Rumors of Ferrari building an entry-level sports car, patterned after the Dino 206 and 246 (pictured above), have floated around for years. Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne addressed those rumors in a recent call with analysts, and he essentially told everyone not to get their hopes up. Automotive News reports that Ferrari bosses are divided on whether selling a modern Dino would dilute the brand's exclusivity.

Marchionne said he's not sure whether Ferrari needs such a car to attract a younger customer base, noting the brand's "phenomenally young" customers in Asia who can already afford the cars. Rather than looking for customers at the lower end of the price scale, Marchionne wants to highlight what already makes Ferrari popular.

"We need to explore ways to attract customers to traditional values of the brand such as style, performance and engine sound before downgrading the entry level price for the brand," Marchionne said.

Hence why Marchionne and Ferrari are almost dead-set on building some sort of "utility vehicle," while an honest sports car is less of a certainty. Marchionne says decisions on either or both of these cars will be announced some time next year.

Citing "company insiders," Automotive News says that if it was produced, the Dino would cost around €150,000 ($176,000 USD) in Italy, around 20 percent cheaper than the most affordable Ferrari, the California T. The modern Dino would likely be V6-powered, like the original, bringing itself downmarket from Ferrari's current V8 and V12 offerings.

Marchionne has made it abundantly clear that he wants Ferrari to sell more than 10,000 cars per year, but he doesn't want to dilute the exclusivity of its sports and GT cars. As he stated during the company's IPO, Marchionne hopes to position Ferrari as a luxury brand, not strictly a hardcore sports car manufacturer. Hence the uncertainty over adding a more affordable sports car.

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