Ferrari

Ferrari is an Italian automaker that is most known for its contributions to the racing world, however, they also have a consumer line of automobiles that are still great performance machines. When people hear the word Ferrari they automatically think of speed and bright flashy colors, such as red, which is still the most common color that Ferrari's can be found in. This is the reputation that Ferrari has spent years making and one that no amount of time has tarnished.

Ferrari was started by Enzo Ferrari in 1929. During this time, the company was all about sports racing, and they did have many wins under the belt. They were actually a division under Alfa Romeo, which meant that the two best racing automakers were working together, which could be why their cars could never be stopped by the competition. However, when Alfa Romeo was confiscated by the Fascist government, this left Ferrari out in the cold. The government did not consider the small company to be much of a problem, thus they let them go with the only stipulation that the car company could not produce any race cars or participate in any races for the next four years. This was the time that Ferrari set out to develop street legal performance cars for the general public.

The first public car was released in 1947 and was called the 125 S. The car was widely accepted by the public as being one of the best cutting edge performance cars that were available on the market. Despite this success and the excellent reputation that the company was building, Enzo Ferrari still did not like dealing with the public. Though, this did not affect the reputation of the company as whole. Ferrari continued to produce legal performance cars for the public, with such cars as the Ferrari F40, 250 Testa Rossa, as well as the Ferrari 166 Inter, the last of which still accounts for a huge percentage of sales that Ferrari makes today.

With the performance that all of Ferrari cars are known for, this has led many people to believe that Ferrari has no desire to compete in the hybrid or electric car movement. However, Ferrari has announced that they would be interested in creating a hybrid car, and they did reveal a concept of one at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show. However, they have said that it would be years, probably around 2015, before the consumer market saw such a car on the market from Ferrari.

Ferrari has not been known to have any financial hardship problems as many other automakers, however, many things concerning the Ferrari family are not known to the public. However, with the cost of Ferrari's and the amount of prestige that the cars have, financial problems do not seem likely for the company. Years ago, the company did plan to sell the company and even began negotiations with Ford. However, the deal fell through when the company discovered that in closing the deal with Ford that they would have to forfeit the right to race in the Indianapolis 500. This greatly upset Ford at the time and resulted in a few performance vehicles from Ford to compete with the company.