Porsche vs Ferrari Ownership Experience

I don’t understand why you say this. Porsche makes a great car. I’ve have never had a bad one. Compared to the older ones, the new ones are superior in every way, while still maintaining that precision and no nonsense design that they are known for.

If you are looking for that analog feel and connection to the driver, Porsche has a few models that will tick that box. You can still get an NA flat six and a great manual transmission.

So I’m curious as to why you say that.





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I’ve owned multiple Porsche’s and multiple Ferrari’s and currently own one of each. I have a Panamera for DD and a 458 Spider. In the past I’ve had 911s, which were fantastic cars as is the Panamera. The service and sales experiences are always great and the reliability of the cars are awesome, but if I want to have fun and go on a Sunday drive with the top down there is no comparison from the Porsche to the 458. Taking the 458 out is like a show, people never gave the 911 a second look. The Ferrari is a Rolling Stones show on the road with the crowds and the noise. It’s just a totally different experience that leaves me smiling ear to ear and I found this with the 360 and 430 I owned previously.

 

A2A. I am not talking about great car or not being made. I am talking about the relationship between the company heritage and how the cars being sold are evolving. I won't necessarily say that this is about analog vs digital either, notwithstanding that McL and Lotus still use hydraulic steering. I don't even want to talk about the .2 manual GT3, and the so called touring package, preceded by the 911R, and how AP sales pitch are essentially the same with every GT car version made.

All in all, it's a business overall. They exist for profits. Back to the OP question, my ownership experience with Porsche is that cars are well built, the GT cars are decent to play with for a while (I had over 10k miles in each GT3 and GT4, except the .2 manual) and more importantly how the dealer has no sense of reciprocating loyalty and are short sighted.

The game with Porsche dealers with each GT version are getting old, even though I paid for them at MSRP.

 

I had a 360 F1 and had zero issues with it for 3+ years. Tubi exhaust made it an even more visceral experience. Than I moved on to 2 F430's which were a delight as well. Now I'm in a 488 GTB...geesch...hard to believe it can get any better than this! I always admired the Porsche's....still do...But these Ferraris always make my heart skip a beat!!!

 

Another reply from someone who has owned both Porsche & Ferrari. I started owning Porsches in the early 80's. Still have my first one, 911S. Last one was a 2006 997 4S with X51 power kit and loads of "go fast" things. Sold it to buy the 2007 F430 I currently own. I loved the 997, but it doesn't compare to the F430 for performance or "wow" factor. I expect the final decision will be mostly based on emotion, and why shouldn't it be? That being said, here are a few things to consider:
1. Review the ownership costs, just to prevent surprises that could sour your ownership experience. Service, insurance, registration, etc. If the extra cost to own the Ferrari fits you, and it will cost more, go for it.
2. With either car, get the service history. Only buy one that has had all the normal issues resolved. Let the prior owner(s) pay for this stuff.
3. Check out the shops you would consider for service. Make sure you feel comfortable with them. Porsche will likely work better here, but there are plenty of competent Ferrari shops out there.
4. If you plan to participate in club events, get a good read on your respective Porsche & Ferrari clubs. They will likely be LOTS different. We found a local group of Ferrari owners through my Ferrari Tech. Neat small group of about 15 people that meet monthly, and very down to earth.

 

Interesting looking at service as a factor. I own a couple of Ferraris and one is way past its warranty date. Found a couple of local mechanics that only charge about 1/3 of the dealer service shops. They service literally a hundred cars in the KC area and use OEM parts. There is no drama, great service and cost is reasonable. I think on my Cali it was about $600 for complete front to tail service, changed spark plugs and such. Been using them for 8 years now. On the other one it is only 9 months old, so the 7 year warranty is in play, but with the closest dealer some 1000 miles away, the cost is in the shipping. As Rosanne Rosanadanna said "its always something".

Drove the Porsche turbo and realized some of us are either Porsche people or Ferrari people. I just didn't get any sort of emotion in the Porsche. I have owned a ton of German cars and they are universally tight, clean and reliable. Unfortunately, a bit on the boring side for me, but beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. We bought a Tesla S, and love it. Car is a blast to drive and goes like a bullet, and is so heavy that don't need snow tires in the winter. Completely different duck, but we are happy.

Quite honestly, I have had very little problems with Ferrari maintenance. Biggest complaint is the sticky buttons on the Cali, which cost me about $750 to replace with labor.

Every day is a gift and you should do what makes you happy. Trying to do this on a finance basis is apples and ham sandwiches. I am an engineer and am driven to rows and columns, but in this case it just doesn't apply. Make a decision, don't look back and have fun.

 

I’m on a lot different scale then the cars you guys are talking about...I’ve got my 308 and a 914-6 2.7 conversion I own each one for completely different reasons. I love the differences of each and have exactly what I want at this time in my life, well except I might like to add an xke coupe too....

 

Quite frankly, it is hard to go wrong with either. My DD is a ‘15 Cayman GTS 6-speed. My favorite DD ever. We even took it on a 5k road trip over 3 weeks. It is amazing what will fit in the front and rear if you use soft luggage. On the other hand, taking my ‘06 F430 F1 on a drive through the countryside is a very different experience. The Ferrari sound is simply intoxicating. The Cayman is more comfortable. My only bad service experience with the Ferrari is having the F1 pump rebuilt for about $12k at 24k miles. Fixing sticky buttons and other plastics were about $2k. The Cayman has been pretty bulletproof over 45k miles with only a $750 oil pan gasket. I agree with what others said about Porsche dealer service. I use a good local independent.

I do 10-12 track days a year in an ‘11 GT3 RS. I have put about 24k miles on it and it had 28k on it when I bought it 2 years ago. I had the pipes pinned to avoid the chance of a catastrophic loss of coolant on track. That was about $8k and other miscellaneous work while the engine was out, including a clutch, all belts, rubber coolant hoses, PS pipes, and lots of o-rings, was close to another $7k. The extensive maintenance was to run One Lap of America last year. The car performed flawlessly over 3500 transit miles and 6 tracks, a drag strip, an autocross, and 2 skid pads over 8 days. The carbon buckets were surprisingly comfortable for seats where the only adjustment is forward and back! I even pulled a small tire trailer with it on One Lap

This was a long-winded way of saying that both can be great cars and enjoyed in different ways. PCA and FCA both have fun events. PCA has more tech events. FCA has more driving events, at least in my area.

Good luck in your search.

David

 

Air-cooled 911 owners — like Jeep Wrangler owners — wave at each other, or at least give each other a thumbs up when they pass in the street.

I love Ferraris, but when they pass each other in the street they act like women who wore the same dress to a party.

Matt

 

Lol. That's a good one.

 

I am not trying to insult anyone (though I probably will), but what do you base your opinions on as to which one you prefer. Is it an emotional feel that you get from the car or is it that you like the attention (if that is the case buy a bright green Lamborghini), you get when you are seen driving the car. Are any of you experts on car design or have you ever done anything to a car other than drive one. I believe in very little (you could count on one hand and have fingers left) in this world and heritage to me is laughable. If I am not mistaken Ferrari (did not care much for the road going cars) got his start at Alfa Romeo, and Porsche made the peoples car, not exactly the heritage I would want to bring up to justify a purchase. All I see is machines non living, and both companies have made some awful machines over the years. I have read all these posts (I have read many more over my almost 16 1/2 years here), and I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to understand normal peoples reasoning. In 1999 the 360 was a fine machine (though it had many things that could be made better), today there are far better choices (including a Evora 400 which I have also owned). I have spent most of my adult life taking cars apart designing parts and sharing my ideas (for free) with anyone who wanted to use them, and I have in all my years never found a perfect machine from the factory. I think if I did I would stop buying cars and call it a day.

 

I agree with that part of it. The Porsche dealerships really don’t do the brand justice. Most of my experiences with multiple Porsche dealers all have one thing in common, the people selling the cars do not really care about the brand or even cars for that matter. In the rare chance that you do find that “car guy” within the group of salesmen, they typically end up leaving within 6 months to a year. Also, the games they play with GT cars are total BS and In some cases illegal. For example, the GM at Porsche of Tysons was fired for doing some shady **** with GT cars and customer’s DPs.

With my Bentleys, Aston’s, and Ferraris, I always make it point to go by the dealer and hang out with the owners, managers, and salesmen. I’m really happy to have such good relationships with those dealers here in VA. We do events together, dinners, BBQ, and rallys.

With the Bentley-Aston guys in VA, we have a suck a good relationship that we actually became personal friends and have enjoyed dinner at our respective homes.

It so much fun and part of the ownership and brand engagement experience.

IMO, the big difference between owning a luxury brand and everyone else, is the experience. Luxury brands that don’t provide that, will fade away.


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Other Ferrari owners wave around here. Not that it happens often.

Drive a Vette and your hand is ready to fall off after 10 minutes of driving.

 

For me. This question is best asked by year. For example, I'll take a same year 911 over a 3X8 Ferrari any day. The 911 is more fun to drive.

On a modern Ferrari, I would have no choice. It will have to be a Porsche or something else (maybe even grasp a Miata) because I insist on a stick.

 

When I bought the 308 I sold my two 914’s thinking I finally had what I was looking for. Couple of weeks later I bought another 914 with a vw bus motor in it (60hp maybe) for $950 and had a blast driving it around to Saturday events.
They stir my soul in different ways. I’m sure I’d love the new stuff on both sides. My wife says she’d buy me a new 488 or gt3 but corrects herself and says “you’d want the money for an older car anyway”.

 

There is nothing like those Ferraris. Porsche has great cars, but they lack the wild freedom energy of a real Ferrari. The new Ferraris? Amazing tech, and reliable, yet I find them unacceptable and corporate. For a weekend car? You're in the right ballpark.

Porsche is a daily driver that can go to the track. It's a different animal.

 

Thank you again for all of the replies.
I indeed test drove a 997 08 Turbo Manual Cab. on Friday. I overall liked the vehicle (in and out), but I did not excite me. I am not sure how to describe it, but the experience was a little underwhelming. It is quick, clutch pedal is very soft, seats were comfortable, child seat space available but no intoxicating visceral noise (I am sure exhaust could fix that) nor excitement when getting out of the car. Once virus allows it, I will drive a 360 and see. Thank you all.

 

Across the board you will find the following generalizations hold up.

Porsche is German = steady, reliable, boring.
Ferrari is Italian = passionate, questionably reliable before 2010 or so, exciting.


Now if you step into a new 911 Turbo S it's not going to seem boring, yet take it on the track vs. a 458 or 488 Pista and you will see how boring it is.

 

The TCO for the Porsche will be much lower. I found the 360 to be quite primitive and finicky. I now have a 458 Italia and it is the best sports car I've owned. We also have a 991 Turbo S Cabriolet and it is awesome. Both car clubs are fun, Ferrari Club is a smaller group, but both are fun and have lots of events. Either choice will be a good experience.

 

360 Manual v 997 turbo. 360. (Manual)

360 v 997.1 GT3 RS. RS.

my ex father in law had 360. Bought new. At the time, I could not imagine a better sounding car or fun driving manual sports car.

Until I bought my RS.

997 Porsche turbo nothing like RS or 360.

 

Drive an F12 and a 4 litre 911 Gt3... I had a 996 tt souped up to 700 bhp too. The Gt3 gets plenty of positive attention, and looks lower and sleeker then a 911 turbo.. Just enough....they should have pushed it a bit more tho... It's much more exciting to drive than my older 911 turbo, feels like race car it is and the engine noise from 7 to 9 thousand, the down changes... epic as is the fast pdk gearbox, although again it should be 8 speed not 7. Easily the closest thing to a Ferrari. But... The F12 is still in a different league in terms of the glamour and the attention it gets.. its designed to make you feel like a rock star and it does. And the engine sound on song is incredible, it revs up like a motorbike engine yet is 6.2 litres, epic.
It does not handle quite as good as a Gt3, it's just the additional weight really, except on wide sweeping roads when it is faster. The torque of the V12 also feels much higher than the gt3. The gt3 is my daily and up to it, the F12 a special occasion. My only gripe is ferrari too commercial now and spares etc are a complete ripp off, much less so the porsche. Also the gt3 suspension is way too firm for normal roads whereas the bumpy road setting in the F12 makes it really great on ordinary roads. Had porsche made the gt3 slightly sleeker, 8 speed, added soft suspension mode and another 100 hp...then it would be absolutely incredible, ferrari watch out..

 

I also have a 308 and drove a 914 4cyl years ago.

How would you compare performance between the 914 6 and your 308?

 

Really interesting perspective. I have actually found it to be quite the opposite. Not sure what part of the world you are, but my local Porsche club is extremely engaging. There are several events every month, from dinners, to track days, to road trips, etc. and there are dozens and sometimes hundreds of people at each one.
I have attended the annual Ferrari club meet which was amazing, but as for frequent local stuff....not much at all. Usually the same couple guys.
Really hard to compare the two.


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no comparison. The 914 2.7 stomps my 2V 308. They’re different rides and are used for different journeys. The 914 with its power to weight ratio and mid engine will out run same period 911’s. The 308 is a ‘stylin’ ride and everyone knows I didn’t buy it for its quickness. I’m in for the total experience for both. I do repairs, maintenance, and driving.

 

I'm surprised to hear that! I only drove 4cyl 914's but they were barely faster than VW Bugs.

Didn't think that extra 2cyl would make that much difference....not that the 308 is that fast to begin with

914's are cool cars though