$10,000+ Repair Bills, how common are they?

this is why ferrari power warranty extension is so common my 7 years old F430, no issues, ever...but always had Power warranty extended, to avoid this...

 

I have had a 99 360 for 5 years. No problems at all. Just routine maintenance and 2 30k services. Any other expenses were elective upgrades. Don't let irrational fear keep you away from the brand.

 

So what has 7 years of power warranty cost you?

 

You could be walking down the road in the middle of a national forest and suddenly have a car crash into a tree nearby and an angry monkey armed with a stun gun and teargas comes toward you with the intent of subduing you and chewing your face off.
For this reason I tend to carry several stun grenades, a m60 machine gun, and backup UZI.. just in case this happens. ;-)

For the same reason that you carry health insurance, however rare the cause it's nice to know it's there. $10k repair bills CAN happen. So can rabid monkeys. Perhaps with the same frequency.

If you get your car repaired by the dealership out of warranty, if you buy a brand new part from the dealership blessed by the pope, if you insist on "taking care of things that aren't broken but might", if you blindly listen to the technician that tells you all eight ball joints should be replaced..... you stand a greater chance of having a $10,000 repair bill.

Ferrari parts are spensive'. Specially' if you buy them from Ferrari directly. There are a few things that can break on the car that are astronomically expensive to fix out of warranty that will set you back $10,000. Those failures are by far the exception not the rule.
Can out of work students with $500 in the bank account own a Ferrari.. until something breaks yes. That $10,000 in the bank is a criteria that you can OWN the car with some comfort. It's milestone in my eyes if you will that you can "afford" to own the car. Is it truly needed? No. Is it strongly recommended by those who OWN these cars. Yes. And for a reason based on experience.

BTW, my 360 has been rock solid. Coming up on 2 years.. biggest repair was about $900, known to me when I bought it.

 

IMO, if u r buying a used car that typically retails for the better part of a quarter million dollars when new, u should be prepared to spend about $10k per yr in routine maintenance and/or mods. You may not always spend that much but you easily could.

Brake pads don't last long and are typ a min of about $1k to replace. If you need rotors too u r lookin at $2500 or more.

Tires can be $2k installed and aligned.

A clutch is $5-7k depending on whether or not u do the flywheel.

Exhausts are all over the map depending on what u replace and what u pick. Could be $3k could be $15k

 

I have owned a MY 05 F430 coming up on 3 years and 23K kms. So far the only repair bill I have had was for 2 TPMS sending units. Total cost about $700 CDN. Other than that I have done yearly fluids and a set of rear tires, due for another set of rears very soon.

Overall, the car has been rock solid, has not let me down once.

 

I should have noted that if you drive 3000 to 4000 miles a yr as in the last post, u will spend a lot less than if u drive 300 to 400 miles per week, like I do.

 

$10k bill seems pretty steep unless your going only to the Ferrari dealer. Back when I was looking for salvage ferraris I did alot of research for engines and trans prices, and from IKQ and others you can pick up a motor for +/-$7500, and a trans for around $5000

 

Every 20k miles or so you are likely to need a new clutch, whether its a 3 pedal car or an F1. If you go through all the labor to get the clutch and pressure plate out, you will more or less be guilted into doing a flywheel too because cutting them, while possible, does not provide the same tapered finish as a new OEM one, so the take up will be different, and that alone could be cause to decide to buy a new one. If it isn't, the fact that the flywheel has been subject to a lot of heat stress -- something cutting doesn't address -- may also motivate the owner to get a new one. The flywheels are $1800. The job will run like $7k or more if you decide to do the flywheel. Rear tires definitely won't last 20k miles, so that's a grand right there. Throw in an annual fluids service and a few small other things and you are at $10k easily. Granted, you might not do this all in one visit, but you may, and you can definitely do that in the first year ownership depending on the condition of the clutch, brakes, tires, etc. when you purchase the car.

You may also decide to get a new exhaust system either out of desire or due to cat or ceramic insulation degradation. It adds up, esp if you drive them often.

Look, I'm not bashing the marque or anyone else for that matter, I just think its disingenuous, esp for future readers of this thread who may be doing research about buying a car, to not disclose what the potential ownerships costs are. It doesn't help the buyer or any of us for that matter if people who aren't prepared for the potential costs of ownership actually buy a car, later find out they can't afford it, and then dump the car back on the market at a fire sale price that could affect future sale prices of all other similar cars. Plus its bad karma. Anyway, I need to go food shopping, so time to get my keys...

 

04 stradale...here.

only issue... replaced 2 batteries in 8 years!!

12,800 miles.... clutch at 85%

normal maintenance.... every year complete fluid change 1500.00

every 3 years belts 1800.00

tires... due to time not wear 1 times. (almost ready again)

I think the key... is proper maintenance!! and a GREAT mechanic.. and the SAME mechanic. So he knows the car!!

 

7 to 8th year Power train warranty 3300 swiss Francs here.

 

I agree with the last line but am shocked that you haven't done brakes at all in 8 years or 12,800 miles. Equally shocked tires were replaced due to age and not wear. Rears can last like 6k miles depending on how you drive/corner. You gotta get on that CS on more, dude!

 

What kind of brakes and tires are you talking about??! I do track days and have pads replaced a number of times and never run over $200. New Pirelli P zero tires installed and aligned for just a little over $1k.

 

OEM pads are $500 at a discount from FofNJ. They are on eBay right now. I did mine myself. I figured a dealer would charge $600-700 for an actual service appt plus 2 hrs labor, do that's a grand.

S O2 As are $600 for a pair of fronts and $800 for rears (rounding) plus shipping is around $1600 plus mount balance and align.

 

On a Stradale...brakes are Ceramic..

under normal use will last the life of the car!! or at least close!!

i bet no stradale owners have replaced pads yet...unless car has been tracked.

 

so far my average has been about $5k per year.

This year fluids were $1k.

One year new clutch and belt service at 21k miles was about $10k.

Cheaper than paying dues at the private golf club.

 

P Zeros are $1600 just for tires alone at TR, btw (no ship, no install, etc)

 

I forgot about the Ceramic rotors on the CS, so that's a good point.

I give up on everything else. Am kinda feeling like no one wants to acknowledge the possibilty of my points having any validity, so I'll just shut up. Any future readers interested in the marque can take what they will from this, which seems to be that most owners pay very little to maintain their cars and that $10k in repairs is extremely uncommon, though it should be pointed out that some of the examples are in the range of 2-3k miles driven per year.

 

LOL...

your points are valid!! believe me, im fully aware of the chance of something going catastrophically wrong!! and getting a 10,000.00 invoice is possible... the cost of repairs of these cars is crazy... parts are ridiculous!!

I think most of us are saying, its highly unlikely... the cars have proven themselves since 99... Most of us have not seen the 10,000.00 breakdown... is there a chance YES... it goes with the territory..

mark

 

You have good points and they are taken.

My only issue with them is to say that things are that expensive is also misleading in itself. E.g. replaced all the rotors and pads on mine last year, $1100. Pads: Gyrodisc $300 both axles, Rotors were $200 each from a distributor in NJ. Put them on myself in 2 hours.

Tires: Hankoon Ventus, I think I paid $500-600 for all 4. Mounting was $60 bucks. They don't handle as good as Pilot Sports, but they are just fine for the driving that I do and aren't that bad IMHO for the price.

Fluids: do my own fluids each year in the garage.. so it's not that fair to compare.

Clutches, depends on individual driving style. 360's clutch grabs fine. I'll probably do a kevlar when the time comes, maybe do flywheel, maybe not. We'll see. Some Boxsters only go 40k miles on a clutch. I've got 66k and I keep hoping it will go so I can change the IMS bearing. 928, 10 years after I replaced the clutch, bearing went, not the clutch itself.

You gave good examples, but readers should remember things are on a spectrum. The cars have proven themselves over the last decade. Even the $10k repairs with F1.. put a used actuator in or buy new from ferrari?

 

P Zeros are a ripoff, unless you're deliberately trying to reach $10k by overspending.

 

Well, let me help you out, order Porterfield RS pads from Ricambi, they are a quarter the cost of OEM pads and much better, with little brake dust as a bonus.

No one is trying to run you off, just seems like you have paid probably to much and if you can save some money as a result of sharing here on the forum, I would be happy. Its all good.

 

If you're buying a used newer F-car that you really don't know the history on, out of warranty, you are rolling the dice. Anyone who's owned their car while still under warranty and has let it run out and not had any problems, has a lesser risk of a big owie later. Bottom line is if your buying a newer used F-car make sure you have the full warranty for at least a year to determine if you have a good car. Once the warranty runs out it's up to you if you think it better to just put that money towards repairs or not?

 

I would guess about $3-4K not including tires but I basically agree with this assessment. Lots of little things come up and suck up cash. Last trip it was the AC compressor and the door latch. Both had to be rebuilt. Now arguably I could have skipped both if I didn't mind not opening the drivers door (or maybe flying open at random) and I didn't want the AC to work.

FTA you aren't way off. The 10K/yr is too high but 1K, 1K, 10K is completely possible. The people who think they can keep driving them for $1K/yr are deluding themselves. Let them live in their dream world.

Don't get me wrong, the cars are reliable and like most cars you can drive them without incident. Then something comes up and you end up fixing that, replacing the clutch, and a couple of other misc things you have been putting off. OOPS, now you have a $10K bill.