It has to rank among the most shocking vehicle trade-ins in automotive history: a Florida Ineos dealership took in a Ferrari F40 in exchange for an Ineos Grenadier Station Wagon. The buyer walked away with a new Ineos and a seven-figure check, according to Newsweek — but he left behind one of the most iconic supercars ever built.
The deal went down at a Florida Ineos dealership. A spokesperson from Ineos Automotive confirmed to Road & Track that the owner of the F40 walked into the dealership and requested that he trade his supercar on an SUV. The salesperson—quite possibly assuming this to be something from the automotive equivalent of Impractical Jokers—in turn spoke to the dealer principal.
George Ratcliffe, president of the Americas at Ineos Automotive, told Newsweek that the dealer principal said to the salesperson, “You've got to get it and get out of it. So, he wrote a check for $2.4 million.” The next day, the dealer reportedly sold the car for $2.5 million.(Ineos confirmed the timeline to R&T, but only described the difference between buying and selling prices as "a slight profit.")
Sadly, we don't have much information at this time regarding what prompted the man to make this unusual trade, other than that the Newsweek story says he will be using it "on his farm." Was he strapped for cash? Was the raw, analog F40 just too much to handle? We don’t know. But we do know that he just traded in one of the most revered cars in history. For a boxy SUV inspired by the original Land Rover Defender.
Roughly 1300 Ferrari F40s were built from 1987 to 1992—about triple the amount that Ferrari originally planned to build. But despite the relatively high production volume, the F40 typically sells for between $2 million and $4 million these days. The value comes from the fact that these 200-mph rockets are generally seen as the last true analog supercars... and this one was traded for a vehicle with a top speed of 99 mph.
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