Here’s a recent text message:
How does the scam then work? I respond with “Sorry, but we ran out of SF90s last Wednesday” and… then what? How does this person (or robot?) end up with my not-very-hard-earned-and-certainly-undeserved Bidies?
Or maybe this SF90 shopper is legit. I took some pictures of a Ferrari SF90 (fewer than 2,000 produced?) in Fort Worth, Texas back in May 2024:
I can’t remember if I posted any on Twitter or Facebook.
Perhaps the sender assumed that because I’m committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion that, naturally, I would own a car made by a company that is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. (But, then, why would I want to sell a car that will remind me of DEI with every trip to Publix?)
From the Ferrari web site:
The photo of an all-white team seems to have been purged from the Ferrari site, but it was up long enough for X to capture when Ferrari proudly posted about their plan to discriminate by race, gender ID, etc.:
Meanwhile, let’s check on the rare collectible vehicle that we actually do own. Its value seems to be increasing. Received November 24, 2024:
Speaking of scams, here’s a recent invitation for me to become friends on Facebook. The account is owned by someone with the Arabic male name “Kareem” and the pictures are of a blonde:
And a Facebook comment exchange (original post is about San Francisco)….
You can tell its a scam because no real people are buying the Ferrari SF90, they are buying the 296 instead (just as fast, 1/2 the price). Dealers are sitting on 100+ never sold, 3 year old SF90s, now priced at 50% off their original MSRP, and still nobody is buying them.
Hmm… https://preowned.ferrari.com/en-US/r/north-america/used-ferrari/usa/sf90-stradale/rfcm?pl=4&z=year-desc seems to show quite a few for sale, often times with 100-400 miles on the odometer and yet officially “preowned”. The prices are $450k-700k, though, which doesn’t seem like a big discount.
Here’s one that isn’t from an authorized dealer and it is priced at $785,000! https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/2024-ferrari-sf90-spider-lake-park-fl-2811930
The MSRP back in 2022 was around $550k if you assume a few options (see https://www.caranddriver.com/ferrari/sf90-stradale-2022 ).
More to the point… if neither the person texting me nor I has a Ferrari SF90 or any other Ferrari, how do my Bidies end up in the other person’s hands?
Dealers were adding a “market adjustment” to the SF90 when it was introduced, pushing asking prices over $1M.
Aha! I forgot about the dealer scams. The enduring one seems to be “doc fee” or “paperwork fee” or something that is on top of the registration fee. I don’t know how it is legal for them to advertise cars and then add $1000 for doing stuff that used to be part of their regular business. If that’s legal why can’t they advertise that they will sell you a new Camry for $1 and then, by the way, there is a $40,000 doc fee?
I’ll see your Kareem and raise with my Ting.
https://nextdoor.com/profile/01fxsyn2Z2s6X8ZLs
In spite of the best efforts by Ferrari and others, there are currently no female Formula 1 drivers. There were a few in the past. It should be noted that weight is a significant factor in Formula 1 races, and women tend to be lighter than men (and advantage in aerobatic competitions also).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_Formula_One_drivers
Probably because these days, you need to be very strong, not merely light.
G-forces mean you need a thick neck to handle them and women tend to be less strong.
Even the male drivers of yesteryear were pretty weedy compared to todays.
Perhaps the Ferrari is a creative opening line for a pig butchering scam? As far as Kareem’s, seems like there will be a lot more of them in the West due to restart of the Syria war giving those folks a new asylum excuse.