Like many business relationships, that between carmakers and customers should be one of trust and respect. Automakers should make sure that they deliver a solid product as they cash the check, while customers should use the cars accordingly. Unfortunately, recent events prove that car companies can't be trusted. Volkswagen was caught cheating on their emission tests for diesel cars, while many other brands have admitted to lying about MPG figures for some vehicles. Mercedes and BMW have been accused of testing dirty diesel engines on monkies, and some reports claim that they used human volunteers as well. Now, it turns out that Ferrari can't be trusted either. Ferrari! An automaker that asks between hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars for its cars and has strict rules for potential customers.

I'm not saying that Ferrari should stick to the rules more than any other automaker out there, but it's massively ironic that Maranello cheated its clients. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, it has been revealed that Ferrari allowed its dealers to roll back odometers on used cars in the U.S., a move that inflates prices for used models artificially.

Greedy Much?

As with most scandals of this type, Ferrari tried really hard to keep it in the vault. They actually fired a longtime dealer from Florida for trying to unveil the odometer rollbacks. And then Maranello sent a memo to all dealers to halt the rollbacks. Fortunately for us, the said dealer sued Ferrari and the aforementioned memo made it to the lawsuit file and it's now available publicly. Funny how karma does it's thing all the time, huh?

Long story short, Ferrari knew that its dealers were using a device to roll back odometers in order to pump up resale value and did nothing to stop it. This is a big deal, and I find it amazing that such a high-profile manufacturer resorted to this type of scheme to increase the value of its cars. I mean really now, aren't Ferraris already pretty expensive, even on the used market? Isn't the brand big enough nowadays? It definitely is, but for some reason, Ferrari is too greedy to acknowledge that. And the fact that it has such strict purchase conditions makes it a much bigger deal. "Don't make a fool of yourself" should be a goal for all automakers, no matter how big.

Unfortunately, there is another issue here. While Ferrari admitted that it allowed dealers to roll back odometers, sometimes all the way back to zero, the market and the customers won't punish the Italian firm. Ferraris are too desireable for wealthy customers to boycott the cars. New or used, they will still buy them. And they will put up with these awful practices in order to own a Ferrari. It's the same reason why automakers are getting away with cheating devices and gassing monkeys and why the industry won't change in the future. Ferrari can no longer be trusted, but the force is strong with the Prancing Horse.

Well, have fun paying extra for rolled back odometers then!

But wait, I'm not done for today.

Seat's Confusing Marketing

Seat recently joined the automaker elite with its own performance brand. Yey! This is actually great news as the company's Cupra-badged models are pretty cool (despite the Leon Cupra being a rebodied version of the Golf GTI). By separating the Cupra as a stand-alone brand also means that we will see more Seat models with high-performance engines, including SUVs. Given that Volkswagen itself doesn't offer one yet, it's another good selling point in Seat's bag.

But there's an issue.

Apparently, the Spanish carmaker is still selling Cupra models with the "Seat" badge alongside the new ones from the independent Cupra division. And I'm not talking only about the existing Leon Cupra 300. Seat just launched a station wagon version of the Leon Cupra R at the same time it announced the brand-new models of the Cupra sub-brand. Well, someone at Seat must have gotten all this marketing stuff a bit wrong. It's like Mercedes would be selling a stand-alone Maybach model alongside the existing Mercedes-Maybach version. Or another AMG GT model but wihtout the Mercedes badge alonside the already available AMG GT lineup. Confused? Well, that's what Seat is doing right now. Or Seat and Cupra, it must be a collaborative effort of sorts.

Maybe the firm is trying to please customers that like the new "Cupra" badge and those that still want a "Seat" insignia on their cars. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Seat needs better marketing.

References

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