Blacklist Suggestion: Ferrari Should Resume Sales to the Kardashians and Cut off Actual Warlords
Yes, Ferrari has a blacklist. And it has allegedly banned many celebrities for absurd reasons.
50 Cent posted a picture of his non-running Ferrari “lemon” getting towed and got banned. Deadmau5 modified his Ferrari with a wrap that the Italian automaker didn’t like. So he’s banned. Justin Bieber forgot where he parked his Ferrari and left it in valet for three weeks. Banned. Kim and the entire Kardashian clan are banned from buying special edition Ferraris because the company heard they don’t do a good job taking care of their cars. Meanwhile, actual warlords have bought brand new Ferrari special editions. You can’t make this nonsense up.
Teodoro Nguema is a dictator of the African country of Equatorial Guinea with a famous love for supercars. When the U.S. DoJ levied an embezzlement charge against Nguema, he auctioned off many supercars to pay the fines.
Ferraris that hit the Bonhams auction block that day included a front-engine Ferrari F12td Berlinetta with 430 miles and a Ferrari Enzo with just 13 miles. That’s right, he had an Enzo.
Obviously, Ferrari can’t control who buys a used car. In fact, it tries. If you want to sell your newish Ferrari, the automaker asks that you let it make an offer before listing it publicly. But if you have the cash for an older model, there’s not much Ferrari can do about that.
And obviously, some dictators and warlords have ways of getting around sanctions. For example, there are sanctions against North Korea that most luxury automakers honor. But “Supreme Leader” Kim Jong Un still rolls in a convoy of new Maybach and Rolls-Royce limousines. He apparently has a small network of buyers in other countries that ship him things. You know, things like ICBMs and Mercedes sedans.
But an Enzo with 13 miles is not something you just pick up at a used car dealership. In fact, Ferrari only made 400 of these supercars. It was supposedly very selective about who could buy them. But it seems it was too focused on assuring Enzo buyers already had prestigious enough collections to worry where their money came from. Other Enzo buyers include members of the Emirate royal family, Kuwaiti royal family, Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov, and Swedish crime kingpin Stefan Eriksson who famously wrecked his Enzo in California.
That said, Enzo came out twenty years ago. Recently, Ferrari has said it honors sanctions. After Russia invaded Ukraine, it suspended business in Russia. It also donated a million Euros to aid Ukrainians in need.
But if Ferrari is going to have a much-talked-about blacklist, it can use this publicity to change its image. I mean, Saddam Hussein and his sons famously loved their Ferraris. And that’s not great press.
So Ferrari, why don’t you take advantage of the swirling rumors about your blacklist? Publish an actual blacklist of automotive enthusiasts that you won’t sell a new car to because of the unethical ways they made their money.
Next, find out why Jay Leno compares Ferraris’ customer service to a ‘Dominatrix.‘ or learn more about Ferrari’s celebrity blacklist in the video below:
