McLaren Depreciation 12-C: a nightmare- werewolf?

I was stopped on the Vegas strip by a bicycle cop because my 458 made too much noise in race mode moving away from a stop light. I nearly ran over the idiot as he ran his bicycle right in front of my lane to stop me.

I wasn't speeding. I was accelerating too hard for him.

Luckily I was a local and he let me off with a dressing down and a frown. I imagine someone from California would probably have gotten a ticket. He was hopping mad.

I was ticketed by a cycle cop at Tropicana and Paradise at 1 AM -- for 5 mph over the speed limit of 45 mph.

I was stopped by a cop in LA for no front plate. The horror.

When cops stop you for NOT speeding, you know it's no longer fun. Don't tell me exotics aren't targets. I drive my gray Mini S Works just as hard and fast (and without a front plate) and have never been ticketed in it since 2003.

 

Yeah, but all those stock market gains required almost nothing at all. If you made a million bucks in the last 4 years, that's will pay for the depreciation of 10 new Ferraris.

 

Obviously, I made my money with a lot more blood, sweat, and sacrifice than you did.

I think I appreciate it more. I know where every buck came from. Excuse me for wanting to hold on to them just a little longer.

 

I'm just being honest. I can't be the only one here with a few bucks invested in other people's businesses.

 

I worked in Silicon Valley for many years, and we lived in SoCal (wife's job). I had a succession of M3's and GT3's, and I became....jaded. There was precious little opportunity to really drive the cars, and the roads were traffic-filled grids (though there are plenty of fun roads in California, it was a trek). I looked into getting a 430, but that that time in the market, getting a 430 was insane and dealers were a bit obnoxious.

Fast forward - we relocated the family to rural Connecticut. Our local Ferrari dealer is exceptional. The very road we live on is fun to drive. As long as we keep it sane, the cops wave as we go by. My wife takes the kids to school, she has 4 routes that are twisty, up-and-down, smooth and fun. Does she do 120mph? NFW. Does she accelerate, brake, turn and shift to enjoy it? Absolutely.

I do believe 1) if you live somewhere where the driving stinks, you either have to want the car as a possession, since you won't be able to enjoy using it 2) unless you're financially able to ignore it, you do need to pay attention to depreciation/maintenance/repair/etc 3) as with most businesses, a surly dealer experience can turn you off.

IF for some reason we lived back in silicon valley (traffic), SoCal (roads) or Vegas (both), I'd probably get rid of the fun cars and just use the time/money to do more racing.

I agree legislation is starting to limit cars; same thing happened in the 70's. The EC is crazy with their punitive "no fun" policies. Frankly I've been wondering how we shift the regulatory attention to boats....my friends have boats that guzzle a lot more gas, puke a lot more emissions and leak a lot more hydrocarbons than my cars!

 

Good post, but I'll respectfully disagree with one thing...the best "out my back door roads" I have had were last year living in San Mateo near the 92/280 interchange. Less than 10 minutes and I was on skyline and beyond to amazing roads. I would take the CS out after work for a quick run to Alice's and turn around...great fun. Anywhere in the peninsula is only a few minutes away from escape into the coast range and the myriad roads up there. Same with Marin county and, to a lessor extent, the east bay has some good roads south of Livermore and north of Lafayette.


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A lot of wisdom here. But very few things are absolute. We spend time in crowded San Diego -- it's not like LA but it is crowded. Urban fun driving is best achieved in our little Abarth, which snarls its way through traffic like a knife through butter. More fun per dollar than anything I know of. The F cars are mostly recreational which we find in local jaunts that take in sweeping off-on ramps. For more serious excursions we go to the interior where there are some exceptional routes that are well known to enthusiasts of both 2-wheel and 4-wheel variety.

My sense is that those running Western governments hate the thought that anyone is having fun -- anywhere and of any nature -- and have been whittling away at it in the name of some ideology or other, whether it is green-ness or "fairness." The way things are going they will continue to have their way until the whole thing collapses. Meanwhile I intend to have fun.

 

I will concede, you are correct about the roads. NorCal and the California coast have some AMAZING roads. To me the frustration has been traffic. "Back in the day" (1988-1995) I had a Golf GTI and a Kawasaki Ninja, Alice's on Sundays, Skyline, Hwy 1 to Mendocino, Mt. Tam. Beautiful piece of America...but the traffic kills me. (No comment re my luck getting behind a Prius in recent years).

+1. We have an Abarth that we've converted into a (still street legal) race car. It's my daughter's "training car", but is a blast. Has "edge" to it...

 

I guess the Mclaren thread is bad ju-ju.....maybe we need to start a new thread to share happy stories about driving our cars....

 

Agreed. This thread is going nowhere. If I want to hear from someone who has reasons why fast cars are a bad idea, I can just talk to my wife.

 

LOL, absolutely! My wife complained about my Scud's stripes, see-through engine bay, and lack of carpet inside....She's much happier with the 458 now! The 458 even has a decent;y placed "holy ****!" handle car for the passenger side! What's there not to enjoy? We buy them because they bring us some sort of pleasurable feedback, what ever tickles your pickle!

 

That actually made me laugh out loud!

They also do not know how to say the word, ''no."

 

Did a few laps at MotorSport Ranch today in the MP4 today and it was heaven. And I was pleased to see a 430 and California driver exercising their cars today as well. No 458s. They will do better at resale though.

 

You gotta keep your miles low and maintain your 'never tracked' ebay status.

 

All these posts about how life is hard to own an exotic car- this has always been the case. Things do change and evolve but having a flashy car gets you more attention. That's why there is a market for AMG, Ms and RS Audis etc.

You don't like it? Don't buy it.

And since money is work, I do care about depreciation, but I think the point here is if you can't afford the full amount of the car, don't buy it.

 

Cam you got that right!
Hmmmm what's my next car? Muahahhah

 

Enthusiasts? Is that people who drive their sportscars only on weekends? Or people who buy a Ferrari because they wanted one since they were 5 years old and knows everything about the car?
Or people who buy one because they can afford one and just want one, people who drive them to work and to the beach?

If they would build them like before, I think most companies wouldn't sell enough cars to make a profit actually. I also think there would actually be more garage queens.

Basically what you are saying is that the majority of the owners who have sold their modern supercars have done so for the same reasons you did, or because they just wanted to have a taste of them and move on.
Now I can't of course prove you wrong but I have a very hard time seeing that this is the case. What are you basing this on except your own experience with your cars?

"high revving engines, race car handling, good direct steering, mid engine, exotic sounds, great handling." You have just described every modern Ferrari (bar the mid engine). From those descriptions, what made the 80's engines, handling, steering and sound so much better than todays? Because the "normal" cars were crap?

You say Ferrari's are "softer", most would say "more comfortable and easier to drive every day" which is a positive thing for 99% of the buyers.
And why is it a negative that VW had DCT 3 years before the 458? You even made a whole thread about the DCT saying it was the best thing ...well ever! "Manuals are dead, get over it the tech era is here etcetc"...

It sounds as if you think faster, more comfortable, more practical, more realiable and more technically advanced = more boring.

Welcome to the present, I guess.. Most people think those things = better cars.

After reading some of your posts, you make it sound like some people doesn't deserve to own these cars. They can't appreciate the cars like you did because they didn't work hard for their wealth, they are not "enthusiasts" and didn't pay cash like you did..

People aren't bored today, you are. And it sounds like you hope that more people feel like you.

 

Essen, Germany. Like garbage
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maybe Mclaren should build some nice car with naturally aspirated V12 engine with nice sound, nowadays V12 become rare and exclusive

 

sad pictures.
But what's your message? An owner "like garbage"?

 

There are Lamborghinis and Ferraris on the Champs Elysees with giant decals on the side that say Drive Me, 89 Euro.

Seems to be a new trend.

 

I don't think you learned to read.

Without going into names, there are many very wealthy people here who paid cash for their amazing collection of cars -- new and classic.

These people are true enthusiasts of Ferrari and cars in general. If you search around a while, you'll find them. They drive their cars while respecting the classics they own.

It doesn't matter how much money you have or how you pay for them. That doesn't make you an enthusiast or not. That comes from the heart. A guy who scraped up enough money to buy a beat up 308 Dino GT can be an enthusiasts just as much as a guy who writes a check for an Enzo like he was buying lunch at Denny's. There is no difference between these two people.

But, it was also completely unfair for McLaren to put up sales policies that hurt their best customers and take a short term view of the business rather than looking for repeat customers. The resale issue is directly linked to their desire to dump excess cars into the US market. Everyone knows this because anyone who bought a new car at 60K off MSRP in late 2012/early 2013 could figure it out.

No, I don't hope there are a lot of people out there bored with today's wonder-gizmo-techo-push button-computer controlled-shiny metal boxes that go fast on paper and where the biggest complaint from their owners is orange peal paint.

I already know there are.

 

You are right, being an enthusiast comes from the heart. Many people on the forum or people in general who buy these cars can only afford one or I bet more than half finance a portion when buying one, but most appreciate and love their cars. My salesman told me you got guys who come into the dealer, have ten cars and are never happy. Than you have guys who love the cars and appreciate them. Some people buy them and are never happy and other buy them and love them!