I feel taken advantage of by a major sponsor, do I out them here on Ferrari Chat??

I bought my 360 from a major sponsor here a little over three years ago. It"s my first Ferrari and I admittedly bought it a little hastily and with limited research although I did do a little research in terms of maintenance expected, selling price, difference between a 355 and 360, etc. My car knowledge is basic but limited. I fully understand and accept that it's a buyer beware world, these are touchy and unpredictable cars, and no one would expect a dealer to be responsible for a deal 3 years after the fact. My car is at Fast Cars for its major service (turns out Craig used to own my car...weird lol). He provided info that re affirms my belief that this major sponsor took in the car as is and sold it to me as is even while telling me they checked and corrected any problems and "went through the car" and not to bother with a PPI. I've only driven 6400mi and the issues found (outside of needing service, that just happens) wouldn't have happened in that amount of time. They didn't tell me how big a deal it is if the car only has one key or maybe $1500 to get keys is no big deal to Ferrari people but they could have at least told me and I did ask. I've got transmission mount problems after a $4000 repair by them for a problem the car exhibited on the smog rack when I bought it. I could go on but if you've made it this far I just feel like I should warn people about buying a car there or having it serviced by them but again they are a major sponsor I don't take it lightly "outing" a company in this small community.

 

You don't have a lot of posts so it was easy to see where you got your car. I never thought of that place as a service center too, were they always such? Anyways back to your issue. Seems like you have a mechanic getting pretty deep into your car that is able to "see" areas that should have previously been addressed right?

I am guessing that you have some paperwork from the last place that shows the work they did.

Is the new mechanic taking pictures for you and saving parts that you can use to communicate the issue to the first party?

I might be tempted to present some of this current proof of a shoddy repair to the first place and see what they have to say.

Maybe they fired the salesman that you worked with for the very same thing and will want to make it up to you with some deal on future service? Cant hurt to ask.

There is also the possibility of infighting between competing service indys. Did this cross your mind? You don't want to be a stooge for anyone either. You say you're not really a car person which is a tough place to operate from with "vintage" exotics.

 

difficult to understand your post but it sounds like the problems aren't out of the ordinary for a Ferrari car, esp one that's > 15-year-old, for the duration of ownership and mileage.

 

Let me make sure I get the facts correct:
1) You bought it with no PPI
2) You have driven it over 6,000 miles since you bought it
3) 3 years have gone by since you bought it
4) And you haven't communicated with the selling dealer since you bought it

Uh, sorry. Outing the dealer at this point isn't prudent behavior. You might not want to hear it but the truth is you bought it, didn't inspect it, and you drove it quite a bit over a 3 year time period.
I really am sorry to hear you're unhappy, I really am; nobody wants anyone in this sport to be displeased with the experience. However, a Ferrari is an expensive toy, and make no mistake toys cost. You're getting a lesson about that.

 

I think he is referring to the fact that this big problem was known by the seller and was not disclosed and could have been attended too earlier. The fact that it wasn't disclosed at his 6,000 mile mark and caused major damage is the issue. It's a slippery slope, there is two sides to the story. Was there a miscommunication on both sides?
The issue is ... Would of a PPi found this problem? If yes, and the dealer told him there was no need for a PPi , then this is problem number 1. Always get a PPi regardless of who says not to.

 

Its a car. They break.

It's a 15 year old car. They break a lot.

Personally, I think you're better off working with them than "outing them". If you want revenge, Fchat normally isn't to sympathetic.

 

All good points and I appreciate the responses. My post is wordy. To put it another way. They represented the car as turn key 100% (minus the full set of keys of course) when it was anything but. They showed off their service dept (tour included) to convince me a PPI would be redundant. I communicated with them plenty over the first year as they did do the services and repairs on the car. Or to put it yet another way a dealer with their apparent reputation should be a lot more up front and knowledgeable about the condition of the cars they sell.

 

I don't think the dealer owes you anything.

 

Yes I know that. It was fairly broken when it left their showroom and I think they knew it or didn't bother to find out before they sold it to me all while telling me they had.

 

I can find fault with any "perfect" used Ferrari. You bought a used car. Could you have done more? Yes. Could someone else do more? Yes. Would someone else do differently? sure. Who's responsible? This is a 1st world problem we mostly bring on ourselves.

 

Hi Dave,

Forgive me for asking for clarification, but just trying to follow the situation. Please correct me if I am wrong with the following assumptions based on your posts.

You bought the car from them "as-is" with no warranty and no PPI because they said they had done a PPI and repairs on issues they found?

After you had bought it, you had a $4,000 transmission mount problem occur about three years later caused by some defect that could easily have been identified with any reasonable PPI before you bought it?

So your main point of contention is that the "PPI" they did (or did not do) 3 years ago did not catch this defect that caused the transmission mount issue?

Thanks for your reply in advance.

 

I like your signature billybob. Probably guilty of that homework thing regarding this for sure.

 

That was the first thing I looked up-probably most folks that read this did!

It's already been said here but the PPI is a must with any these. That said, if a little love from these guys would help to keep you happy I say give them a shot at smoothing things over. Send one of their top execs a solid email and tell him/her how you feel. How much is a happy Fcar customer worth these days?! I've never worked with these guys but you may surprised how they may try and 'make it right'

 

Mostly. The transmission had a shifting issue since purchase(the smog check thing) that eventually turned into a 4k repair the dealer repaired but wouldn't pay for. Now, subsequent to that repair, in the course of the current major service the transmission mounts are found to be broken. Hard to believe after maybe 3k miles and a transmission repair. I don't drive the car too hard.

 

Thank You Dave for your response, please bear with me. I just want to clarify:

The car had a transmission issue from the start that cost you 4K (the seller didn't want to cover it). - could you disclose what the specific issue was? The reason I ask is the issue itself may have been reasonably missed by any PPI. Unless, you disclose the actual issue - hard for the community to make a call.

Now 3 years later you discovered transmission mount issues that are related to this early 4K issue?

Again, thanks for your reply in advance.

Cheers

 

FIFY

 

Paul, the throwout bearing was in the midst of failing. It exhibited shifting issues on the smog rack shortly after purchase and test drive but both were dismissed as anomalies. The mount issues aren't related to anything. It's just surprising that the transmission mounts are cracked after a relatively recent transmission repair that involved removing (at least partially) the transmission. The common element is the selling dealer.

 

This is the same car you're trying to sell without disclosing all these issues it has, right?

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/ferraris/522941-2001-ferrari-360-spider-f1-grey-%2478k.html

I dunno, seems like you were trying to do the same thing to someone else that the dealer did to you.

D

 

Well excuse me I didn't know about all these issues until today. Car has full service history showing all this stuff. I'm not really trying to sell it at this point. 10K should take care of it all hopefully. Its at Fast Cars as we speak. I WOULDN'T DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO ANYONE AND IT PISSES ME OFF THAT YOU WOULD INSINUATE OTHERWISE!!! NOT HOW I ROLL!! What the hell is FIFY anyhow? Besides did you read all the posts? There's a lot of disclosure there. If someone was really serious they'd obviously read the history and I'd answer any questions they would have. Wow.

 

Zing!

 

Thanks Dave for your clarifications.

You state you experienced shifting issues during the test drive, and yet still bought the car AS-IS.

What more needs to be said?

 

It missed one shift. Is that really an issue?

 

yes

 

Nothing, IMO.

If there were any concerns, next step would be PPI. Or roll the dice.

3 years and 6k miles later? Not much to be done at this point but fix it and move on.

 

I agree with James. The 360 F1 is an amazing car. Fix whatever needs to be sorted and enjoy the car, Dave.

If time/money won't allow for that - sell at market price and buy a Porsche.