cost of maintaining a Ferrari?

OK - stand back

WARNING - If you do not like gratuitous bragging and showing off – do NOT read this post because I am going for it!!! :p

OK, if it's one thing I know, I know Ferrari's...

Establishing Credentials on Ferrari’s and cars:

I currently have an F360 Spider in my Garage… In fact there's been one in my garage since 1995 - so 10 years of continuous ownership. I’m off to the Grand Prix this weekend in the Ferrari Corporate Box in the Paddock Club as a guest of Ferrari.

I have visited the factory twice. I have the 3rd F 430 Spider into the country on order and that’s only because I was away the day they announced they were taking orders and missed the email.

I have photos of me and Michael and Rubens and Jean Todt on my wall, and have sat in (sort of – too chubby to get right in) a real F1 racing car. (Girlfriend who is considerably thinner than me got right in!).

I have driven EVERY super-car currently available for sale in Australian and I still come back to the Ferrari. I have driven Ferrari’s in the European Club Sport races, and raced a F355 for 2 years, and driven them on roads in the US and Europe.

Ferrari’s rock. :cool: They are not old man’s cars (as somebody ignorantly accused) and even if they are you’d soon become young again. And yes, believe it or not many women do love them. I have had ample incidents where I have become instantly significantly more attractive because I was standing near my Ferrari and actually took out the keys. And I have had some women date me just because of the car – don’t start – I knew what they were after and didn’t care!

The sound, the smell (Connolly Leather), and the feel of the car is unbeatable. The handling is AMAZING – just like a go cart. The clink of metal on metal as you change the gears through the famous Ferrari metal H gate… all experiences you just don’t get with other cars.

And yes, I have ordered an SL65 and yes they are awesome cars but I owned an SL55 and everybody thinks they are worth about $150,000 (when they are worth $300,000) and no doubt that won’t change with the SL65. Like all German cars it is awesomely quick, very efficient, will never get you into trouble but lacks the one thing the Italian has in droves… Soul.

And people LOVE Ferrari’s - I have owned other cars as well Porsche, BMW, MB, etc and they are often vandalized and so on, but I have never had my Ferrari as much as scratched.

Police let you off speeding fines, but never in a Porsche, parking Nazi’s at the airport let you park the car in the 2 minutes zones, people stop to let you into traffic (try that in my BMW and you’d end up with a BIG dint). Hotels will always Valet park them for free. People have their photo taken in front of them. People buy you lunch. I’ve had one situation where I used to park the car at work and come back at the end of the day and it had been washed and polished by somebody I didn’t even know (and this went on for 19 months until I finally caught him 2 weeks before we moved office to thank him).

And people who own Ferrari’s are unique too… Yes some are w@nk#rs but most are genuine enthusiasts and always have an interesting story to tell. And when you get together at social events their partners are invariably good looking and intelligent – it seems the admiration of the same qualities comes through in both car and woman.

In the US 29% of buyers are now women too. You will NEVER see me wear any promotional gear on any clothes except Ferrari at GP time. I have been to the Monaco, Monza, Indy, and Chinese F1 to follow the team and every F1 driver in the world wants to drive for them. Even when they were losing!

Ferrari is not a car it is a way of life, a way of being, a state of mind. On the good days a Ferrari is just a wonderful car to drive, on the bad days a Ferrari is just a wonderful car to own because every time I get in one I feel just a little but better about myself.

They make people smile. To the little boys and girls who wave at you to the teenagers who get down on their knees and “worship” as you drive pass to the mums in the people movers who give you a wistful smile and the guys in other cars who look and drool, yes even the girls with the long hair who’ll date you just to get a ride in one. And that doesn't happen in any other car I own. Not one. People give you the forks as you drive past in a Porsche, ignore you completely in a MB and BMW's are as common as Holden's these days, but most people smil even just a little and often bust into spontanious happines and give you a little wave when you drive past in a Ferrari – everybody loves a Ferrari.

And if you don’t then I feel sorry for you. Not only are they an awesome automotive feast, they are beautiful to look at – a genuine mobile piece or art (and MB haven’t been able to achieve that since the gull wing). You may never want to own one but it’s hard not to admire the company for their technical genius and amazing branding – most people who support Scuderia Ferrari will never get to own one in their lives and yet they still weep when Ferrari wins a GP.

To answer the original question – cost of ownership… Surprisingly little (well at least compared to what everybody thinks it is). They have a 3 year, 100,000km warranty and a 5 year warranty on the Aluminum body. They have an annual check up which costs about $750 but their first real service is at 50,000km. Insurance is cheap ($3,500 per year – my Porsche cost $6,500 and the SL55 was almost $10,000) because they are never stolen (in fact the insurance company is VERY suspicious of every theft claim because of the rarity of the event). Why? Because the immobiliser is bullet proof so no joy riding, and there is no secondary market for the parts (all numbered) and no imbecile would risk the warranty by not taking their car to a Ferrari garage to fix it, so no professional theft. Most people don’t drive them – tragedy – so they are rarely crashed but when they are it is usually a right off.

Parts are expensive and if you do prang them it’s really going to hurt, plus Ferrari don’t keep much in stock so they time off the road is exasperated by the delay time in ordering the part from Italy.

Depreciation occurs most when the models are replaced - everybody not interested in the old model any more, but stabilises then and they rarely lose their value from their. Other than that during the model life cycle they can usually be sold for only a $10K to $30K less than you paid due to the extended waiting lists for most people, and the fact that in times of good economics (like the last 10 years) demand exceeds supply. As somebody rightly pointed out they can also appreciate in value. The maximum amount I have lost on a Ferrari when I came to sell / trade was $30,000 and that was on a car with 30,000 on the clock (like 150,000 in any other car) and the dealer knew that I had pranged it (not a big bang but a bang none the less).

Contrast that to the last Range Rover which I bought for $135,000 and sold 2 years later with just 7,500kms on the clock for $60,000 and my last 911 which I paid $265,000 and sold 2 years later with 9,000 kms on the clock and sold for $190,000 and you can see how awesome those figures are. One Ferrari, my Barchetta I bought for $605,000 and sold for $670,000.

Cars to me are a part of life and life is just a little bit better with a Ferrari in it. To all those guys and gals who want one I can only encourage you to go for it – keep dreaming – it’s worth it – and more importantly learn to scoff at people who say cars are only for getting from A to B – they will never know the joy and passion they are missing out on.

OK, now to Boats…

I have owned only 3 boats…

A 42ft Beateau sailing boat – COME ON!!! We moved on from wind power almost a century ago (but to it’s credit did sell for more than I paid for it).

A 47ft Mariner (built by Riviera).

And my current boat – a 63ft Sunseeker.

Now let me say this – Riviera are NOT the BMW of boats – they are the Holden Commodore of boats – nothing wrong with that but you all need to get that straight.

For a new boat the Mariner had waaaaaaaay too many things go wrong with it.

My Sunseeker is coming up on 10 years old – I bought it second hand and spent about 30% of its purchase price doing it up and it is a beautiful boat. I describe Sunseeker (built in the UK mind you but what do they know about cars these days?) as the Aston Martin of boats.

I am thinking about buying an Azimut 68S – the Alpha Romeo of boats.

However, as much as I love boats, if you are thinking of buying one my best advice is DON’T. Everything you have heard about standing in a shower and tearing up money, the best 2 days of the boat owners life is the days he buys his boat and the day he sells his boat, etc are all true. They are a BOTTOMLESS pit, a vortex sucking all wealth into their deathly grasp. They cost a packet to run (mine chews through 250 liters of fuel an HOUR at cruising speed! :eek: ) a bomb to maintain, a packet to insure and depreciation, well they almost take out the world record on that!

Now if you REALLY want to talk about needing BIG TIME money to own something, why not let us steer the conversation towards planes… Nah, come to think of it I start to get the rash again every time it comes up.
 
from a fellow aficionado

Sounds like Ferraris touch your soul, Pete. You've written with a real passion. As much as any post on the forum!

Thank you very much. Very inspiring - or is that motor-vating.

Do the Spiders lack anything in rigidity, or carry extra mass? They sure look beautiful; how do they compare with the closed top coupés?

And, how many kms/year in the 360?

The costs sound very reasonable. And if you really prang it, well, so be it.

Can you share any photos?
 
Wow. That was a pretty amazing read Peter. It made me daydream in that special way all guys do when thinking about Ferrari's. Ferrari's were my first true love. The Testarossa then F40 had a special place in my heart.

The dream died when I hit adolescence and developed some left-leaning tendancies. In my mind Ferrari's became the greatest symbol of conspicuous wealth, of extravagence, of greed, of ego. If I were to be rich I was to remain humble and donate much to charity and so forth. Make the world a better place.

I'm in the process of re-balancing my thoughts. I'm telling myself it's ok to spend money, it's ok to own a nice car. But I think those adolesent idealist thoughts will remain with me to some degree. A BMW M3 is probably more my style. A supercar under the bonnet, yet a regular sedan to the uninformed.
 
Glebe said:
I'm in the process of re-balancing my thoughts. I'm telling myself it's ok to spend money, it's ok to own a nice car.

Yes, it's OK to spend money. After all, the exchange of money makes the world go round. You spend $150,000 on a BMW, the salesman gets a commission of a few grand, and takes it home and spends it on a new plasma TV for his kids, who end up glued to TV and get sucked into ads, asking mum and dad for the latest toys and fashion gear, which leads to more purchases, and so on and so on... :eek:

It all contributes to the economy. Just don't spend excessively. That's the way I think of it... :p :rolleyes:

Glebe said:
But I think those adolesent idealist thoughts will remain with me to some degree. A BMW M3 is probably more my style. A supercar under the bonnet, yet a regular sedan to the uninformed.

I think I'm much the same. I wouldn't feel, well me, in a Ferrari, (although that could change after a test drive). I'd feel like a dolt taking my new F360 to the servo to get milk and bread... :eek:
 
Glebe said:
Wow. That was a pretty amazing read Peter. It made me daydream in that special way all guys do when thinking about Ferrari's. Ferrari's were my first true love. The Testarossa then F40 had a special place in my heart.

The dream died when I hit adolescence and developed some left-leaning tendancies. In my mind Ferrari's became the greatest symbol of conspicuous wealth, of extravagence, of greed, of ego. If I were to be rich I was to remain humble and donate much to charity and so forth. Make the world a better place.

I'm in the process of re-balancing my thoughts. I'm telling myself it's ok to spend money, it's ok to own a nice car. But I think those adolesent idealist thoughts will remain with me to some degree. A BMW M3 is probably more my style. A supercar under the bonnet, yet a regular sedan to the uninformed.

Hi Glebe,

The bits that stand out to me in Peter's (Spann) post is about what the Ferrari does to people - it makes them smile. It inspires people. Perhaps making the world a better place is about inspiring others - to let them know that they too can get to places they only thought they could dream about :)

The Ferrari becomes a tool for leverage and credibility - how much more difficult to convince people of what you can achieve when you step off a Comformidore (P Spann terminology ;) )?

Cheers,

The Y-man
 
Merovingian said:
It all contributes to the economy. Just don't spend excessively.

Hi all,


I think this is an important point that often gets overlooked - what's excessive? The amount spent should not be assessed in absolute terms - rather a better gauge is the proportion of the purchaser's net wealth used to buy it.

For instance, I remember the story circulating a few years ago about Kerry Packer tipping a waitress at the Casino around $185,000 for her service the night he was there (this was the amount of her mortgage). Most people argued it was excessive - based on current estimates of his wealth and compared to my own, it was the same as me leaving a $22 tip. Would anyone here consider leaving a $22 tip excessive?

Life is for living - I just dont see any worthwhile rationale for living frugally and hoarding assets until you're 60-70, then having only a few years to enjoy them. Why not enjoy the wealth you've worked hard (smart) to earn along the way?

He who dies with the most toys .... still dies.

Jamie. (saving for the Lamborghini Gallardo)

:D
 
Jamie said:
Merovingian said:
It all contributes to the economy. Just don't spend excessively.

Hi all,

I think this is an important point that often gets overlooked - what's excessive? The amount spent should not be assessed in absolute terms - rather a better gauge is the proportion of the purchaser's net wealth used to buy it.

For instance, I remember the story circulating a few years ago about Kerry Packer tipping a waitress at the Casino around $185,000 for her service the night he was there (this was the amount of her mortgage). Most people argued it was excessive - based on current estimates of his wealth and compared to my own, it was the same as me leaving a $22 tip. Would anyone here consider leaving a $22 tip excessive?

Life is for living - I just dont see any worthwhile rationale for living frugally and hoarding assets until you're 60-70, then having only a few years to enjoy them. Why not enjoy the wealth you've worked hard (smart) to earn along the way?

He who dies with the most toys .... still dies.

Jamie.

Sorry, what I meant by "excessive" is what many do these days. That is, spending more than they earn.

As for the $185,000 tip: Interesting!

I remember reading somewhere that apparently, one day when Donald Trump was in his limousine going somewhere, it broke down, and a pedestrian who was a mechanic came and popped the bonnet, fiddled for a while, and got the car working again. Trump was apparently so impressed he tracked this guy down and gave his wife some flowers with a note saying that their mortgage has been paid off completely.

In both cases, I don't think it is excessive spending. :)
 
Thankyou Peter, the last few weeks I have seriously been considering getting myself an old Porsche to tinker with but you've convinced me that the Porsche will be just a stepping stone to bigger (and redder) things.

andy
 
Peter Spann said:
With respect (to both author and Wally - great boats) and with my best Paul Hogan accent...

That's not a boat...

THIS is a boat!

http://www.yachtspotter.com/ycard.php?foo=20030208

MV Pelorus - the largest private yacht and 9th largest non-commercial vessel in the world!

Nah, I prefer the WallyTender... Not too big, not too small, juuuust right... :p

By the way, didn't the head of Westfield buy himself something like the Pelorus not too long ago, at a cost of around $70 million?
 
Peter

Thank you for the inspiration and an insight into owning a Ferrari.

I can definetely see myself in one of these for those special occassions. I am glad to see you get to use it at the track as well. I recently purchase a high powered sports car and this is one of the first things I did as well.

Sailesh
 
Peter Spann said:
Just released...

Come on - I dare you not to fall in love with THIS!

https://www.owners.ferrari.com/cgi-bin/Feros/os/jsp/01_0_login.jsp

(Needs Flash 7)

Can't give you access to the Owner's site sorry but this will give you an idea.

...Call that a Ferrari?? It's not even red!

Peter - going on from what you explained earlier about Ferrari’s actually come with a presence, reminded me when I was in Florence over 20 years ago. It was on one particular Sunday afternoon when all the extended Italian families are out and about dressed in their Sunday splendour together with the throng of tourists trying to out do the Italians, this was in a totally pedestrian area and if any other car tried this I couldn’t imagine what would have happened – anyway a bright red Ferrari made its way through the pedestrian traffic, the crowd parted as if Moses gave the command, and some young punk in jeans and his girlfriend jumped out of the Ferrari and into one of the shops while all the Italians stood up and took notice and mulled around the car – Fathers explained to their young children with authority, “Look kids, it’s a Ferrari –B-e-l-l-i-s-s-i-m-a No”? Wives asked their husbands “ Ma che bella Auto!!” It was more like people studying a piece from Michaelangelo. And this was Florence in Italy.

–I may have to get me one of those Ferrari’s.

wombat
 
wombat said:
Wives asked their husbands “ Ma che bella Auto!!”
Should that be "macho bella auto"?

I remember a similar story about a Ferrari in Italy from Peter Spann- except, of course, he was the driver.
 
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