[Harry's Garage] Ferrari 296 GTS review. Brilliant in so many ways but I won't be buying one

The car is brilliant. And the ownership experience is much better than the initial introduction as one needs to adjust to the interface. Once past that the issue fades out and one is left with possibly the best sports car for the road at any price.

 

So Harry jumps into a Car , has not even bothered to look at a manual and then complains about an interface and compares it to his Range Rover that he drives frequently . The last time he drove a 296 he opined many things that were not well backed up.

This time he opines things that owners may not be completely au fait with the tech however most get used to them and they are not a purchase stopper for the majority, if they were the order list would not be full. Harry also opines price however does not touch on down force, gyroscopes , or the magic of the battery filling the gaps of the upshift that may lag because of the turbo , just to name several of the things that creat the magic of the 296. He also speaks of the battery needing charge in yet does not mention that most 458,488 owners and those of earlier models than these would as a matter of course have their cars on trickle charge.

The 296 is not the perfect car , no car is , however it is way better they his comparative Range Rover!

The used market does not reflect the true value of the car given the amount that bought the cars to flip for GTS and now speciale / aperta.

 

I find a lot of his reviews baffling.

 

I mean if one was offered to him for free he would refuse? Or is it a money thing?

 

I actually like him and his reviews. He’s very moderate, rational and sincere, and I feel I can relate most of the time.

But in this case I feel he got a few things wrong. While the UX of the infotainment is certainly not its forte, I do feel one gets used to it and so he should have factored that in.

The battery maintenance is the biggest issue I have with this review. I hardly ever plug mine in because with the qualifying mode I always get to my destination with plenty of range. I’ve never had any issue with the battery. Period.

Regarding the weight, well it’s a GTS so one should expect a higher number, but at 1750 kg it’s still not that bad and he should have mentioned that with the AF and the racing seats, you probably shave what, about 70 kg? The buyer of a GTS with comfort seats does not care that much about weight, I feel.

So net net, the dislikes would have been very few if he’d addressed them properly, IMHO.

 

The guy has a Zonda and is the founder of EVO magazine, it's not a money thing.

The complaints against the terrible interface and battery issues are very legitimate and aren't something to be scoffed at.

It's a bit ironic that pre 90s Ferraris and all other supercars were known as fickle beasts but graduated into legitimately reliable cars in the 00s/10s....now in the hybrid era all the random liveability/usability issues are a whole other type of headache.

 

1740kg is a wild figure but it's really not out of character for Ferrari to be wildly optimistic in their published figures.

 

The interface really isn’t a big deal and does not impact the driving experience. The need to plug the car in or top off the electric capacity is a minor inconvenience. Maybe more so if you a daily it. I own one and it’s an incredible experience.

 

Curious: whats legitimate about the battery issues?

 

1540 kg is the claimed dry weight, kerb weight (undisclosed) is at least 100 to 150 kg more, then you have all the equipment of a demo car (electric seats, potentially a lifter, and so on...) So 1740 kg is not that far off.

 

That's basically what he said in the review though. That the car itself is great, it's just got these annoying elements in it, which at half a million dollars a pop is hard to justify, especially when it's predecessors didn't have those issues.

The other thing that's potentially worrying is what happens when the battery goes bad. The holy trinity ALL have battery replacement issues, granted 296 is like 2nd or 3rd gen hybrid so should be a bit better but I don't think anyone really thinks the 15+ year serviceability will be as smooth as pure ICE models.

Are these reasons to completely shy away from these cars ? No not really. It's just if you're spending your own money and you don't restrict yourself to new models there are a lot of alternatives in prior models that are very attractive.

 

The car uses they hybrid motor as a replacement for a traditional starter and iirc replaces the alternator as well. So keeping the hybrid battery topped up is crucial.
This is not "hard" to do, apparently in qualifying mode the car will emphasize recharging the battery but in normal mode it doesn't.

Some users report that if you drive and then turn off the car with the battery not quite charged and then do not put it on trickle charger that the battery goes dead quite easily and then you need to call Ferrari services to fix because it's the high voltage battery not like a normal 12v.

To be fair I have only heard this happen to a couple people in real life and it's by no means something of epidemic proportions, it's just annoying and as other users/owners have pointed out, once you're aware of it, you can account for it by putting it in qualifying mode and deliberately building up a charge before putting the car to bed.

It's a minor annoyance if you know what to do, and if you don't it'll likely be a huge pain in the ass but only once.

 

kerb weight is actually disclosed in the manual, but not in press releases.

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fuel is 50 kg (65l of fuel @ 0.75kg/l)
engine oil is 5kg (5.5l @ 0.9kg/l)
gearbox oil is 11.5kg (12.5l @ 0.9kg/l)
brake fluid is ~0.5kg (0.7l)
engine coolant is 22kg (22l coolant)
electric motor cooling system 1kg (1.5l capacity)
hybrid power unit cooling system 2.5kg (2.5l coolant)
high voltage battery cooling system 3.5kg (3.5l coolant)
windscreen washer fluid 1.2kg (1.2l)

I skipped some stuff that was <1L

so total is 97kg of fluids

above figures from the manual page 25 https://drive.google.com/file/d/18qvVxRT9-Y8Fg-9bJK9BmQ86aBQ9gHeg/view (not my link)

 

So 1680 kg kerb weight - 140 kg more than dry weight, I was not far with 100-150 kg
Then from 1680 to 1740, 60 kg of options (and no reducing weight options); again, no real surprise there.

 

HAD a Zonda.

 

My take is that, as any other hybrid or EV car, you just need to be aware of all this and handle properly. Not that hard. In exchange for this you get an awesome ability to drive EV for 15 miles, which I happen to love, as well as the power boost. So in terms of “dislikes”, I think it’s just different to older models, but not necessarily an annoyance that would be placed under the legitimate “dislikes”. Just my 2 cents.

 

What was he wanting to do with the ADAS? I never touch my settings (albeit in an older car).

 

The car comes with a battery warranty of 7 years. Two year full warranty extensions cost $6,800 ($3,400 per yr). Considering the value of the car- the battery is a non event regarding expense.

 

I don't know, not buying a car for fear of something that may or may not happen in the future and how much it may or may not cost to fix the thing that may or may not happen, is a bit too much mental activity. Just buy and drive if you like. No need to overthink.

 

Hardly anybody pays £390k for a 296 GTS. With dealer discounts you can spec a very good one (~£350k sticker) and get it for £300k, or get one close to £250k with sub 2k miles.

Adas - he fumbled a long time with it, but its 2 clicks with the dedicated button. But infotainment is pretty poorly implemented.

weight - I agree it’s heavy and not great. McLaren artura is the benchmark imo and is almost 200kg lighter. Like for like having a car that weighs 10-15% more is not top tier engineering. There’s some cost optimisations, passed on to shareholders.

I also had the chance to see the welds in my car and they are horrendous, it probably doesn’t even have the same strength as a properly welded ones.

- Battery - it’s pretty mature tech, for me I’m not worried. caring about the charge level is optional, can leave it in perf/quali all the time. Or use ev modes but remember to charge it.

It’s fine for a £250k car, the headline £390k shouldn’t be used since you either buy used or get a steep discount for a new one.

 

Let me know a dealer that discounts that deeply when you spec a car from scratch please

 

are they offering extensions already on a car that's only a couple years old?

Battery replacements aren't cheap

Look at all models of cars across the industry