This article was published today. It's received over 800 replies. Thoughts? Owning A Ferrari For A Year Was A Disappointment
Well he's stating it from his point of view and he's entitled to his opinion but I tend to disagree with most of his points. In F355 anyway, I didn't get such an amazing amount of attention that it was bothersome. Probably was just driving too fast to notice. I somewhat see the limited use thing, as I didn't like to drive mine to work and just let it bake in the sun all day and get dusty but I would take it just about everywhere else. Expensive? Sure, but if owning a Ferrari isn't expensive, what is? Should be prepared for that going in.
He's right about one thing, a Ferrari is not for him. At the same time, he labeled himself as a major *****.
Agreed, the attention doesn't bother. I've owned nice cars and pretty desensitized for the most part. The limited use part is true, but for me it is what it is. It's an occasion each time I take mine out. I don't wear a Tux when I go to the mall, McDonalds, shopping etc. That's what the beater is for. The cost of ownership, yup should not have even been mentioned..its a given.
My last word got sniped. To quote the group Naughty by Nature: "The last P, well, that's not that simple. It's sorta like another way to call a cat a kitten It's five little letters that are missin'"
Let's face it, these cars can give us a beating... Sort of like having a gorgeous-out-of-your-league girlfriend who treats you like cr***p. Chances are you'll put up with it just so you can keep being intimate with her and showing her off everywhere you go. I think Ferrari owners have to be like that to a certain extent. If truly our passion was for good cars, we'd all have a Porsche, Lol!
Regarding attention (too much), maybe his experience would have been more satisfying if he chose a color other than red (avoid yellow as well).
I think he was pandering to his audience a bit. That site is very anti-Ferrari and never misses the chance to bash them. 75% of the comments are from teenagers who like to make fire jokes and know nothing of which they speak beyond parroting what they read. That said, perhaps it's his location. I've had several Ferraris that I've taken everywhere from Publix to restaurants to Home Depot with zero problems here in Florida. I love Porsches (as he seems to be leading into) but they are as common here as a Honda and IMHO come with all the same Ferrari problems with the added expense of being very sterile and lacking emotion.
Having grown up in the Philly area I would have to say that this guy must never have ventured outside the city limits. Plenty of greats roads around and lots of destinations to visit: Valley Forge, New Hope, Washington's Crossing... Bucks and Montgomery countries, plenty of great roads to explore.
This guy has a number of videos on YouTube somewhat mocking Ferrari ownership. I found them amusing. He also tried to sell the car to CarMax.
Not a 355 fan either "So I set out searching for the perfect 355, only to discover that the 355 is, and I say this with all due respect to you 355 owners out there, possibly the most unreliable car of all time. Seriously: it makes a Series I Land Rover Discovery look like that huge tree in California that just keeps living; the one that was just a sapling when Barbara Bush was born."
This pretty much sums up my feelings on my current predicament entirely: Here?s Why You Should Never Drive a Ferrari in Manhattan
So, he buys a car that he doesn't like. How stupid is that? Yeah, he showed the naysayers at the Ferrari dealership (his former employer of 4 months). According to Jalopnik (a weblog that emphasizes irrelevant humor), the writer is an experiment.
Well to be fair- haven't we all driven our cars with one eye on the gauges... listening for some little sound that might spell impending doom? Reputations are hard to shake. I have driven my 355 long distances, and I have had people take my picture and make videos and get WAAAAY to close and try and race me at every stop light... comes with the territory.
The author sounded to me like he had prejudged the car before he even owned it. He let define his ownership experience instead of the other way around. It's just a car and you can use it any way you like. Granted there are some restrictions and limitations in Philly we don't have on the West Coast. He had ample opportunity and circumstance to enjoy the car as any performance coupe, like a Porsche. A 360 (and 430) is about as Porsche as a Ferrari gets. I am sure there were FCA and FOC events he could have attended. Cars and Coffee too. In the end, you make your ownership experience into what you would like. My guess is that he didn't really like the car in the first place, that it was more of an ambition out of curiosity than a true passion for the make. As for the difficulty selling the car, well being a 360 that makes sense. There are a lot of competitive cars out there and it is difficult to stand out in that crowd. If he had an earlier model 308, 328, 348 or 355 my guess is resale would not have been that tough. As for ownership cost, I guess he is not much of a wrench, doesn't have enthusiast friends or doesn't know a decently priced independent mechanic. I hear a whiner not a solver in this article.