PPI for car sold by F dealer?

No single simple answer. Best is to send your guy to the car.

 

FWIW I am obviously not a big fan of Indys for ongoing care and service (just me- TONS of AWESOME Indys out there so that's just me) I would use an Indy for a PPI. They have no skin in the game other than providing you a fair and thorough PPI. And a lot of Indys' business/$$ comes from PPIs so they tend to be very good at it- whereas some Dealers just consider them low-profit annoyances and as such are not as thorough.

Cheers

 

More and more of us do not do them at all so not really true these days. I have not done one in years. To little money, destroys any attempt at scheduling and have become a huge liability. I was charging near $1000 8 years ago and it was not enough. For 7 figure cars I will consider it.

"No skin in the game"? Thats hilarious.

Like being an OBGYN. "My baby is not perfect, its someones fault. You're handy".

 

Yes, it’s always a risk, but for that particular car I was pretty confident. I bought it from a well known Ferrari indy who owned it 15 years, and who has been a close friend of my uncle for 40 years. Only repair I had to do after was a fuel tank gasket leak.

On the other hand, my gated 430 was a private sale and more of a risk. It had good consistent service records, looked pristine, drove strong. I lucked out, after my Indy looked over it, all I needed was ball joints and engine mounts.

I’ve been lucky so far, but I don’t buy too many cars, certainly don’t want to test that luck too much…

 

The point(s) of the "no skin in the game" are simply 1) and Indy is not trying to sell the car so "no skin" off their ass if the PPI causes the potential buyer to pass and 2) an Indy is not beholding to Ferrari or governed by them so "no skin" off their ass if they find or identify an issue thar could reflect negatively on Ferrari.

Cheers

 

This business runs on relationships. You have never experienced telling a wealthy important client he cannot have the car he has his heart set on. You also have never experienced an important seller trying to destroy your reputation for telling an important client not to buy a seven figure car because by doing so you have signaled the entire community not to purchase it. You have not been around long enough to understand the ramifications.

PPI's are a no win for any amount. Its why so few who are seriously in the Ferrari business still do them. Many have been sued trying to provide a service.

 

Wow- I had no clue- great points and thanks- Sucks we are in such a litigious mindset these days but I totally get it- Especially from your "actually in the business" standpoint- Thanks for the education- Cheers

 

Sad, but true.

 

If it looks good, drives good, has records, and it fulfills a dream, take the plunge! You only live once. You can get a ppi, only a few hundred bucks, if it makes u feel better, and help with negotiating price or up front repairs, but it is no guarantee of anything. My philosophy is as long as u budget unexpected costs, u r good to go.

The way I approach it is I won’t buy it unless I can write it off without too much pain. If I ended up with a lemon, either I fix it if I loved the car, or just sell it at a big loss, and chalk it up as lesson that exotic car ownership is not for me (but at least able to have experienced it!)

 

Sales and service are two different teams with their own incentives (sales is a customer of service). Get a copy of the original PPI and the work they completed, then focus on any delta that exists.

 

It's so true that who does your PPI, if you can find anyone, is important. The holy grail is getting a trustworthy person to do your PPI in good time. It's not easy to find, particularly away from home.

I have bought six Ferraris (many more Porsches, but Ferraris are just different). I am absolutely not a mechanic but have been around a while. Here's how they stacked up:

1987 Testarossa
Bought at auction
No PPI, just my visual inspection (no lift) & documents
How did it turn out: I knew it would need work for some rust on suspension, figured everything else was fine.
Suspension component rust was much worse than I had expected, everything else was fine.
Conclusion: If I'd had a PPI, I probably would have bought another car, but worked out ok in the end mainly due to the good fortune of buying in a rising market at the time

1995 F512M
Bought privately
PPI from Ferrari main dealer who serviced the car. Car was in Barcelona, I live in England. Note: obviously a risk, as vendor was their client. I insisted on the same check they did on Approved cars and on receiving a headed paper document with their checklist.
PPI was fine
Car was fine

1997 550 Maranello
Bought privately from dealer principal of Fiat dealership near Rome (his personal car)
Asked a Ferrari dealership in Rome to do a PPI. They agreed, and the next thing I heard, the vendor told me the dealer had bid on the car for one of their clients, without doing a PPI.
So, visual inspection by me. It was a very low mileage example.
How did it turn out: Needed quite a lot of work on fuel system etc when I got it to UK, but otherwise fine. A PPI may have caused me to think again, re the expensive fuel system repairs, but otherwise the car was good, so likely not.

2005 gated 430 Spider
Bought from authorised Ferrari dealership in UK, CPO equivalent
PPI: No
I inspected the car and documentation minutely and saw it had had every detail attended to in its annual services, money no object.
How did it turn out: Perfect. Super reliable and no hidden horrors.

2006 gated 430 coupe
Bought from authorised Ferrari dealership in UK, CPO equivalent
PPI: No
Car had 1000 miles on it. All the documentation.
How did it turn out: A few glitches more than a year after I bought it, nothing a PPI would have noted

2004 gated 575
Bought from recognised classic Ferrari dealership in UK which is also an authorised Ferrari workshop (not vendor)
PPI: No
I looked around the car and documentation minutely and saw it had had every detail attended to in its annual services, money no object.
How did it turn out: Perfect. Super reliable and no hidden horrors.


In between these, there were numerous cars I saw and didn't even consider, both at dealerships/CPO and otherwise.

So, no PPIs and I never bought a lemon, for example a car that had been crashed badly. For two out of six, a PPI would have made me think carefully, and for one of those two, probably not buy the car. The best cars had very thorough service and maintenance records where the obviously wealthy owners had insisted on everything being done to make the car perfect, over many years. I also spent a lot of time examining the cars myself, but as a non-mechanic, that doesn't mean that much.

The old advice still goes: buy the best car you can, don't think about getting a bargain, examine everything and ask about everything, don't overrule your own doubts, and always remember there's another one. And if you buy from a dealer with an excellent reputation, that can only help, but it's no guarantee.

Good luck, and it's worth it! I don't think many people every regret becoming Ferrari owners.

 

Sending your mechanic is the only way. Any other if you can find one is a waste of money.

 

And that is rule #1. It is followed by about 1% of the buyers. Everyone wast a bargain. There are none.

 

YES! I think it is a conflict of interest to have the dealer (or private party) provide an inspection to their own cars (or for you to base a decision on their report), I have always gotten my own PPI and not one time did it match up with the dealers, in some cases there were over 30 things wrong the dealer had not listed.

 

When I was in dealers I got flown around the country for our clients inspecting cars. Even inspected a 275GTBC at our co owned dealer because our client trusted me to represent his interests. Company management was pretty pissed when it got a tumbs down.

 

No matter where one is on the risk tolerance in buying a car, I want to publicly thank Steve @SAFE4NOW and Brian @Rifledriver for giving us their unfiltered opinions based on a combined experience in this area of more years than I have been alive. We are lucky to have y’all here. Even when we disagree, appreciate the discussion.

I have said that safe4now did my warranty inspection and I almost moved there to his area and I would be confident with his team.

And Rifledriver, same plus some for his shop….. He just scares me a little bit. ….Like my dad.




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I have done this more then a few times in the past. Recently they have seemed to be better.

 

My understanding of cpo is that the dealer loses nothing if a car is in frequently for warranty service, Ferrari pays the dealership for the service rendered. So they can care less if a cpo car they sell is a lemon or not. Or does Ferrari pay a lower rate than non warranty work?

 

Warranty repairs pay a fraction of what a job actually requires.

PLUS the amount of administrative requirements are sometimes staggering.

Warranty work is better than no work, but customer pay is always preferred.

S

 

The tech actually doing the work..if you pay flat rate don't like it either..leads to shoddy work many cases.