7 year maintenance on new F cars

Thats fantastic. If they did this in the past, circa 355, they would have went bankrupt. Now because the new cars are built so well it makes sense.

How will this effect aftermarket parts? I'm guessing it would void the warranty.

 

Will be interesting to see the mileage limit as well... And the items excluded.

 

But your link says FREE

"clients ordering a Ferrari California, 458 Italia or FF from the authorised dealership network will be entitled to a free seven-year standard maintenance programme"

 

All manufactures will be doing this. The reason is that many cars are leased and if they don't leased cars don't get maintained and they wind up owning a lot of them and have to fix them anyway and proper maintenance avoids some of that. It also raises residuals which makes them more leasable.

BMW has been doing this for a while.

 

No such thing as free. The cost of "free" is built in to the price paid which includes recovery of the additional cost to Ferrari to up the quality and thus reduce aftermarket liability. Seven years fluids also included in the base price. Ferrari are a business and "free" will be fully costed.
IMO this is a good and overdue move by Ferrari. Its a clever selling strategy as it gives customer certainty and product confidence. And, for those using finance to purchase, the buyer is in effect getting the lender to loan on some of the future maintenance cost.

 

Fine print: "excludes engine, transmission, drive train, and all electronics"



Jedi

 

There's ALWAYS the fine print.

 

I can’t seem to get to what’s in the link, but I think it’s great for the customer, not so great for the Ferrari dealers themselves.

What we have here is an organization with whom the dealer has zero choice of deciding to do business with, and at the rates they want to pay. You can be assured they won’t be paying retail.

A Ferrari dealer makes its money on service, and it looks like they are going to have to rely more and more on aged cars. I see this affecting smaller Ferrari dealers more than anything else. The ones attached to mega dealers have more areas of cash absorption.

That said, no one becomes a Ferrari dealer to get rich.

 

Unfortunately what BMW did (does) is instead of change fluids every 7500 miles (engine oil) and 30,000 miles for gearbox/differential, they've modified it to 15,500 miles and "lifetime" respectively.

I follow a more aggresive maintenance program for my BMW because those mileage intervals are too long.

Hopefully Ferrari will have a more sensible program

 

"With effect from March in Europe, and on other markets during the course of the year, clients ordering a Ferrari California, 458 Italia or FF from the authorised dealership network will be entitled to a free seven-year standard maintenance program"

That says "free" unless I'm missing something. So I'd say, yes, thats definitely worth it Damn amazing actually

As for the idea that it isnt really "free", that seems pretty easy to quantify. Did MSRP shoot way up? If the car isn't costing more up front on average with the program, then I dont see how there is "hidden cost"

 

My car is one mile away from the dealer. To me, home run. For someone 200 miles away... not so much.

So, it depends.

 

Right. For low-mileage drivers they basically pay for 1 oil change every 2 years!

If they had 7-year coverage, surely they'd be broke by now if my experience is anything to go by.

 

The maintenance on a 360 is about $5k a year. So trading for a new Fcar is like getting a $35k discount.

Sweet.

Problem is my US dealer says they never heard of it.

 

I have free servicing on my Landrover and that excludes things like wheel alignments, tyre rotation and balance (clearly rotation is not an option on a Ferrari), as well as consumables like brake pads and rotors.

On the whole its great - but i never actually walk away from a service with my wallet intact

Why is their oil change programme to long? Have you tested the oil during that period to determine that it is beyond servicability? In Europe the standard service interval is annual or 15,000km (12,000miles) and all european cars are designed to that standard. If you are changing your oil more often than that (for street use) you are just wasting oil and money.

 

Tell that to all the Audi/VW Turbo guys who had sludge problems in engines following the factory maint. schedule.

 

Not into Audi/VW or turbos so unaware of that issue. Does it effect everyone and is it a recall issue or just a percentage of cars? If it is a limited number (high use/hard use) it is possible to engineer a solution to allow the scheduled maintenance intervals to work.

 

I used Mobil 1 in mine every 5,000 miles and still lunched the motor in my Audi. Audi said tough luck you got 129,000 miles out of the motor we are not replacing it most cars only lasted 30,000 miles you got your moneys worth. Never again will a German car be in my driveway

 

The BMW one is a worthless piece of marketing. Oil changes according to the idiot lights. Life time tranny fluid. Life time gear oil. Life time coolant. That amounts to 3 oil changes in 36,000 miles. If this is what Ferrari offers, then I rather do my own.

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/26/ferrari-offers-scheduled-maintenance-program-for-7-years-in-euro/

 

Aside - you need to check your math...

Yes, the EU specified longer oil change intervals to reduce the volume of used oil requiring recycling - it was an environmental dictate from the bureaucrats. You can assume that all european cars are designed to that standard (and unicorns exist, too!), or be realistic and figure that some manufacturers do a better job than others at extending the OCIs. The oil itself has a bigger impact on oil change life than the car design, and they are getting better, but used oil analysis a la Blackstone Labs etc. shows that some engines simply aren't capable of running that many miles/kms on one oil change without suffering.

 

So true - brain fade - didn't even calculate it but grabbed numbers from memory... of course it should be 9300miles.

You are of course right - all cars are not equal! Best to decide service frequency on the specific vehicle - but 3,000 mile oil changes are overkill IMHO.

Increasing sump capacity is a very simple way to extend service intervals as the oil gets less work. It does, however defeat the purpose of the EU directive!

 

5,000 mi oil changes with 'whatever 5W-30' in my Audis...3 cars: 191,000 mi., 121,000mi(then traded), current 178,000 mi...like new, original clutch. There will likely always be a German car in my driveway!

 

+1 and Audi did for awhile as well. Nice plan and it doesn't hurt sales in a down economy

 

It's being introduced in Europe and will most likely make its way over to the states shortly.