Another ferrari fire today (599)

why should we trust you? because you were a clerk? give me a break. better yet, give me some data.

 

You're kidding right? If thousands of brand new Toyotas were catching fire you'd hear all about. It's not happening. Sorry, a Toyota is safer than a Ferrari. Reality check here. Cars costing 1/4 million dollars shouldn't catch fire within a their first year of being on the road. Really, let's get real here.

 

For me, bottom line, let's not compare apples and oranges, $15k Hondas and Ferrars. A new $250,000 car should not catch fire. End of story.

 

This also isn't the first 599 fire. There have been others, not just one other but others. And that car is brand new.

I find it disturbing that with the latest Ferrari the trend for burning is as alive as ever. Fires should be rare if ever happening in this case, but they're common and expected events.

 

One issue you have is that if a couple of the same model minivans burn to the ground the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration goes nuts because of the number of the vans on the road filled with families and the potential risk to tens of thousands of customers. Each such fire is more likely to be investigated and, if there is a defect, a recall will be mandated. When a Ferrari burns to the ground I doubt the NHTSA places any resources to investigate the matter. The only real external pressure that Ferrari faces is from the risk of being sued by the family of some wealthy individual who burns alive in his new Ferrari. If the car burns as a result of a high speed collision, the driver will be blamed. Therefore, their only real risk comes from cars catching on fire in situations other than a collision. Such incidents are less likely to result in injury. As a result, Ferrari may face little external pressure to fully investigate such matters. However, I know my 512TR had a recall because of defective fuel lines. I don’t know what led to this recall being issued. I would hope it is just an example of Ferrari service departments recognizing a problem and Ferrari being a responsible manufacturer.

 

How many 599 has burned? .. 2? Hardly a problem

 

I take it you or perhaps a loved one aren't driving a 599.

 

No, but a 612 Scag which is pretty much the same engine. So no, I don't think there's a problem. Ferrari do not burn more than other marques.

 

They are produced in even smaller numbers, so just one of them burning every 3rd year is enough (Zonda and Koenigsegg)

These engines are high performance engines, therefore I reckon the possibility off a fire is higher than in a normal car. And thats why I say that there's no problem. Ferraris doesnt burn more than any other make.

 

I personally know of two cars that caught on fire, one a Murcielago, that occurred because of placing the car on dry California grass/brush. This touched something hot underneath that burned then lit up the car. In both cases, the owners were charged with starting the fires.

aehaas

 

I remember an El Camino that caught fire in a left-turn lane in Lynnwood, Washington that really screwed up traffic. And I've seen a number of (air-cooled) VW Beetles burning merrily away.

 

Pity.

 

One thing this particular analysis fails to point out is that how often each respective car was driven. Most on this board are doing the comparisons as follows:

# of cars produced. GM = 100,000 or whatever vs that of Ferrari 5,700.

What is not being considered is how many miles are registering on the odometer of each respective car that caught on fire. In addition, how much time was that car on the road. I would say that on average a Ferrari is probably driven a lot less and sees the road a lot less.

An avg car spends more time in traffic than an exotic does. I mean who drives their exotic simply to be stuck in traffic.

Another thing to factor in though in favor of Ferrari or any other exotic is that how often does one rev their daily driver to redline and push its limits.

I have no idea if any of this balances out. We just have to remember that if anybody provides statistics...they probably can be skewed.

When we see pics/vids of exotics on fire...we have to remember that it is way more likely in the first place that somebody would want to take a pic of it and then post it up on the internet somewhere to share.

As far as my own opinion on this...it does seem like these exotics catch fire more often than they should.