458 Speciale sold as damage free but isn't: ZFF75VHB000200757

TL;DR: I purchased a car (ZFF75VHB000200757) from a dealership that tried to hide its damage history. After weeks of persistence, the dealership agreed to cancel the sale and refund my money.

In April 2023, my sales advisor from a popular car dealership in the Netherlands called me with exciting news. He had a Ferrari 458 Speciale available, a car I had been searching for. According to him, it had been recently returned by a customer who got offered a Speciale Aperta and chose to buy that one instead. Eager to see the Speciale, I visited the dealership the next day.

The 458 Speciale was displayed in an almost empty showroom and looked stunning. My sales advisor admitted that the right rear had been slightly repainted. He assured me that it was merely a cosmetic touch-up with no actual damage or repairs. Despite his reassurances, I insisted on a pre-purchase inspection from a certified Ferrari dealership and a value/taxation report through my insurance company. He claimed they already had an inspection report from Ferrari and would provide it to me or arrange a new one if needed.

During negotiations that evening, we agreed on a deal involving the sale of my car, a beautiful 430 Scuderia, and additional payment. It was also discussed that an official inspection report that confirmed the car was damage-free was required. To my slight surprise, my 430 Scuderia was sold by the dealership within hours of them transporting it, which in hindsight would make it seem they offered it for too little money. I later discovered that it was sold to the same person who had chosen the Aperta over the Speciale, and who - as I would find out later - actually never did such a thing. In fact, said person refused delivery of 'my' Speciale because it was apparent the car had been in an severe accident. More over, it would appear the dealership had used the time between the original purchaser refusing delivery and offering the car to me to repaint more and make it (much) less obvious the car had been damaged previously. Perhaps, but this is purely speculation on my part, the new owner of my Scuderia was offered my car at an interesting price to make up for this behaviour by the dealership.

Because there was a basis of trust, having bought several other cars from the same dealership in the months prior to this, I did take delivery of the car - with the clear understanding that the report HAD to be provided and that it had to state the car had been damage free. Despite my repeated requests since, I received no updates or inspection report from the dealership. Growing frustrated, I finally reached out yet again on May 11th, emphasizing that the inspection report was a crucial part of our agreement. The car was eventually taken to a Ferrari dealership for inspection on May 31st. When I received the report on June 1st, it revealed significant repainting on the right rear (964-1034 microns), roof (770-1550 microns) and front left (870-875 microns). It also documented various damage repairs and a (repaired) torn trunk. It was clearly a car with damage history.

I immediately expressed my dissatisfaction, as the car's condition differed greatly from what the dealership had claimed. They made excuses and offered "to fix the issues", but I insisted on a vehicle that was truly damage-free, as per our agreement. Compounding the situation, the person who purchased my car contacted and informed my son (thank you, Instagram) that they had chosen not to buy the Speciale because it had undisclosed damage, contradicting the dealership's previous statements. It appeared that the dealership had intentionally concealed the car's damage during the time it was unavailable for sale.

After intense discussions with my sales advisor and the dealership owner, we agreed to cancel the sale. They would take back the 458 Speciale, and I would receive a full refund. This was on June 1st of this year. However, the dealership's payment process was very slow and vague.

Realizing that the situation was affecting my financing company's ability to fund new purchases, as part of the car was financed and the financing company needed to pay back their bank, I reached out to the dealership again on June 9th. I requested clarity and offered to pay us back in installments as a possible solution. The owner became upset when I insisted on clear answers and warned that the more I asked for it, the longer it would take to receive payment. Finally, after my visit to the dealership in person, yesterday on the 26th of June, they paid the refund - 25 days after agreeing to cancel the sale.

CarVertical now (but previously did not) shows the car has been repaired for +- 175.000 EUR in July of 2022.

This cautionary tale serves as a reminder to potential buyers to be vigilant when dealing with dealerships, even if there appears to be a basis of trust. I hope any new potential buyer of ZFF75VHB000200757 reads this story so that he or she is aware of the history of this car and if they decide to buy it, do so based on the truth rather than fabricated stories.

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Fully agree with everything you said there. I was previously close to purchasing a giallo triplo strato Speciale (with black stripes) but that one was crashed at Spa... So decided not to go ahead.

Really bummed out about this one. It surely was beautiful.

 

Correct. This dealership deals in a lot of Ferrari's but is absolutely not a Ferrari dealership.