Ferrari-Maserati open fourth Canadian store
Jean Todt, the director of Ferrari's amazingly successful F1 team, got to show off both of his unsmiling corporate faces during a recent visit to Canada.
First and most famously, he was on hand to watch the one-two finish of Ferrari's cars in the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
The next day, as part of his new role as director of the Ferrari arm of the Ferrari-Maserati Group, Todt traveled to Toronto to preside over the opening of Canada's fourth Ferrari-Maserati dealership. That would be Ferrari-Maserati Toronto, which is on Avenue Road just north of Bloor Street and the toney Yorkville district.
The six-vehicle, no-service showroom run by Remo Ferri joins dealerships in Montreal, Vancouver and suburban Toronto.
Todt's racing credentials helped to draw a fairly large crowd of sports and automotive media, which is exactly what was expected as the company tries to expand its presence across the country.
In particular, the company is hoping to re-establish the Maserati name across the country, but they knew that bringing in the man who directs that brand (ex-Ford executive Martin Leach) would not draw the same media attention.
They need the bigger and better spin that Todt was able to put on events because this expansion across Canada comes at a time when other companies are hoping to do the same thing.
Lots of companies are hoping to sell more luxury cars, because that's where the big profits are. As proof of that, consider that Porsche only sells about 75,000 units a year around the world but is still the most profitable car company.
Along with new models from Ferrari and Maserati, other companies trying to crack the big-ticket luxury market include Audi, Cadillac and Lexus, and there will be more models from many familiar ultra-luxury companies.
Indeed, there is a case to be made that there will soon be too many big-ticket vehicles on the market, and they point to the failure of the VW Phaeton as proof of that.
Given Ferrari's ongoing success in F1 and its status as the only pure sportscar company left in the world, there seems little to worry about there.
For its part, Maserati has only to worry about the few people who were unfortunate enough to have anything to do with the brand when it was last available here. Since then, the firm has gone through considerable ownership struggles, finally to come out as part of the huge Fiat empire in Italy.
In recent years, under the general control of Luca di Montezemolo, Maserati and Ferrari have created a relationship that allows them to share a lot of things behind the scenes and even lots of stuff under the sheet metal, but still stay far enough apart to appeal to two kinds of rich buyers.