Mileage anxiety

I agree. Utterly ridiculous.

Myths die hard I guess. Back in the 70s, early 80s, 42.000 miles in a Ferrari was one thing. Today, quite another. Back then, synthetic lubricants for instance were a mirage. Direct injection wasn’t a thing yet. Composite materials had been mainly developed in the 60s during the race to land a man on the moon, and were yet to find their way into cars in mass.

With all developments made in the field of engineering in the last 40 years that dramatically increased the level of reliability in all cars, labelling a car with 42.000 miles “high mileage” is incomprehensible in my book. Inaccurate, at the very least.

Same goes for production numbers: today, people say mainstream Ferraris aren’t collectible at all and never will be, because there’s too much of them made. That may be so, but...

It’s all a matter of perspective and proportion: back in the 70s, cars were mostly built by hand. A slow process. Accordingly, Ferrari would build less than 1.000 of any given model and mainstream manufacturers like, say, Mercedes, BMW or Renault would build, what? 10.000, 20.000 units a year?

Today, Ferrari may built 15.000 or 20.000 458s, 488s, Californias or Portofinos. The PSA Group alone (Peugeot/Citröen) produces ONE MILLION cars every fiscal year, and they’re NOT the biggest in the world, far from it.

A Ferrari is still rare. The proportion changed, that’s all. Mileage and production numbers are two areas in which we all have to review/update our standards and definitions, imvho.

Kindest regards,

Nuno.

 

There comes a point where, in a collector car at least, the mileage is irrelevant. That's probably a half century later when there are few around. Even massed produced Corvettes, 50 year later, there aren't that many really nice examples around. What defines a "collector car" is another topic. Any Ferrari falls into the collector car category in my book, but I know many would disagree with that.

 

Forget about money and cars and miles and other people's opinions: life is too short to live with self-induced anxiety every day. Do whatever reduces your anxiety; your health and family and friends will thank you.

 

I have never had mileage anxiety I did feel a slight pain when I turned 10,000 miles but heck now it’s balls to the walls! Drive it like you stole it!

 

I just put 3500 km on my 599 in less than a week. Driving around the UK, Calais to Barcelona, Barcelona to Nice and then a few trips into Italy. I love these road trips and The the car sits for around 12 months until next year when I’m in europe again

 

Making wonderful memories, Inadeje!

 

Yes, I believe that hoarding away a Ferrari and being worried about miles makes no sense. These machines are sublime to drive and driven they should be. Plus, the appreciation of the brand by other road users is marvelous, people love seeing Ferrari and we love driving them.

 

Got my FF with 48k miles on it a couple days ago, already put 200 miles on it. Going to make good use of the unlimited mileage warranty.

 

Great topic - let's keep it going!

 

My first 488 I put 2500 miles in 4 months. This one 175 miles in the last 3.

 

Only 2 times did I "worry" about mileage, both with my 458. Now, I only drive about 8,000 miles a year total (now thanks to Covid down to about 1000!).

I wanted a 458 spider and I had to buy a coupe to get an early one. My dealer told me bring it back in a year (when the spider was to show up) with less than 1000 miles on the clock and I'll get back the MSRP. And, I did and they did.

It was pretty clear in a few weeks I wasn't happy with the spider and contacted the dealer that I wanted to give it back before depreciation set in. I had to wait 5 months and drove it less than 1000 miles. Then I got the MSRP back.

Aside from worrying about wasting money, there's little point to saving the car for the next guy. Take care of it and enjoy it if you're going to keep it for some time. If you know its going to someone else, cut back and make an easier and less expensive sale.