Many years ago, when I was Bureau Chief with United Press International in Santa Fe, the news cycle would predictably slow down during the summer months when the New Mexico Legislature was out of session and bureaucrats went back into hiding to lick their wounds inflicted by the lawmakers.
On top of that, many people were on vacation and people’s focus turned away from state government.
During those times I often wrote longer, more in-depth feature stories about interesting people, places or things in the state.
One summer, as I walked to the post office from my office at the state capitol building, I spotted a bright red (what else) Ferrari zipping around the federal building office building north of the historic Santa Fe plaza.
In New Mexico, Ferrari sightings were pretty unusual then and even now (except when I see some used models on the showroom floor of a car dealership that I visit on occasion).
The sighting prompted me to wonder how many of these magnificent Italian machines were registered in the state of New Mexico, and where were most of them domiciled. At that time, it was pretty easy to call the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department and drill down the call list to their statistical division and request a report on vehicle registration by type per county. So I wrote a feature story based on that easily obtained data.
Although I can’t recall the exact number of Ferraris in the state, I do recall being surprised when the number at that time was more than 100 (I think I remember it being more like 350, but that memory has long since faded.) And what was most surprising to me was the discovery that at least five of these 12-cylinder beasts were registered in Sierra County, home of Elephant Butte Lake and Truth or Consequences. I figured most would have been domiciled in Bernalillo or Santa Fe Counties, but I found them in such far flung places as Gallup and Clovis.
Fast forward to today. I decided to investigate the Ferrari population in our state at the current time and discovered… that’s it’s almost impossible to get that information.
I started with the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Department. After endless menu selections without a live human voice to respond, I was finally put on hold to listen to classical music. No one ever answered, although I was assured someone would call me back if I left a message. (“Good luck with that,” I thought. ) And none of the menu selections seemed to be pointing me in the direction of the information I sought.
The MVD is now under the auspices of the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, so I thought I would give that agency a call. I got another endless chain of menu selections sounding nothing like I was interested in.
It makes one wonder how you can ever get in touch with a real person in state government, except by driving to Santa Fe and boldly entering into an office and announcing you want to talk to a human. (I’ll hold off writing that blog until another time, however.)
So I decided to try another route. I asked Google “How many Ferrari cars are registered in New Mexico?” I found a site called “Statista,” which sounded Italian, but could not provide the information I needed. I also stumbled across a Ferrari owner’s club site, which had some interesting chats and questions from Land of Enchantment owners.
I found this breathless post:
“My f430 ships tomorrow from Ohio. Would be happy to talk cars or just visit. I am in High Desert NE Albuquerque above tramway.”
It was followed by this tragic response:
“Well you are surely luckier than me. The wind damaged our garage door, and the damaged door was nailed shut trapping my 360 inside. Thus, I am Ferrariless!
But nothing I found on the Ferrari owners website could point to how many Ferraris are in the state. I suspect that no one but me cares, but I am going to do my journalistic best to get to the bottom of this important issue, which I am sure will somehow influence the upcoming elections.
However, I did come across some other rather startling information regarding vehicle registrations in New Mexico: There were 1,783,151 vehicles registered in the state in 2020, including cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles. There were 2,117,000 residents in New Mexico, according to the 2020 Census, meaning that there was more than eight-tenths of a vehicle per person, including a whole bunch of people who weren’t even eligible to drive.
And, if you look at our roads and streets, you’ll surely guess this — there were almost twice as many trucks as there were cars on our roads. And I’m betting at least half of those trucks were Ford F-150s.
aero-cordero.com 