You would think that designing a car tailored to women would help drive more of a female customer base to the Ferrari brand but, apparently, that’s not true. At All. In a recent interview with Arabian Business Ferrari NV’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer said that designing cars for women is a “mistake,” but are we taking it out of context? Yeah; probably.

Ferrari Does Just Fine with the Lady’s, Apparently

When the Ferrari Roma was introduced, it’s whole purpose was to cater to those that want something that’s more toned down, less aggressive. And, the Ferrari Roma completes that task with ease, and maybe it will be more appealing to women, but it’s not a “woman’s car” by any means. In fact, Ferrari will probably never design a car catered directly to women and, while some of the reasoning makes sense, it also boils down to the fact that it would push male buyers away at the same time.

“If you create a female car in the sports car – I’m not talking about a general car, maybe that’s different – but in the sports world if I create a Ferrari which is a little bit less powerful and aggressive, then all the males will not buy it. They will not buy a female car. And the females won’t buy it because why should they be discriminated ? Why should they have a less powerful car?” Galliera said.

The irony in that statement is that he is kind of discriminating against women by assuming they wouldn’t want a car catered to them, but we’ll leave that conversation for another day. Instead, we’ll focus on something that makes a little more sense, and that is the fact that the women that do buy from Ferrari want a full-blown sports car. Maybe the Roma will attract a few more because it’s more “elegant” and “luxurious” but, at the end of the day, women – in general – like the same type of Ferraris that men like.

“A female that wants a sports car wants to drive a sports car… The mistake that automotive do and that we’re trying not to do is design a car for ladies. I design a car that delivers emotion then male and female have exactly the same need,”

The fact of the matter is that Ferrari isn’t hurting when it comes to female buyers. The company puts its faith in the various “couples activities” that it offers around the world. And, because of this, the brand is apparently seeing more women buying its cars – without the need to offer a specific pink paint or model tailored to women.

“All the activities we do all over the world… they are done in a way where you can enjoy the environment, have nice food, nice restaurants, these kinds of stuff so that now we have the companion pushing to come to the event and this is reducing the distance between Ferrari and the segment…”

Final Thoughts

I know some of the more liberal population is probably going to be a little upset, but I have a funny feeling that those that are upset aren’t buying Ferrari anyway. In all honesty, Ferrari really does seem to have it figured out, and, at least to some extent, a less-powerful model aimed toward women probably would hurt the brand image as a whole. With that in mind, models like the Roma really do fill the gap between the sexes and why can’t a woman drive a 488 Pista or F8 Tributo. A woman that’s not afraid of a high-end exotic is an attractive woman, don’t you think?