Ferrari Might Hate It, But Manual Conversions Could Be Boosting Car Values

In July 2025, Evo reported a statement from Enrico Galliera, Ferrari's chief marketing and commercial officer. Asked during the Amalfi reveal whether Ferrari will build manual-transmission cars again, Galliera replied: "You missed it! The manual gearbox, we already have it, in many of our classic cars. You can go and drive our fantastic manual gearboxes on our fantastic events for our classic cars. Whoever wants to have this kind of classic experience, they can buy and restore our fantastic classics and come to our events."

In other words, if you want a prancing horse with a manual transmission, go buy an old one and stop bothering Ferrari about it. This seems to run counter to the news earlier in 2025 that Ferrari was considering bringing gated manuals back, though just for super-limited editions. 

Now, it would be unfathomable that Ferrari is unaware stick shift versions of older models command a serious premium — for instance, a manual F430 is worth twice what a flappy paddle F430 commands — and Ferrari certainly likes money. Perhaps the company has ignored these rising values. After all, what are people going to do, convert used Ferraris to gated shifters? Yes, that's exactly what's happened. Even then, Ferrari still hasn't budged, possibly because the converted cars have historically been worth the same or less than unmodified versions. 

Why care about this radar blip of a vocal minority ruining used cars? New customers demand the fastest, and dual clutches are the fastest. Well, the tide may be shifting as buyers are increasingly desiring engagement from their cars, not just speed. Even Formula One champ Lewis Hamilton wanted Ferrari to build him a new F40, gated manual and all.

In May 2023, Hagerty analyzed whether converted Ferraris were worth as much as, or more than, stock F1-gearbox versions, and found that the values were overall slightly less. It wasn't by much — the average difference was 9.4% — but it was still there. Hagerty tracked the sale of a 430 Scuderia, two 599 GTBs, and seven F430s, all converted. Just one of the 599s and one of the F430s sold above market value, and only then by 4.37% and 6.36% respectively. One of the F430s sold for 34.36% less than market value.

But heading over to Bring A Trailer nearly three years later shows such price disparities are heading the other way. Let's look at three of the most converted Ferraris on Bring A Trailer — the F430, the 575M, and the 599 GTB Fiorano (no special editions such as Scuderias or GTOs, though) — and compare average sale prices of stock F1 cars vs. manual converted cars in the U.S. as of January 2026: 

• Average for last 10 F1 F430s: $122,102
• Average for last 10 converted F430s: $151,969
• Average for last eight F1 599s: $194,812
• Average for last eight converted 599s: $209,700
• Average for last six F1 575Ms: $112,083
• Average for last six converted 575Ms: $149,833

It seems the brave early manual-swap adopters are winning the market over. People are even becoming conversion connoisseurs, as the first question asked about the added manual shifter is almost always whether it uses cables or rods, with rods being considered superior. Now, could this all be a statistical blip? Possibly; this is, admittedly, a small sample size. Though the 575M disparity is over $37,000 in favor of converted examples, it's only comparing the prices of 12 cars.

Porsche found out that customers were willing to pay through the nose for manual 911s, especially limited models such as GT3 Tourings. And the company didn't even have to design a new transmission for its standard 911s, as the manual gearbox in the 992 generation was actually a PDK dual-clutch underneath. Certainly Ferrari could engineer something akin to Porsche's "manually converted shift actuator," or MECOSA, the device that made manually shifting a PDK possible. Ferrari's dual-clutch gearbox is famously quick and can handle the brutal power of the 812 Superfast, so why not hook it up to a gated shifter and clutch pedal? 

When David Lee and Jay Leno cruise around in an F40 talking about how great it would be for Ferrari to make manuals again, this isn't two regular schmos jabber-jawing — they're respected members of the car community with clout and the cash to buy whatever they want. And it's folks like them who are willing to pay $786,000 at Sotheby's for a factory manual 599. 

Heck, people were willing to spend $100,000 or $200,000 on a Ferrari, then almost $85,000 for a manual conversion, back when that would negatively impact the value of the car. What will happen if that causes the cars to become significantly more valuable? Perhaps Ferrari will reverse course should potential customers start buying factory manual, and even "lesser" converted classics, to the exclusion of the company's future products. Ferrari is a publicly traded company that has to answer to stockholders, and if it's going to restrict what people really want to "classic cars," well, that's how companies become "classics" themselves.