Dealer servicing euro 550

#Nobueno!

paging @Euro550

 

Do not believe it is the Euro issue.
Age is the issue.
Penske here in Phoenix will not service any Ferrari older than 20 years.
According to the service writer, company policy.

 

You're in Austin - get @Rifledriver to service the car for you (he has also been an amazing resource to the forum). No dealer cares about old cars. I have a '98 Diablo (Euro) and '94 512 TR (Euro) and the local lambo dealer isn't even aware its a Lamborghini and has no tech who can touch the car. Their crowd is the Techno nightclubbers and are long tired of the classics.

Also don't be surprised to find the car needs an immediate $5k of necessary work and $15k of nice to haves. This is normal for any old exotic.

 

Different story here in the UK. I used Carrs, the Ferrari dealer in Exeter, to care for my 550 and 246 for 10 years. Not only were they happy to service them, but their head tech was a genius with the Dino, AND they gave me a discounted hourly rate because "everything takes longer on the older cars, and we like to see customers keeping them on the road".

 

@Lexatx Probably not atypical of what you might run into with owning/maintaining these cars, which are aging and will have issues related to age and deterioration, corrosion, etc. Although I'm sure some dealers are good to work with for servicing these older Ferraris, I've not dealt with any yet as the closest is 400+ miles away. Fortunate to have a capable & knowledgable indie mechanic locally to me who does a good job. Find a good independent mechanic you can trust who knows older Ferraris, and don't mess with the dealers.

 

Wise of them. No one is equipped and staffed to do everything. Roger is about money and turning cars. Nothing wrong with that. Its what his operation is designed for. Older cars spend more time there tying up valuable shop space and a high overhead operation cannot make money that way.

 

Brian, the problem many of us will likely have well down the road is….are guys like you training “apprentices”…..if not I guess the “long distance” future for specialty maintenance could be “challenging”. 8-(

 

A few here and there but so few are interested. I regularly talk to shop owners around the country and its a real concern. Worse still is how few want to take over existing operations. Most of us are getting older and many are facing just shutting down because while they may have good experienced employees no one wants to take over. I am just beginning process of building shop and home on a piece of rural land South of here and scaling back. Many are just going to cease to exist.

Same goes for our subcontractors. I have lost 3 really important subcontractors in the last 2 years. Two of them were machine shops serving a whose who of Ferrari engine shops nationally. Both in your state. One in Bay Area and other in Central Coast. There simply is no one local. I have Pelican cases I can put entire disassembled Ferrari engines in to ship to other parts of the country. Getting hard to know where to ship to.

 

Here in the San Jose and Santa Cruz area we have had a major issue already with Air cooled VW’s….several shops liquidating parts inventory and just shutting down.

A few years ago I pitched the idea to my wife that I buy one of the shops as a “retirement business” similar to what my dad did upon retirement with a glass/paint business when he retired but as you note the future for that business is tied to the eagerness and ability for younger folks to go that route (or lack of interest). A young man that helped do some work and welding the saftey nets in my A/C VW Manx left a shop I used and moved to Texas to manage a small group of Starbucks and made over $100k. I told the shop owner to “quit pulling my leg” and he shook his head and said “I wish I was kidding”.

I got a lot of pleasure out of building my Manx vintage Baja racer but I needed a lot of help and those guys that are seasoned and know what they are doing are super rare.

I flat towed my rig to Arizona to have the cage built and I wanted special trailing arms and I had an amazing 78 year old (at the time) artist/fabricator in the Portland area make one last set for me (felt like the samurai sword situation).

That unfortunate trend will surely continue….

 

A few of the 'snooty' dealers do not want to work on and or order parts for a RoW/euro car. Find someone else that cherishes your business. Find a qualified independent mechanic who is familiar with the car.

 

On a clean car with no issues and nothing else needing done this should take no more than half a day... If people are ready to pay such prices I do not understand why there aren't more youngsters ready to invest in their own professional shop. As AI progresses there will be a time when manual jobs will pay more than others, when it's not already the case.

 

FWIW, I was quoted $16,000 to repair Maranello A/C issue by a dealer; independent shop solved the problem for $468.00.

 

That is annoying!!

I was at Ferrari Beverly Hills yesterday and they had;

2 x 575’s + 3 x 550’s + 2 x 599’s, 1 x Dino, 1 x Testarossa, 308 Dino, 365 GTC and a number of 360’s and F430’s amongst the newer cars.

These guys are the best as they have made their business end to end….. including smash repair and vintage car restoration in Italy.

Not only do they get the model, they also understand the customers needs!

It would be nice if other dealers would do the same.




May the Horse be with you

 

I love it how the UK dealers have a discounted rate for the older cars!

I have heard of this many times before.


May the Horse be with you

 

You are clearly talking about a "Belt Service" only whereas the higher quotes here are almost certainly talking about a complete major service. With the advent of the internet and so many outside of the service industry talking about these services the distinction between them has been muddied up to the point no one is on the same page. Additionally it is meaningless to try and compare prices between the EU or UK and the USA. We have vastly higher operational costs that are in many ways created by Ferrari themselves.

As far as "youngsters" starting a shop? In this country youngsters dont even want a drivers license much less work on cars. Many existing shops are looking to close when owner retires. Younger generations have no interest in taking over.
In 10 years this will be a very different business. Part because of Ferrari, part because of legislation and part because of changing desires of younger generations.

 

Thank Ferrari and thank your legislators.

 

The people trained on the 456/550/575 (or care about servicing them) are all but gone.

Beverly Hills Ferrari was my first stop and Scott is actually really great to work with. They fixed my door and some other basic stuff and looked the car over for any needed work and completed an inspection. Days later my alternator went wonky. They could not obtain one and sent it out for a rebuilt, shortly there-after it stopped working again and had to be rebuilt again. This process continued through 3 independents until finally my current shop noticed I did not have the alternator cooling duck installed (amongst many other issues). No issues since he fixed it correctly.

He is currently repairing the “Major Service” that I had last year, at a prominent independent, which turned into a complete and total $11k disaster. The latest this week: One of the lower cam drive gear nuts was backing itself out. He said “the key was almost gone by the gear banging on it”. Not certain what that means but damn. Need to degree all the cams now.

It can be rough out there.
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Getting alternators rebuilt correctly is not as easy as it sounds. When I moved to Texas I tried 2 different shops that both came with good recommendations. Neither alternator went 100 miles before stranding the client. I started sending them all back to my old shop in California. Last year he retired and shut down his shop (Another case of no younger person wanted to take over well established business). Fewer and fewer quality subcontractors available. Someone I trust suggested another one near Dallas but from the sounds of it he is close to retirement too.

 

On the alternator front this thread about the John Deere alternator was neat/surprising

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/147023975/

I think that is the new spare I got with my 550 when I purchased it.

 

I experienced the opposite case. The auth dealer who promptly provided the PO with an $18,000 major did not bother changing the gasket on the water pump. What a bargain the PO received ! Owners will experience different outcomes.

FoBH spent time with me when a PPI for a different model car did not work out well. Outstanding CS.

 

Great googly moogly man... you just cant catch a break!

Coming back to LAX this week again, guess the car wont be available to meet

 

I know, my wife is the best. At least it is being fixed correctly once and for all ! We feel very lucky in that regard. I hope to have the car back mid-week so I can bring it to the new Venice Beach pad (not far from LAX). Parts were ordered.

I wonder how many wonky majors are performed on cars that are subsequently never driven and then sold with a “recent major” which to me — can be somewhat meaningless (or worse).

 

We have had discussions about this in the past relating to whether to sell a car with a recent major or buy a car with a recent major. The fact that Ferrari never defines what a "major " service entails is the 1st problem. Second problem is quality of that service. Regardless of when a service was done or what is in the service records on every Ferrari I have purchased when I got it home I started at the front and worked my way to the back. There are lots of moving parts to fail. Being a diy'er has advantages. But if one does not want to diy, learning as much about the model as possible pays dividends.