Why the high maintenance?

In my opinion, there are a few factors involved. Number one is how the car is treated and maintained--the better the treatment, the less the cost of maintenance. Re: your example of the clutch-if one races the rar or jackrabbits from a standing start, the clutch won't last long. If you drive sanely , it'll last a lot longer. Case in point is my '85 308. It has 43k miles on it with the original clutch and it still feels fine.

Another factor is greedy service centers ( including some dealers), who automatically jack up prices the minute they hear the word Ferrari. Another personal eg--when I first obtained my car it needed wires, a flywheel sensor, and a couple of hoses. I was charged $29 for a 2-ft length of hose ( probalby would have cost about $2 if I bought it anywhere else), $79 for one coil wire, and quoted $750 for a complete set of ignition wires--$900 installed! So, in this case, one could say the Ferraris are rediculously high to maintain, but in this it was nothing but sheer greed. Incindentally, I obtained the wires for around $250 And easily installed them myself.

Finally, your talking about limited production cars with many unique parts and, in many cases, jobs on these car can be labor-intensive.

Overall, in my case, the car has not been that expensive to keep up--averaging less than a $1k per year so far ( although the 45k service will be done soon at probably a cost of between $2-$3k).

I guess the definition of "expensive is" relative. In the case of Ferrari, getting a well-taken-care -of, maintained car to begin with should not be outrageously expensive to keep up--espically if you do some of your own service, price-shop for parts, and and do the sceduled maintenance.

 

I think Doc got it pretty well. 2 main factors:

1. parts need replacing more quickly than on a Ford because Ferraris get driven harder than a Ford.
2. prices for repairs are high because they can be - because people are willing to pay it, both for parts and labor

 

Poor design and low volume in most cases I would think, are the two main contributing factors.

Followed by the obvious as mentioned by Doc.

 

Ggrice..you are under the impression that Ferrari are the finest engineered cars in the world......well, sorry, but no!

Ferrari are well engineered and poorly constructed, as opposed to a Porsche/Mercedes say which is fantastically engineered and superbly assembled.

Don't get me wrong, they're INFINITELY better than they were, I'd say only 5 years behind the Germans now!

That said...they have a life and soul of their own, and they are works of art...not engineering....how cheap is art where you live.....

and of course, the low production volume makes even maintenance and especially parts, a specialist market....

so, buy well and enjoy.

 

Why focus on the threat of high maintenance? The positives of ownership and the driving experience itself far outway any negatives. F-ownership is like anything in life.....if you walk into it with you're eyes open and do your homework you minimize the downsides. Having said that, owning a Ferrari is difficult to do on a shoe string. Afterall the car is a luxury and is best enjoyed when you can afford it. So, when the time is right I think that you'll be ready to fully enjoy owning a Ferrari and won't let the fear of maintenance issues get in the way. This has been my experience. Hey, if you don't want to step up to the plate there's always a more reliable Honda or ? Good luck finding your dream car.

 

I agree with ferrarifixer. Ferrari is not known for its engineering prowess. But Porsche certainly is. And to a lesser extent Mercedes.

I think a major problem with Ferrari maintenance has to do with the misguided belief of most owners that the fewer miles they put on them the better. Until recently, most owners would think twice before putting more than 1000 miles a year on their treasures. The perverse garage queen syndrome seems to afflict Ferrari much more than other performance marques (eg, Lambo and Porsche).

Non-use or under-use is the cause of lots of "maintenance" problems. For example, seals and hoses dry out and stagnant coolant corrodes radiators.

You'll find that the Ferraris which are driven regularly (at least 3K miles a year) have far fewer maintenance issues. Also, fwiw, my own theory is that an owner who is enough of an enthusiast to drive his Ferrari regularly also takes better care of it.

 

Clutches?
I drove my 308 85K miles on the same clutch.
I drove my TR 115K miles on the same clutch.
Cost all in $2.50 per mile for the TR. $1.25 per mile for the 308.

 

Wow thats gotta be the most expensive clutch in the world on that TR

i work it out at $287,500.00.

hahaha

 

A true driver! Good job.

 

I am sure others would agree with this: The single biggest factor behind the high maintanance issue is LACK of use. Even if I dont have time, I make it a priority to drive my 328 at least every three weeks for fear of something happening because I dont use it. It is MUCH more expensive to let a Ferrari sit than to drive it!

 

Ferraris are just like any high performance piece of equipment, it needs more maintenance because items are under higher loads and strains than normal.

But since you brought up the 308 QV, don't forget that this car is now 20 years old. Don't be at all surprised if you have to start replacing fuel lines, electrics, suspension components, belts, hoses, etc... from just an age perspective. Cars aren't designed to last forever (even Ferraris). They wear out. If you're willing to put the money back into it to keep it running at 100%, great. If not, you'll eventually get frustrated.

On a vintage Ferrari, most people say budget 10-15% of the purchase price on unexpected surprises. I consider this horse ****. If you're not able to do up to 30-40% of the purchase price, you're going to be disappointed. Not to scare you away, but there are way too many poor maintenance cars out there that came from people that could afford to buy the car, but not afford to run it. Don't be one of those people.

Now, you may not have to spend that much to get the car to 100% and hopefully it will be alot less. But you have to be prepared to spend money after the purchase.

Ferraris and tight budgets don't work.

 

i think another reason is that ferrari want the status of being a elite and for whatever that will encounter means they also only want people that can truly afford these peices of art. Lets face it if the maitenace cost wasent so high i think you would be seeing a lot more people driving these cars thus not really making the car a soughtout limited car and the novelty of owning one has whent down because you will see a lot more of them. If you are sweating it out because you have to spend 4 grand on replaceing a clutch .Ferrari sees it as you probobly shouldnt have one because most of the people that own cars over 150 grand shouldnt really mind spending that kind of money.
I for one have a 360 and i care about the 4 grand clutch but what are you going to do about it i mean what do you expect YOU OWN A FERRARI! So i deal with it . if you can afford the car and are worried about maitenance you cant afford the car......

 

You buy an old car, you will have maintenance. You buy a newer one; your maintenance should be based on mileage, not time. Then the cost goes down to an acceptable level.
.

Never drive less than 12 cylinders.

 

Well done! My little Fiat was needing a new clutch after 80K. My dealer said the change is scheduled at 65K.

 

If you have to ask "How much?" you shouldn't have bought the car.

 

I agree with the comment about the lack of use contributes significantly to the cost of maintenance. Ferrari's tend to be driven less than most other cars and that has a negative affect on the cars. I was talking with a salesman at FOA last week and he told me the best running 360 that they service has over 60k on the clock. I know the cost of maintaining my Rolls-Royce seems to go up when I don't drive it. Same story with a Ferrari.

 

Does that mean I've spent too much? I'll be aproaching 100% of the purchase price on mine by the end of the first year. A big portion of it has been "cosmetic's" not mechanical. I knew mine was going to need a major when I bought it so that was the first thing that was done! Hey, speaking of buying parts I need to go look at some more right now!!

Edit...Of course mine is only a classic not a vintage!!

 

All of the replies are good replies with a lot of thought behind them. SrfCity's reply here sums it all up for me that I will augment on. Half of the maintenence is up to the owner from the day he or she decides on a specific FCar. If one buys a 308 for $12K, they better get out their wallet. If they spend $35K on one that has detailed proof of good maintenance, they should get a good daily driver. The harder you drive an FCar or ANY car, you will accelerate the maintenance issues.

GGrice: First off, welcome to FChat! It is the best place to whet your whistle on Ferrari's prior to your impending ownership.

Exotic ownership 'conditions' the owner to stay on maintenance programs Vs the lack of attention to the same programs for proper maintenance that owners of mainstream cars do not pay attention to! Changing wear items on a new Cadilac are about as expensive as the same on a 308. A Cadilac dealer gets about $100 an hour for their mechanics. There are a lot of good Ferrari mechanics out there for $100 an hour. Where it gets expensive is when you are paying $70 each for a distributor rotor for your 308 Vs $6 for your Ford. There are great places such as GT Car Parts or Italian Car Parts to save on perfectly good replacement parts at 30-50% less than from the dealer's shelf.

As SrfCity stated, "So, when the time is right I think that you'll be ready to fully enjoy owning a Ferrari and won't let the fear of maintenance issues get in the way", he is dead-on!

 

I took my '88 Celica Turbo to a dealer for a 60K service. The dealer asked, "why bother? It's old."

Nobody thinks an '88 328 is ready for the scrap heap.

Why high maintenance on a Ferrari? When was the last time you saw anyone do "preventative maintenance" on a 20 year old Plymouth?

 

Maybe it's different in New England, but here in So Cal, there are lots of high mileage cars (over 100K) that people spend money to maintain. (Of course, not many of them are Ferraris!). Our benign climate might have something to do with this regional difference.

 

My '99 Fiat has 185K or almost 300.000km and still on the same cluch without problems! How's that? I'm so proud of my little car!


I hope my future Ferrari will do a good job too! Of course I always treat my cars with respect... and I drive them a lot!

To be on topic again, the high maintenance costs of a Ferrari are part of the legend you drive IMO.

 

How on earth have you managed to spend 100% of the purchase price on your car? Did you get the car for free? or did you get a deal of a life time?

Reason for asking is, I have rebuilt the engine and redid the trans with new syncros, installed a new differentail, new tires(TRX metric), redid the seats(must do again this winter) and a bunch of other little things aswell. But I have no where near the purchase price of the car in those reapirs, and I STOLE my car!!

I'm just very curious to know what you have done and have had done to your car to amount to such a large sum of money. Heck if I was in your shoes, Ferrari or not, that car would be out the door with a good kick in the ass!!

 

I think it's mostly non use. There are so many posers in the Ferrari world. They think they will look cool if they own a Ferrari, but they have no passion to drive it. You really need to drive it every 1 or 2 weeks to keep the battery charged and everything in working order. If your battery keeps going dead in your car, you don't drive it enough. I drive my 355 weekly and I redline it every chance I get. And it runs nearly perfect, all the time. I was out of town once for 3 weeks and I came back to a dead battery. I got it jumped and it ran bad for a couple minutes. Now imagine the guys that drive their 1K mi/year and only 3 or 4 times. I won't buy one that has not been driven at least 3k/year and vigorously at that. All machinery works this way. Boats that are driven year round, run much better than ones that sit alot. I have driven my 355 3800 miles in about 8 months of ownership.