Anyone here owned a Ferrari...

[pfn]

If so what was your experience, maintenance, cost of ownership, problems, fun? Would you own another?

[Newbie777]

1 hour ago, pfn said:

If so what was your experience, maintenance, cost of ownership, problems, fun? Would you own another?

No I haven't but they give  4 to 5mpg and need very regular maintennace

[DavidCM]

Not owned one directly but my brother in law and cousin have both owned Ferraris,but only for a short time and were fairly quickly offloaded.They both had owned (and subsequently continued to own ) multiple high end marques.Both warned me about high running costs,commensurate with the purchase price of the likes of Porsche,Aston Martin etc.

Modern/recent Ferraris all come with  service package included in the purchase price.That should give some short term costing certainty.

[GMB]

 

 

10 hours ago, DavidCM said:

Modern/recent Ferraris all come with  service package included in the purchase price. That should give some short term costing certainty

Just as well based on this info:      (expect nearer to the £5K mark).

A major service, performed at specific intervals, includes thorough checks and replacements of various components. The cost can vary based on the age and model of the Ferrari. It could range from £1,500 to £5,000 or more

And I thought £800 for an IsF full service was expensive.

[Newbie777]

My thought, with a ferrari, you need a garage, a trickle charger when you are not driving it. if  you need any parts or work, it's mainly ferrari. I would budget £10k maintennace per year.

Obviously if you are getting new or a couple years old then am sure there will be some maintenance/ servicing package and warranty. But you still would need to budget min £5k for tyres, clutch etc etc.

I own a Bentley Continental GT and it is very expensive to maintain, but there are specialist garages that help. So not the same.

In terms of fun, well...

[rayaans]

My mate has a Ferrari F8 from new. No issues with it so far but minimal mileage and it does spend most of its time in the garage / trickle charger with regular detailing.

Bit of a pain to drive apparently as scrapes bumps if not taken side on and roads are too narrow for it most of the time.

[GMB]

1 hour ago, Newbie777 said:

I own a Bentley Continental GT and it is very expensive to maintain, but there are specialist garages that help. So not the same.

I would take the Bentley any time against a Ferrari. Maybe I appreciate the finer things and comfort as I get older.☺️

[Boomer54]

I think this issue is like many other of a similar nature. For example, you just won a property worth a couple of million in a lottery. For many they will sell within a year ,because they don't have the income to maintain it.  In other words 'buying' it is where it starts. You might for some reason have the capital (may be a relative died leaving you a wedge), but if you don't have a commensurate amount of income you should just move on.

Before I bought the SC 430 I looked at some Maserati of a similar age. Took  almost no time to work out the maintenance costs were going to be beyond what I wanted to spend on this particular indulgence. Guess it's an Italian thing , great flair, shame about the practical aspects of owning the flair. Hence, long live Lexus !

[Newbie777]

1 hour ago, GMB said:

I would take the Bentley any time against a Ferrari. Maybe I appreciate the finer things and comfort as I get older.☺️

I like the Bentley Interior and design, but it's a big (slightly fast) barge and not a supercar which the Ferrari is.

However, if you want to go in any weather to Europe and back ( and afford huge fuel cost) then I would say the Bentley anytime.

People say its not the money but the experience, the thrill of driving Ferrari (only around a track,a few times) for me was priceless

[Newbie777]

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

I think this issue is like many other of a similar nature. For example, you just won a property worth a couple of million in a lottery. For many they will sell within a year ,because they don't have the income to maintain it.  In other words 'buying' it is where it starts. You might for some reason have the capital (may be a relative died leaving you a wedge), but if you don't have a commensurate amount of income you should just move on.

Before I bought the SC 430 I looked at some Maserati of a similar age. Took  almost no time to work out the maintenance costs were going to be beyond what I wanted to spend on this particular indulgence. Guess it's an Italian thing , great flair, shame about the practical aspects of owning the flair. Hence, long live Lexus !

Buying the  Lexus over an Italian exotic car? Lexus is the right choice. Just imagine days of grief trying to run around for parts etc. I bet you are smiling eveyday with the Lexus

 

[Rabbers]

I’ve never owned one but know quite a few people who have.  Leaving aside whether you can afford to buy, tax and insure one in the first place, you could, if you lived in Italy and preferably within a 100km radius of the Maranello factory near Modena, quite easily find independent garages or individual mechanics capable of properly servicing and generally maintaining your Ferrari with reasonable charges for labour.  The sting is in the mechanical and body spare parts, which are almost all model-specific and so mind-bogglingly costly as make Lexus appear cheap. The same goes for Lamborghini.

[Boomer54]

3 hours ago, Newbie777 said:

Buying the  Lexus over an Italian exotic car? Lexus is the right choice. Just imagine days of grief trying to run around for parts etc. I bet you are smiling eveyday with the Lexus

 

Mate, you really cannot know how happy I am to have not just a SC 430 ,but this particular one. Every time I read a new owner fixing something ,or other on their new toy I go how lucky am I , buy , drive and only a new Battery required which I had been informed about beforehand. There really is no substitute for buying from a real, straight up enthusiast who has not been afraid to spend the money to do the necessary. Save me from one's that basically cannot really afford to run what they bought, because for sure as a buyer you will end up paying for everything they did not do.

[Newbie777]

7 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

Mate, you really cannot know how happy I am to have not just a SC 430 ,but this particular one. Every time I read a new owner fixing something ,or other on their new toy I go how lucky am I , buy , drive and only a new battery required which I had been informed about beforehand. There really is no substitute for buying from a real, straight up enthusiast who has not been afraid to spend the money to do the necessary. Save me from one's that basically cannot really afford to run what they bought, because for sure as a buyer you will end up paying for everything they did not do.

Excellent. I understand really, I have had my LS600hl  for 3 months and was determined to see faults, nope. A 13 year old car and everything works.

The Bentley is a money pit just spent £300 on a new Battery, list goes on an on. The previous also spent money on the car including £1600 for major service. The only good bit is if you run these cars daily then they are more reliable.

[Tech Dude]

I have a RX450H daily driver and up until recently I owned a Ferrari F355 Spider F1 for 6 years. I typically did around 5,000 miles per year in my F355, servicing costs were reasonable at an average of £2-3000 per year depending on the service required. I had it serviced at both a Ferrari Main Dealer (the excellent Meridian in Lyndhurst), and a Ferrari specialist (the excellent Bob Houghton in Northleach), costs were similar in both cases and always reasonable given the incredible performance of the car (380 bhp at 8,500 RPM from a 3.5 litre V8).  The F355 sounded like nothing else on the road, on a standard exhaust system it growled up to about 4,000 rpm, above that it gradually turned into a shrieking wail at 8,000 rpm, utterly addictive and life affirming. I used it regularly, including for trips to Le Mans and Italy, Ferrari's definitely benefit from not being left unused for periods of time. It was always kept garaged and on a trickle charger, another sensible precaution against electrical issues developing. I have little idea what the fuel consumption was, as that it not why one buys a Ferrari, however it must have been reasonable as I regularly got approx 300 miles to a 60 litre tank of unleaded. The Ferrari main dealer customer service experience makes Lexus dealers look like back street dodgy car dealers, nothing was too much trouble. The only mechanical issue I ever had in 6 years of Ferrari ownership was a failed thermostat when touring in Italy. It was July and all the Italian Ferrari dealers were closed for the summer holidays. I rang Meridien in Lyndhurst and they couriered a replacement thermostat out to my hotel overnight, it arrived at 9am the next morning and they did not even charge me for the thermostat or the courier service, now THAT is customer service. I only sold it because I retired from a corporate job and felt it hard to justify the costs on a healthy private pension....I miss it every day!

[Boomer54]

13 minutes ago, Tech Dude said:

I have a RX450H daily driver and up until recently I owned a Ferrari F355 Spider F1 for 6 years. I typically did around 5,000 miles per year in my F355, servicing costs were reasonable at an average of £2-3000 per year depending on the service required. I had it serviced at both a Ferrari Main Dealer (the excellent Meridian in Lyndhurst), and a Ferrari specialist (the excellent Bob Houghton in Northleach), costs were similar in both cases and always reasonable given the incredible performance of the car (380 bhp at 8,500 RPM from a 3.5 litre V8).  The F355 sounded like nothing else on the road, on a standard exhaust system it growled up to about 4,000 rpm, above that it gradually turned into a shrieking wail at 8,000 rpm, utterly addictive and life affirming. I used it regularly, including for trips to Le Mans and Italy, Ferrari's definitely benefit from not being left unused for periods of time. It was always kept garaged and on a trickle charger, another sensible precaution against electrical issues developing. I have little idea what the fuel consumption was, as that it not why one buys a Ferrari, however it must have been reasonable as I regularly got approx 300 miles to a 60 litre tank of unleaded. The Ferrari main dealer customer service experience makes Lexus dealers look like back street dodgy car dealers, nothing was too much trouble. The only mechanical issue I ever had in 6 years of Ferrari ownership was a failed thermostat when touring in Italy. It was July and all the Italian Ferrari dealers were closed for the summer holidays. I rang Meridien in Lyndhurst and they couriered a replacement thermostat out to my hotel overnight, it arrived at 9am the next morning and they did not even charge me for the thermostat or the courier service, now THAT is customer service. I only sold it because I retired from a corporate job and felt it hard to justify the costs on a healthy private pension....I miss it every day!

You must be a very unlucky guy finding Italian garages shut in July. The standard Italian holidays are blocked off for 3 weeks in August. Back when I did business there it was a nightmare, because if you did not get your stock out by the beginning of August then you couldn't even talk to someone until nearly the end of the month.

[Tech Dude]

Actually it might have been August rather than July, I was touring for about 3 weeks across July and August.

[DavidCM]

The thing to remember with this level of car is that commensurate with the cost\value ,the running costs increase in proportion to the purchase cost.

Having brought and run a Porsche for 7 years,I can only say a Lexus is much more "comfortable" to own.It isn't as fast, doesn't handle as well,and doesn't sound as good,but at least I can sleep at night.

[pfn]

13 hours ago, DavidCM said:

The thing to remember with this level of car is that commensurate with the cost\value ,the running costs increase in proportion to the purchase cost.

Having brought and run a Porsche for 7 years,I can only say a Lexus is much more "comfortable" to own.It isn't as fast, doesn't handle as well,and doesn't sound as good,but at least I can sleep at night.

"Having brought and run a Porsche for 7 years... What kind of mileage did you get out of your rear tires? I had 997s that ate rear tires to the tune of only 8000 miles per $600 set of tires and I wasn't a particularly aggressive driver. I know you must make 'adjustments ' to handle all of the rear engine weight but there must be a better way.

 

[DavidCM]

1 hour ago, pfn said:

"Having brought and run a Porsche for 7 years... What kind of mileage did you get out of your rear tires? I had 997s that ate rear tires to the tune of only 8000 miles per $600 set of tires and I wasn't a particularly aggressive driver. I know you must make 'adjustments ' to handle all of the rear engine weight but there must be a better way.

 

Porsches do have a strong appetite for rear tyres.I don't remember any lasting over 10,000 miles.I found  a fair number got punctured before they got worn...back to the correlation of purchase price and running cost..only tyres twice normal width are twice as likely to get punctured.

Still,I had always wanted one,so saved up and specified it to my exact choice of options.I thought Porsche were very generous when they didn't charge me any extra for deleting the rear badging.......

[GMB]

25 minutes ago, DavidCM said:

tyres twice normal width are twice as likely to get punctured

You know, I never thought of it that way. That's proper and correct logic for you. And a motorbike is half as likely to get a puncture😉

[Scotlex]

I think that the "average owner on here could afford to buy a Ferrari (maybe not brand new) but would you be happy to pay £5,000 for a service?? Not sure what price tyres would be but between £500 and £1,000 per tyre might not be too far off, so would you be happy with that too??

Not forgetting about MPG 🙈

[Scotlex]

If I win the lottery I would probably buy a red Ferrari 😀😀

[malcolmw]

Not a Ferrari but I had an Aston DB9 for 12 years and the annual service cost was always about £1.2K. It always seemed fragile to me so the much lower cost to service the LC500 combined with its vastly better build quality was a breath of fresh air for me.

On tyres, the Aston sized Michelin Pilot SS were about £300 each.

Would I have a Ferrrari? No. The main problem I can see is that (apart from the impracticality) you can't leave it anywhere for fear of jealous damage. 

[GMB]

If I won the lottery I would go and live somewhere nice ( not in Britain ).  And have my driveway cobbled like Stephen's. But without the moss.

[GMB]

2 minutes ago, malcolmw said:

The main problem I can see is that (apart from the impracticality) you can't leave it anywhere for fear of jealous damage

I remember seeing an article in the paper ( - with a photo that someone took ) a few years ago of a drunken "chappie" weeing into a parked Porsche convertible in London. So I get your point about the damage.