Ferrari's CEO Benedetto Vigna has announced that Ferrari will always build its cars in Maranello. And do you know what? He's absolutely right. Someone at a Reuters conference in New York had the audacity to ask whether Ferrari might consider moving production to America to dodge potential tariffs. This is a bit like asking the Pope if he'd consider relocating the Vatican to Las Vegas because the weather's better. Vigna's response was magnificently straightforward: "We will sell cars in the U.S., but we will make cars in Maranello." You could almost hear him adjusting his Italian suit and gesturing expressively while saying it. There was probably an espresso involved. This comes at a time when other manufacturers are playing musical chairs with their production facilities faster than a game of corporate Twister. Polestar's shuffling production to South Korea, Volvo's rushing to build cars in Belgium, and everyone's trying to figure out how to deal with various tariffs that seem to change more often than Italian governments. But Ferrari? Ferrari doesn't care about your tariffs. Ferrari doesn't need to care about your tariffs. When you're selling cars that cost more than a decent house and have waiting lists longer than the queue at a French post office, a few percentage points of import duty is about as relevant as the fuel economy figures. As Vigna pointed out, their order book is "pretty strong," which in Ferrari-speak probably means "laughably oversubscribed." When your customers are willing to wait years and pay massive markups just for the privilege of buying your car, you can afford to be a bit blasé about trade policies. And let's be honest - a Ferrari built anywhere other than Maranello wouldn't really be a Ferrari, would it? It would be like English breakfast tea made in Delaware, or French wine made in Cleveland. Some things are just wrong on a fundamental, almost spiritual level. The whole appeal of a Ferrari isn't just the speed or the noise or the way it looks - it's the fact that it was built in the same place where Enzo Ferrari himself used to walk around terrorizing his engineers. It's about the history, the heritage, and the fact that the local cafes probably have special coffee orders named after various Ferrari models. Even Bentley, which is about as British as afternoon tea, is owned by Germans. Lamborghini, Ferrari's arch-rival, is owned by a German company that also makes electric golf carts. And that is why "because it was built in Maranello" is a perfectly valid reason to spend the price of a house on a car. Though I suspect the only Italian they're interested in is the numbers in my bank balance.
