Ferrari = Breakdown Anxiety

Drive it more. The more you drive them the better they get, and the more confidence you get in the car. The other thing you can do is, start fixxing the car yourself. It will save you money plus you won't be scared if it does break on you, because you can fix it.

 

This "anxiety", might be a minor factor, but trust me, the reason people don't drive their Ferraris is that they absolutely FEAR the miles. It is totally irrational (to me), but more miles mean more services, and depreciation. (about $2 per mile by my friend's estimation). So, they park them most of the time. Me? I drive all over the place...even up to Vancouver, BC for the weekend.

My 355 spider is my third Ferrari, and it is by far the most easy and enjoyable to drive. I have put 5,000 miles on it in the past 7 months of ownership. Yup, a couple minor things have cropped up, but nothing that left me stranded, and all easily delt with.

Dave

 

If you've got a back up car then just drive that and save the F-car for tooling around town. You're car sounds like it may be a bit tempermental. That being the case I'd be inclined to reduce the risk of headaches. Aside from that, think about dumping it and getting something newer when the budget permits.

 

I'm new to this Ferrari anxiety thing - I always thought that concerned look on a Fcar driver's face was disregard for the audience, not fear of the latest hiccup/next-expense. I'm starting to learn - but still adding on the miles.

So far though, I've discovered Ferrari's run well in packs. Interested in a run to Calgary? I'd like to see Zahir's Enzo and Keith's 930 before they're sold. I'd probably borrow a sat-phone to help keep the gremlins at bay.

 

Tom, Paul, I hope to see you both at the Salmon House June 18th, and the Waterfront Park on the 19th!

Dave

 

Keith is a great guy, took me for a short ride in it, its such a great car.

On to the whole ferrari anxitey thing, if you dont feel good about driving the car, dont just take your m5 for the ride, it might be a sedan but its better then being stranded in nowhereville.

 

Your anxiety is probably unjustified, and if the car breaks down, well, you learn what needs fixing and get it done. That's the only way to get to the bottom of gremlins and drive the thing worry free. I drove my 83 Boxer from NYC to Florida in a little over a day without a hiccup back in '99. Granted, before i bought the car, everything had been gone over, and done right. But, i wouldn't have it any other way. I'm not suggesting you are cheap, but frankly, drive it, drive it drive it- if it breaks, you get to find out what's wrong and get it straightened out. Maybe there comes a point when you actually wear the car out, i dunno, but few Ferraris in the 80's and 90's seemed to get that kind of use. (I had the impression that alot of drivers these days do put miles on them, but maybe i'm wrong).
I think the thing about miles stacking up has less to do with reliability than with the self-fulfilling prophecy that the car will have much lower resale value if it has miles. So, people buy these cool cars that are great to drive and what do they do- they don't drive them! Pretty dumb. So what if you lose money- isn't the point to really enjoy the car, not just look at it and think- hmmm, residual value vs mileage- maybe if i don't drive it this afternoon, it will be worth 2,000 more two years from now when i try to unload it. That, to me, is a higher cost of ownership than i am prepared to handle. **** the anxiety and drive the ******* thing!

 

I've had my '84 308QV for almost 12 years and 30,000 miles. Though I have ocassionally had trouble getting it out of my driveway, I have NEVER been stranded away from home except once, and a call to my mechanic got me back on the road in 20 minutes (it had to do with a fuel pump fuse). So do I worry about the aproximately 1000 miles round trip I'm going to take in it for the Indy F1 USGP in a couple of weeks, including the on-track miles while I'm there? Nope.

 

Drive it more often - I drove from SF to Reno to Vegas and back (via LA) w/o issue. I know Vince did in his 355. Art and John did in their 360s. Dave did in his 328.

It's a mental thing - once you get over the anxiety and learn to take the problems, if they happen, in stride - then you'll soon realize how much more you enjoy the car.

--Dan

 

Of course!

 

its not break down aniexty as much as much as aniexty about getting a ding or a scatch...and trust me, in a ferrari , its a big deal.....a door scratch and a door repaint equals a million questions when you go to sell the car and significantly lowers it s resale value...also ,high mileage means quicker service intervals, which means those fun 7-10k service bills....these are the joys of ferrari ownhership....

 

8 years and 38,000 and so far it has only been towed out of my driveway, not to it. Once.

 

1995 355B. 15 months of ownership. Close to 5,000 miles. All of them worry-free. Don't take unnecessary risks with parking and storage to prevent the dings / dents, but to echo the sentiments of many, these cars do get better with age.

 

Once you get the problems on your car fixed you should be ready to go on your hypothetical long trip to NYC. This, at least has been my experience. I've owned 12-cylinder Ferraris for 28 years. My first one was a used 365 GTC/4, bought in 1977. I've also owned TRs and, since 1997, a 550 Maranello, which I bought new. I put between 30 - 40K miles on each of these cars. The 550 is at 34K. I've driven each on trips from So. CA to Arizona, New Mexico, Northern CA, Monterey, etc. Trip length from 1,000 to 3,000 miles. With the exception of a clutch cable failure in the C4, I've never had a problem. The cable failure was my fault; I had the car repainted and forgot to clean out all the fine bodyshop dust.

I've found the cars are very reliable in all the things that matter for driving. I have had them maintained such that anything that fails, or is about to fail, gets fixed. I've always stuck to the recommended maintenance schedule. I've had the same trusted shop work on my cars for 25 years.

The 550 is from roughly the same generation of cars as your 355. I've been highly impressed with the quality of the 550 compared to all of the earlier cars I've owned. I would think that your 355 should be a great travel car.

I also own a 2000 BMW M5, bought new, has 26K miles on the clock. Trouble free except for the navigation and trip computer. I don't feel that it would be more reliable. However, I certainly worry less about parking it in some dark alley on a trip.

 

1995 355, bought it May 2004 with 9200miles, this sunday I turned 18,000, replaced the cats, the radio, and put in a Tubi, a minor glitch or two but never a tow truck.

 

To add to all the good cheer and encouragement, Paul, each year I do about six long-distance drives in an 87 Testa. The round trip is usually 2,500-3,000 miles, bracketed each way by a one-day drive of 700-800 miles. In blisterering heat or freezing cold, bone-dry weather and monsoon-like downpours.

Not once have I had a hiccup. Of course, I keep the car fully serviced and the service centre knows my driving habits, reliability over long runs being paramount. I don't race or track the car. I like to think that when the car is serviced, parts are checked for wear and replaced in anticipation of these runs. Whatever, unlike my experience of a late-model XJS, the last year of the 6 litre V12s and which broke down regularly in the middle of nowhere, the Testa joins other cars mentioned in this thread in being fantastically reliable.

 

Drive the car however you want. If you want to take on a trip do it. I don't seem to have the opportunity to drive mine ,for many reasons, as much as I would like. It's just tuff to do get all the time for all my activities.

 

Have driven the well-maintained 308 for about 15k miles without a glitch other than one headlight motor had the usual rectifier problem (easily solved) and this past week it was VERY hot and the driver's side upper 'L' hose that connects to the radiator had a small leak (probably due to aged rubber).

Drove about three blocks to the nearest Pep Boys and fixed the hose in their parking lot using their 7mm wrench (for the hose clamps) and my hose wrench (to open the top radiator air bleeder). We customized a top quality hose easy enough and after only 30 minutes and a few gallons of antifreeze off i went. Frankly, it was time i changed the coolant anyway and changing the hose was kinda an added bonus. So the hose failed at a good time

Total cost:
Tool loan $0
Customized hose: $10
Antifreeze/coolant: $30
Saving the engine from melting down: Priceless

 

For the record:

I have driven 6 different Fcars ranging from 77 308 to 94 348 a total of 55K over 9 years. Never been stranded. Worse that happened was a broken clutch cable which necessitated driving clutchless 30 miles to shop.

Dave

 

When I first got my 308 GTSi my rule of thumb was to never drive it further from home than I could walk back to, and never drive it without a passenger to help you push it off the road. Never drive on roads without a median to pull off onto, etc. There were only 2 things to pay atention to while driving: road exit strategies and water temperature.

In the 3 years I owned it, I got over most of the anxiety, and drove it to Las Vegas from Colorado, made many trips to New Mexico and Arizona, drove it all over the Rockies...never had a problem! in fact, the more I drove it the better it ran......the last straw though was when the timing cover bearings went bad.....dumped it 'as is' and bought a VW 914 (not as fast but as much, if not more, fun to drive after some mods....)

 

Your post reminded me of a quote by Pat Braden in his Alfa Owner Bible:

The Italian Tune-Up is No Myth

You’ve sunk your next five years’ paychecks into this sweet Italian beauty and you’re not going to abuse it, by golly. You shift at 2500 rpm and never go over 70 mph. To prove your point, the car needs tuning so often now that if you really put your foot into it you’re sure something would explode. That’s Italian cars for you.

Somewhere, right now in Italy, someone’s driving exactly the same car as yours. His right foot is pressed firmly to the floor, where it has been for the last three hours. The rubber on the brake pedal shows no perceptible wear. The speedometer and tachometer are both trying to bury themselves offscale. His arms are weary from cranking the wheel back and forth as he negotiates the mountain roads. His eyes gleam and his heart is glad for he has never once had cause to do more than regular maintenance to his thoroughbred of a car that has uncounted kilometers on its engine. He’s right and you’re wrong!"


Dom

 

I treat my cars right. I delight in servicing my cars. Even though I have never broken down in my Ferrari I have experience w/ my other sports cars – but mostly after they were highly modified. My 81 stock engine Racing Beat RX-7 ran over 200,000 mi w/out breaking down once. I listen to & feel everything & if ain’t right I pay attention. A tip from a Ferrari owner & Daytona 24 racer friend is: “Drive smoothly & your car will last.”

 

Do you annually replace the ignition coils, contact boards, ECUs, fuel pumps, etc in anticipation of a failure? That sounds like an extremely expensive process.

I've been stranded 3 times with random electronic glitches that IMO weren't foreseeable - one involved the failure of the module on the ignition coil that controls the fuel pumps. At the time, it took me several days to find a coil and then a few days to have it shipped.