California Radiator Poor Design

I have never understood why cheap cars are so durable and expensive ones are so delicate.

You can beat the hell out of a Camaro or a Vette, and they just take it. If you don't perfectly service your Ferrari or Lambo, you end up with a 5 figure fix on your hands.

 

No issues with my California T. I have over 14k miles.

 

Definitely an issue on the 991tts. Solution was to get a metal grid to fit in the nose.

 

Small stones destroy metal radiators all the time. It's not peculiar to Ferraris. They are all expensive to service. You can get someone to add a mesh behind your car's grill but that will likely interfere with the cooling. There's also the optional GTO style grill from Ferrari, not mesh-level fine but finer than the regular grill. Expensive.

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Many high end cars also used plastic radiators and those tend to catastrophically self-destruct (blow up) on a regular basis and can also destroy your engine if it happens at highway speeds when you cannot immediately stop the car.

 

Nothing complicated. If you want high end performance and exclusivity, you pay for it. That's why they're exclusive.

Exotic high performance cars usually use components that are custom-designed for that one model and only a few thousand cars are made. Cars like Camaros and Vettes (even 911s) use many standard time-tested components shared with older cars and other car models made in the 100s of thousands if not millions.

Even BMWs require strict adherence to service schedules and some people try to turn off service reminders. I'm not being flippant but if you can't afford to adhere required service requirements, then you can't afford to own the car. These cars come with serious after-purchase expense commitments. Ferrari's 7-year free service lure owners who lease and return their cars so those cars can end up with owners who cannot afford non-warranty repairs.

At any rate the Cali radiator is actually $1,350 and the $4k bill may be inflated.

 

Sixteen years driving my 2002 Corvette,and the total repair costs wouldn't even pay for a fire extinguisher for my Portofino.

 

Wow, less than $1100?!? I'm assuming that excludes scheduled maintenance, tires, etc. That's reliable. Even our Honda Ridgeline has cost us more than a grand in repairs.
T

 

That is just replacing the few things that broke. But routine maintenance is low because I do it myself and because GM sells a comprehensive service manual. Sticky tires are the biggest expense. Other than those tires,it's just a Chevy.

 

4th...Never seen that mesh grill before. Cool. Have thought about the mesh for my 911 as it accumulates a ton of crud in there. I have to clean it out once or twice a year. My worry is that with our warm weather, it'll retard cooling to some extent...T