Japanese Car Auction Finds: Ferrari California

I’m not quite sure where Ferrari is heading. While they are making some truly great, focused sports cars like the 458 Italia and 599 GTO, on the other hand they also seem to be diluting the brand with models like the 4WD hatchback-style Ferrari FF, and this “soft” Ferrari – the California.

The front of the car looks quite similar to the Maserati Gran Turismo I found in the auctions earlier this month, and that is interesting since it seems that this California model was apparently originally started as a concept for Maserati. With its folding metal roof, it was deemed to be beyond the Maserati price-point, and so Ferrari got to stick its badge on it to justify the price.

This 2009 model must be one of the first ones imported into Japan. A quick price search shows that cleaner examples than this one (grade 6 rather than 4.5) sell for about 18.5 million Yen.

(c) Integrity Exports Co. Ltd. – Japan car auction buyer and exporter.