This is long, but worth the read. I love this site and the information I take from it. When I have the chance to help, I offer up advise freely. I have gotten lots of solid tips and advise from others here, as well as Brian (Rifledriver) both directly or by reading his/their posts. However, look at it from his point of view for once. He has spent an unknown amount (probably lots) of money on training and tooling and has 20 plus years of real world experience working on Ferraris. I have spoken with him and he knows his ****. So someone posts a question in the tech section, who may not know a wrench from a jackhammer, and the guy offers up his 20+ Yrs. of knowledge for FREE. Then weekend warriors have the balls to dispute his knowledge because they don't like the answer. On top of that the response he gives could very well be taking money out of his pocket. Maybe the poster isn't his customer, but maybe a reader is. And he still helps us out. Pretty generous if you ask me. I can tell you, my techs aren't very forthgiving with proprietary info to the general public. Face it. If you don't like the answer, then you probably asked the wrong question. How many damn "when should I change my belts" threads do we have to endure. 30K or 5yrs. should suffice. 30K and 3 yrs. if you are the paranoid kind or want to follow the factory recomendation to the T. Providing everything else is in order these numbers should work. If you want to roll the dice, run it forever and when they snap let us know. I am in the car business and have been on all sides of the fence. Owned 2 independent lots, GM, and now fixed ops manager for a multi-franchise dealer. I have tons of friends in the business all of whom are way more honest than their customer base. Are all dealers honest. Hell no. Are most. Yes. They would cease to exist otherwise. The same goes for shop owners. If you have been wronged, shout it from the highest mountain. If you want to complain about the cost of Ferrari ownership, buy a Nissan. Aren't they rare and exotic because of their price for the most part. Not many people see you driving your Ferrari and think to themselves "that poor bastard." That is unless they owned a bad example of one, but that's a whole new topic. I like this site alot, but some need to weigh both sides of an argument before slamming away with a flame thrower. Getting back specifically to this situation with the dealer, the salesman probably should bone up on his technical product knowledge. He probably was shooting from the hip with his statement and salesmen are known to do that. Before you thrash the dealer, go beyond the salesman to his manager or the dealer principal. I guarantee any franchised or reputable independent dealer has someone who can answer questions with knowledge and the power to put a plan in action to take care of you, their customer. This matter was resolved to the satisfaction of the buyer was it not? Seriously, get past the loafer wearing dude in the showroom (no offense to the knowledgeable sales PROS out there) and get to someone who knows what is going on and can get your problem solved. If work was promised at time of sale, it was OK'd by a manager and most likely logged with the deal and the dollars allocated to take care of it. In closing, think of all the solid advise we have gotten from guys like Brian Crall. Advise that not only cost us nothing, but saved us money and time. All this for free. Brian and others who have shared their technical expertise (Verell comes to mind), I want to thank you. You have made Ferrari ownership a more positive experience for me! Thanks, John
John - I nominate that for POST OF THE MONTH. Wonderfully written. Thank you. I've worked with Brian a little bit in the past few months, and I 100% agree that we are beyond fortunate to have him in this community. If he leaves, shame on us. GTA - Greater Toronto Area
Thanks Daniel. I have heard nothing but great things about you and your business as well. I will experience it firsthand soon, when I order some pedals and shift knob from you. Gotta love that Hill stuff. I'm glad others see my point. I just think sometimes we lose sight of the big picture. I do my own work partly out of pride and enjoyment and partly out of necessity. I don't have a Brian Crall near by. What I do have is the great info posted here by him and others. I am a pretty good wrench. Son of a mechanic and learned my craft from him and in the racing world. I am on the business and numbers side of things now, so wrenching on my Ferrari is kind of a hobby. I deal with the public on a daily basis and I run a fair and ethical shop. I would have it NO other way. My staff knows that if they recommend a repair, it better have merit, and they know they can't BS me because I know better. With that said, we still get tried on with the "ever since syndrome." I.E. ever since I brought my car in for inspection, my water pump is leaking." I get approached weekly if not daily for free repairs that clearly are not our fault. I assess the situation without bias and make a descision based on fact not hear say. If we screw something up we take care of the customer. PERIOD. We're all human, we all make mistakes, and as stated above, auto mechanics is sometimes not an exact science. Reputable business' have no problems admitting this and correcting their error. Some may think I am full of crap and that's OK. My CSI is thru the roof, my customer retention makes others cry, and we have so much work we are booked weeks out. Must be doing something right. Maybe we need a F-car franchise Thanks for the support, John
How many damn "when should I change my belts" threads do we have to endure. 30K or 5yrs. should suffice. With all due respect I don't think it does suffice. There are many of us here that are interested in the information that these "pro's" have to impart, as well as experiences of other less talented Ferrari shade tree mechanics. I have become a Ferrari mechanic out of necessity. I would love to just take my cars to some one that I trust and walk away, but it isn't in the cards. So I will be here constantly asking absurd and embarassing questions because I want and need to learn. This is a technical forum and if we are chastized for asking those types of questions because the "pro's" are sick of hearing about it, won't that mark the end of Ferrari Chat Tech? I mean there are only so many components to a car, won't we run out of stuff to talk about? But seriously, why can't we just ask questions and get answers and leave the sparring and negativity in the General Forum?
John, EXCELLENT POST dude. I couldn't have said it better myself. Brian Crall, even though I haven't known him very long, has been very generous with me, in giving out his knowledge on these cars. How many of these whiners would be willing to give up potentially revenue robbing information freely in their businesses to anyone asking? ATTN: Rob Lay, John's post should be "THE" post of the month!
