$20k Ferrari 456M Service/repair costs explained in Podcast

Judging by the pictures it looks like this car was grossly neglected prior to your ownership: I daresay you got away easy with only $20K.

I respect your effort but frankly the "How I spent $20K [...] parts only!" title is a bit misleading and adds to the urban legend that these cars command ungodly upkeep expenses. If one buys a torched Elantra it would probably cost close to 20K to bring it back to top condition - it's all relative to the original condition of the car.

If one knows where to source parts, understands the interchangeable nature of most of them across other brands, and uses trusted independent shops to do the work as well as a reasonable measure of one's own wrenching (at least for the easy stuff), these cars aren't any more expensive to maintain that most BMWs, MBs, etc.

 

I spent well over $14K on my Testarossa and had purchased the car knowing that it required a major. Following the major, the car was in top notch mechanical condition and was actually quite reliable. When it came time to selling, I was bemused at the number of low ballers telling me that they could find another TR $10k or $15k cheaper but which had yet to go through a major or with questionable ownership. In general, neglected Ferraris bought on the cheap tend to end up costing more than the well maintained more expensive Ferraris out there, not to mention the number of months of anticipation waiting for the parts to arrive and the car completed.

 

Wow, listening to that podcast was tedious. 15 minutes of information spread over an hour of nonsense.

 

can you upload a copy of the invoices for the parts?

 

Can I do a podcast about how I spent $2500 on a major service for my Ferrari 575 and got new belts? It's these stories like yours that end up scaring people away from owning a Ferrari. It's completely unnecessary to be honest, there are lemons in every car brand. I had a 2007 range rover as my daily work car a few years back and i woke up and it was on the ground it needed a new suspension, would have been like $13k, i just sold the car as is to the dealer and moved on. It's a nice catchy title and gets people to listen to your podcast, I dont have an hour to do so, but still what good does it do the rest of us and the brand when you post stuff like this? I literally just did a full major on my 575 for $2,500 it was way less to maintain than i originally planned but i did it at a great indy shop and not a dealer. My insurance is also $85/mo with state farm for a $141,000 appraisal on my 575. So the maintenance is less than I thought and the insurance is less than I thought, so far owning a Ferrari has been pretty cheap so to speak. I hope I never have a $20k repair bill like you but I just think these stories are few and far between with just flat out "bad" cars and it gives everyone this impression that you need to be a gazillionaire to run one of these machines.

 

I enjoyed the podcast.It did get a little wordy at the beginning, but whatever. From what i've seen there are very few cars out there that you'd not want to baseline, so you have to expect expenses like this. The lower the milage, the more skeptical I am of the condition, so it's fine with me if someone tells me his experience. Yes the headline is a bit sensational, but I can live with it. And actually I think he spent over 20.Too bad you trashed it Andrew. Be careful on slick roads and did you buy another 456 subsequently?

 

I have no doubt he spent $20k. I didn't listen to the podcast, did he go to the dealer? My particular car I just picked up has receipts from Ferrari of New England for its last major service at $8,300. I just went to one of the best indy shops in all of south florida and it was $2500. The reality is its all about labor rates. The shop I just used was $90 an hour, what is Ferrari of New England at? Its way way higher. Plenty of indy shops can handle ferraris at much lower rates, look up tim stanford or F1 imports if you're in florida. Either way Ferraris are not cheap to own, but the reality is these $20k+ bills are few and far between but still the brand has this stigma of insanely expensive cars to maintain.

 

I hit $20K with my 456M when I took the motor out to replace the motor mounts and rebuilt the heads with new valve guides. Found several marginal things that needed replacing along the way.

 

Well to summarize this gentleman's podcast, which I recommend his channel btw... it's not just about a 456,.... but he bought a 456M automatic for 16,000 some odd pounds. He's based in the UK. He does all the work himself. In the process of getting the car up to what he would want, he spent a bit over 20,000 US. Roughly $7000 of which was redoing the shocks and suspension with Delta Vee shocks. Within a month after he got it where he wanted it, he totaled it at 20 mph.
Every car now is expensive to maintain. In fact, The insurance companies are now selling repair insurance. I had a brake job on my pick-up last month and the bill was 3000 dollars, so it's not cheap any longer no matter what you drive. Longer term, car ownership may disappear and we may be doing a form of car sharing instead or paying for use in some way, Similar to airplanes, and corporations will own all the cars.