Miles Question

How much does the typical Ferrari owner drive each year? Is there a limit that I should acheive?

 

From many threads here it there seems to be a belief that all Ferraris self destruct at twenty thousand miles but its up to you if you want to do that in one year or five or ten or never !

 

Put as many miles on as you can. Cars like these were meant to be driven.

 

I don't know if there is a golden rule. Some people buy and never drive them. Others drive them till the wheels fall off. Now guys ....don't bite my head off! But I was always told that if you want to maximize resale you should never average more than 1500/ 2,000 miles a year. But lets face it . This all comes down to personal choices. Above all enjoy the Ferrari experience.

 

Depends on why you bought your Ferrari.

If your focus is driving pleasure, well, the sky is the limit: the cars like to be driven.

Then again, if you simply want to admire and object d' art, or store it and hope that you make a profit on a resale, then the odometer will see little action.

 

The most one of my cars has been driven in 24 hours is about 3300 miles. Still trying to beat that.

 

Please refer to the quote in his signature, /thread.

 

As much as you can...life is way to short.

Would you like to have "Here lies the body of (blank)...The owner of a perfect not driven Ferrari" on your tombstone?

I've been driving for forty years and NOTHING is as exciting as backing out of the garage in the 360...except of course putting it into a forward gear.

 

^^ LOL. That's only 137 mph on average.

I think most of us do not focus on the number of miles we put on every year.
We don't tend to use the cars as daily drivers, so that really keeps the miles down.
I have 3 sports cars (550, 458, and '65 corvette) and put about 2000 - 3000 miles per year on each.
And I put about 15,000 miles per year on my daily driver (Audi S5).

With Ferraris, the goal isn't the quantity of miles each year but rather, the quality of those miles.
Remember to have fun with every Ferrari outing!
.

 

Lotsa loose gab here - but here is some real advice.

Try to drive the car once a week, or at the very minimum once every two weeks. This drive should be long enough (maybe 20 miles, depeding on temperatures of the air) to get the car good and warm and then run warm for about 5 minutes.

This is like the minimum exercise your body needs to stay in shape. It will lubricate seals, charge the battery, stir the oil, move the pistons and the shocks, etc etc etc. No car likes to sit for long periods of time. Letting a car sit undriven for months will cause problems.

So this minimum translates to at least 500 - 1,000 miles per year.

After that, you are on your own.

 

That's with one hour spent in the pits...

 

This is good advise for the minimum.

 

And yet there were opinions in the section that a California which had 70,000 kilometers was worthless because of high mileage...

 

A realistic post. Also, modern Ferraris depreciate horribly when driven, so confirm that you're willing to spend that money.

If you have millions in the bank, then you can probably buy and wear out something in the 328/360 range every few years. If you saved for years and having a third car is a dream you've scraped into, then you'll be inclined to keep miles low to "preserve" it.

(Although I recently looked at a 17,000-mile '70s Ferrari that despite a remarkable lack of use still needed cosmetic and much mechanical work. Probably wouldn't have been worse off if it had 70,000 miles...)

 

Most F-cars probably less than 1,500 miles a year. Maybe even less than 1,000 when you consider all the garage queens that no one talks about? The people that drive way more than that like to tell you and brag about it so you'd think otherwise. If you called your local F service manager and had him level with you you'd get closer to the real story.

 

I have always loved Jim's signature line.

We drive ours as much as we can; in fact, given my work travel, my wife puts more miles on both cars than I do. Just put Sottozeros on the FF for winter...

Even my F430C is getting to the "high kilometers" level. i may not like the engine rebuild tab, but prefer that to missing the chance to shift at 9200rpm...

I would much rather enjoy the driving exploits of many miles than ever brag about "how high my resale or trade-in value was". That's like not having sex with my wife....well, you know the rest.

 

I like watching the figure roll. I purchased at 47K and I have 69K now. I keep hoping I'll hit 70 before year end. But I've found myself busy lately. Always away from home 20 days a month. I've had my car three years. Use it as you wish and let the chips fall where they may. If you really need to retain value then you need to talk to your dealer.

I see you have a 430. I think that is a great car to DD. However it will show the wear like any car will. I knew a fellow that had a 430 as his foul weather car.

 

You have a few that fit into that range now dont you???




PDG

 

I do.

Four that have finished 24 Hour races. One that's done it twice.

 

Do you know how many miles each of them finished in that time?? Just being curious now...




PDG

 

J6 went furthest as Le Mans was a very high speed track in 67.

I bet 0846 at Daytona in 67 was next.

P 4/5 C and P 4/5 C KERS did about 2.5K miles at the Ring and 0854 raced in the rain at Spa in 67.

The exact info is out there in the net somewhere...

 

I’m a 1st time Ferrari owner and for all the cars I’ve owned it’s the first time I've seen owners’ angst over putting miles on their cars. I purchased a 2005 F430 with 10k miles.

Why the angst over mileage? Resale value? Ferraris spend too much time in the shop? Worries about scrapes, bumps and bruises? Rationalizations that you only drink the finest wine or drive the finest cars on special occasions?

Racking up the miles on a true collectable with very low miles doesn’t make sense but I'd apply that to only true collectables like example Ferrari GTO or L88 Corvette. An extremely rare and desirable car with low miles would be nice to preserve. Limiting miles on relatively high production number cars like F430s and F458s is preserving a resource that's not so rare. Over 8000 F430s were produced, not particularly scarce.

The resale factor usually comes up in the conversation and it makes sense that if you're shopping, let's say for a F430, you're going to find most cars with less than 10k miles so a car with more miles becomes unattractive. There are 230 F430s listings on DuPont Registry and roughly 19 have >15k miles and only 6 exceed 20k miles. With the exception of special edition models post 70s Ferraris are fairly high volume cars.

Cars driven more regularly tend to be a more well sorted out car. When you drive a car you uncover and repair problems. Items like bearings and seals don’t dry out. Cars sitting in the garage look nice but once on the road may surface problems. I restored a Corvette 3 years ago and it was one of the few cars driven, not trailered, to a NCRS judging. I guarantee that it took much work and $ to make my Corvette reliable to drive than just good to look at and have the bills for rear trailing arms, diff, ball joints, u-joints, engine seals, carb rebuild, ... to prove it.

So far my few weeks of Ferrari ownership have been a hassle going back to the dealer to sort out minor items including broken radio, dead battery and creaky suspension bushings. My expectation is that after initial break-in I should be able to have a well sorted out car to drive 6k miles per year. I find it odd that the annual service and warranty inspection didn’t uncover and resolve these issues. Dealer service, at least here in the SF Bay area, requires patience. I’ve seen 40 cars in the service area with 1 service writer and 4 mechanics. Few parts are on hand requiring a delay for ordered parts. You don’t add miles when your car is in the shop for a week to fix even small repairs.

Ferraris are generally low in front and unless you pre-scout every destination I expect you’ll eventually run into the driveway or such that scrapes the front end. Last week I backed away from the local Peets coffee exit to find a flatter egress. I have to depart from my home’s drive at an angle to avoid scraping. I’d also avoid parking situations prone to dents and damage. Yet another reason to not drive.

My life is too busy to fit in long rides on the weekends in my Ferrari. Sure I want to blast through the NorCal mountains, but also want to enjoy my commute. Driving it on Wednesday makes it no less enjoyable at the track or on a drive through the twisties.

I plan to drive 5-6k per year if the F-car will cooperate. If a Ferrari isn’t the car for that level of usage, I’d go back to a Porsche.