income in 1990 to 2020 standards.
The average income in the US to 2020 standards would be: USD 54.621.
USD 400.000 in 1990 would be the equivalent of $789.946 in 2020.
So looking at the current price the Ferrari F40 is inflated with around = ((950.000+1.350.000)/2) / 789.946 x 100% = 145.58%.
So now we can compare the income with the equivalent new price being a factor: 14.46.
After the F40 we saw another trio of great Supercar/ Hypercars in 2002/2004, being the Ferrari Enzo, The Porsche Carrera GT and the Mercedes McLaren SLR.
Let's compare new Prices:
- McLaren SLR: USD 495.000 ---> 2020 EQ: USD 676.373
- Porsche Carrera GT: USD 448.000 ---> 2020 EQ: USD 612.152
- Ferrari Enzo: USD 659.330 ---> 2020 EQ: USD 900.915
Second hand prices Mobile.de:
- McLaren SLR: 200.000 - 600.000
- Porsche Carrera GT: 450.000 - 950.000
- Ferrari Enzo: 1.900.000 - 3.500.000
Average Income in 2004, EQ in 2020: USD 57.674
Factor (New price EQ 2020 / Average income):
- McLaren SLR: 11.73
- Porsche Carrera GT: 10.61
- Ferrari Enzo: 15.62
Over-Inflation (Average second hand price / new price EQ 2020):
- McLaren SLR: - 34.66%
- Porsche Carrera GT: 114.35%
- Ferrari Enzo: 300%
No surprise but the Ferrari Enzo was the highest appreciated Supercar of the three. While the McLaren SLR now is cheaper than the new list price.
We could argue that the Porsche Carrera GT, would be a good investment if it receives the cult status is deserves. While seeing a Ferrari Enzo is even more rare, the Porsche Carrera GT is a rare sight to see. In our experience the Ferrari Enzo and Carrera GT are not far off in experience and rarity.
Also looking at the factor, the only car that was a lot more than the Ferrari F40 was the Ferrari Enzo.
In 2013 we saw another Supercar trio, now called a hypercar trio being the Ferrari LaFerrari, the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 Spyder.
Taking hybrid engineering from the F1 straight into these supercars, made them the first hypercars.
The Ferrari had the massive V12 sounding and looking great. Our favorite in real life.
The Porsche had a very smart light V8 and four wheel drive. In real life, it looks a bit understated but sounding a lot better than expected.
The McLaren P1 is a tough car to judge. It doesn't sound that great, but it looks and drives like an animal. For me it really comes down on the spec and color of the car.
For completeness I do want to mention the Bugatti Veyron. A Technological master piece, with its W12 Quad Turbo engine, being the first production car to drive over 400 KP/H. However for comparison reasons, I am not including it in this face-off.
Let's compare new Prices:
- McLaren P1: USD 1.150.000 ---> 2020 EQ: USD 1.274.193
- Porsche 918 Spyder: USD 845.000 ---> 2020 EQ: USD 936.255
- Ferrari LaFerrari: USD 1.416.362 ---> 2020 EQ: USD 1.569.331
Second hand prices Mobile.de:
- McLaren P1: 1.200.000 - 1.900.000
- Porsche 918 Spyder: 915.000 - 1.500.000
- Ferrari LaFerrari: 2.000.000 - 3.100.000
Average Income in 2013, EQ in 2020: USD 56.479
Factor (New price EQ 2020 / Average income):
- McLaren P1: 22.56
- Porsche 918 Spyder: 16.58
- Ferrari LaFerrari: 27.79
Over-Inflation (Average second hand price / new price EQ 2020):
- McLaren P1: 121.65%
- Porsche 918 Spyder: 128,97%
- Ferrari LaFerrari: 162.49%
As you can see the Ferrari LaFerrari again is the king of the appreciating Hypercars.
But looking at the factor and the over-inflation, the Porsche 918 was a bit of a bargain.
However, we can already clearly see a massive rise in the factor (Price/Income) with the Porsche 918 being 1.14 more than the F40 and the Ferrari LaFerrari being almost twice as more expensive and thus more unreachable.
After the much loved Hypercar trio's is seems that the market exploded and with Pagani and Koenigsegg pumping out new hypercar models, all manufactures, new or old seemed like they could charge whatever they want.
The Koenigsegg Agera R: > USD 2.100.000
Pagani Huayra: > USD 1.400.000
Approx. Average Income in 2020: USD 64.000
Let me explain with just a few cars announced during the Geneva 2020 motorshow:
- Koenigsegg Jesko: >USD 3.000.000
- Koenigsegg Gemera: USD 1.700.000
- Bugatti Chiron Sport: USD 3.400.000
- Rimac C_two: USD 2.100.000
- Aston Martin Valkyrie: USD 3.250.000
- Pagani Huayra Imola: USD 5.400.000
- Pininfarina Battista: > USD 2.100.000
Factor:
- Koenigsegg Jesko: 46.875
- Koenigsegg Gemera: 26.56
- Bugatti Chiron Sport: 53.12
- Rimac C_two: 32.81
- Aston Martin Valkyrie: 50.78
- Pagani Huayra Imola: 84.38
- Pininfarina Battista: 32.81
So I was expecting the numbers to show that the current Hypercars are even more unreachable than back in 1990. But this difference, is insane.
The Pagani Huayra Imola is almost 6 times more unreachable than the F40 :(((
For the equivalent price of Ferrari F40 you are now no-where-near the price of a current Hypercar.
It feels sad that only the ultra rich can now enjoy a Hypercar. While in the 90's a millionaire was the standard, you now need to have hundreds of millions or even billions to buy a Hypercar.
The sight of ever making a Million USD is something you might be able to envision, by working hard, working smart and having low costs you could achieve this level with a bit of luck and dedication.
However in the current market, this would not get you your "Ferrari F40" Dreamcar.
I think I will stick with my poster-boy car, the Ferrari F40!
What is your thought on this and which car would you buy if you could?
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