Anyone having problems with the 296?

Have done tons of hard canyon driving with a GTB and GTS. Both had typical burn off smells as they were new, nothing out of the ordinary and no smoke. Braking system is excellent and was fine. Perhaps something else is caught in there and was burning off?

 

I have read recently that a number of 296's have been totally bricked (requiring towing to the dealer) if the 12volt battery was allowed to totally discharge. Is this an issue, and would not be remedied by charging yourself with the Ferrari charger?

 

I have no specific info re the 12volt. With that said Ferrari is pretty insistent and consistent in pushing owners to put the 296 on charge every evening when the car is parked. I had always thought this is due to the "sensitivity" of the large lithium battery.

 

I am not sure on this. My 12v was basically flat and once re-charged (via direct attachment to the 12v) all the electronics starting working again, just the hybrid was empty and I could not recharge it with the Ferrari Hybrid charger.

The source of the problem was a power cut when the charger was plugged in and it looks like the hybrid "gave" its energy back to the house which is a design feature for some cars, ie the car is part of the house's overall battery store. But I doubt this is a deliberate by Ferrari, if so it is undocumented!

 

The post purchase experience is not as anticipated. There were smears on pax window and also on driver but less so. Car with dealer to sort. Ferrari are not an easy company when it comes to warranty claims, as I have discovered. Pity. Maserati have been excellent by comparison and I am quite surprised because until they get your money, it’s a delightful experience and you get the box and the magazine and start to feel like you are a small part of an amazing story. Every other high ticket car our family have owned (most bought through same blanket dealership) had more proactive relationship with the manufacturers, I am talking several Rolls-Royce (before they became Volkswagens) and a few Bentleys (before the became BMWS) and a few others I have forgotten. It’s quite shocking how, as someone on this chat put it, Ferrari has one way telephone lines. I doubt that the founder would have been happy with that but hey it’s all about making the investors happy now and once you have the clients money, he’s your b****h. Not the fault of the dealer. It’s Ferrari who don’t care, so it seems to me but this is my first time experience with Ferrari and whilst I love the car, I am disappointed by the lack of quality control and also the rather daft steering wheel control which everyone has agreed, is crap!

 

Sorry about this. As noted a few pages ago, mine had a bad V6 block and was defective from the factory. It came to me with about 132 miles and I now believe that the factory knew something was up but shipped it to the dealer anyways. "Go to dealer" system failure warnings started within about 18 hours of possession, even while I was being gentle for break-in. I drove it for a few weeks on CELs while we all thought it was merely sensor or hybrid related, and I was embarrassed to reveal what was going on to friends and family, lest I get mocked for getting a nearly $450,000 lemon.

I'll send more details privately, but it's been a three month Mexican standoff between me, my dealer and FNA. I was repeatedly humiliated by FNA's refusal to engage me in any negotiation of an earnest resolution. After they got their corporate counsel involved and I decided to proceed with manufacturer buyback, they're still kicking the can. It's been two weeks since I told them my choice.

The engine replacement was finally finished last week after 85 days in service and ~200 miles of troubleshooting and shakedown [since July]; I declined to retake delivery as I do not want FNA trying to charge me for subsequent wear or mileage.

The mythology is that Enzo Ferrari had pretty open contempt for most of his customers and was legendarily selfish [like many titans].

 

very sorry to hear about your unacceptable circumstances. I have written emails to everyone I can @ Ferrari Maranello. Of course no response so far and judging by what I have heard, there won’t be one…what a shame that this legendary brand is now just another plaything for the rich and shameless. If interested you could e-mail all of the following people:-

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

If enough of us make enough noise, they will have to listen because their army of lawyers will smell a class lawsuit coming. Not that I would advocate such an approach but it seems that there is an unfortunate arrogance that comes from always seemingly being “oversold.” Nothing lasts forever…

We may get nowhere but we may also get their attention if there is sufficient critical mass. I of course copied in the head honchos and the salesmen at the dealership, lest they feel I have trodden on their toes.

good luck. Hope you get to enjoy the car’s performance which is exceptional, as is the sound, imho.

 

It was a vicious twist of the knife as I watched on the MyFerrari app as the service guy(s) at the dealership put 163 miles on the car last week - probably enjoying it for the first time without a pending "Engine Module Failure - Go To Dealer" warning. But I don't expect to ever drive the car again. I had already delivered the second key, charger, books and tools back to the dealership two weeks ago.

For now, I have not canceled my 296 GTS order so the glimmer of hope remaining is that will not be bad if/when it arrives.

 

Fair enough there is a total lack of transparency from the get go and given your experience with the brand and I assume, the dealership, fully understand and respect your choice.

 

On the upside for your situation though, it seems like windows can be entirely replaced fairly quickly once they get moving on it. With the engine, I was told several different delivery dates possible and ultimately the service manager was closest to being correct.

 

They need to get Ferrari permission for warranty claim first. I am not expecting any fast turnaround miracles, to be honest and the technician did mention that Ferrari are notoriously difficult in accepting any warranty claims. No wonder they give a long warranty, it buys them credibility and they have the legal muscle to intimidate any small buyers like me. Not the way I have done business with this dealer on other brands and one would like to think that Ferrari value their reputation but hey, I am easily dispensed with and someone else will willingly replace me. Was hoping for much better. Your case is really sad. The dealer tried to charge me about 8% over order price but unfortunately for them, I can read and write…what’s the world coming to?
Enjoy the rest of your fleet,
Junaid

 

Damn. I haven't been paying attention to Ferrari pricing lately. $450k used to be super car territory.

Companies simply have too much money these days. They don't care about their products and they don't care about their customers.

 

With great pricing comes great responsibility!

Even I wouldn't go as far as saying they "don't care" at all, but everyone's focus was on getting the engine replaced, ignoring the actual words of all of my messages and refusing to discuss my financial and safety concerns.

 

Sounds to me like they owe you a very large discount on the GTS. Have they offered anything to soften the blow?

 

Unofficially, only to cover the monthly payment for the 85 days in service per a verbal offer. Officially, nothing financial and nothing in writing.

If I kept the GTB on their terms with nothing more to cover the insurance (it was still over $1k/mo while they had it), registration, or offsetting loss of use and the large downpayment, my rough calculation is that keeping it through the 6 months contractual minimum [December 14] would have cost me $115,000 to 130,000. For three months of possession, with 5 weeks of that on CELs and the bad engine. In other words, I could get two months of driving on the new engine for only $50,000-65,000 a month! This is based on what friends are telling me they have been offered on their GTBs.

 

Sorry to hear this, unacceptable from Ferrari. What a bad look.

 

Agree with Dustman - totally unacceptable.
For a manufacturer such as Ferrari who reportedly makes more profit per car than any other manufacturer on the planet, their treatment of you is extraordinarily poor given the circumstances. Disgraceful. At the very least they should be willingly supplying you that GTS at a price less all current holding costs.

 

Well said !

 

I have the same problem with my brand new 296GTB. While I gat the same error message the Manettino is not working together with the lift suspension and the tail spoiler do not work. ‘by default the suspension is soft.
‘still I having this problem! The Ferrari ay Greece still checking what is the issue!

 

May I ask, while I also use my Ferrari app, there is no option to check the battery and the car status. Maybe the app has more options in different countries? Where I can find the battery screen in the app?
Many thanks in advance.

 

You would be very pissed of if you waited years to get your S90 only have sections in the back up painted of a Pista with a paint run down the passenger door.

 

You had an engine replacement ? Wow SELL THE CAR It was built on Monday or Friday

 

The cramped cabin and unusable wheel controls are deal breakers for me, car already back at the dealer and I want to get it sold but the dealer is starting to do the tap dance.

 

I get this message when I drive at E mode and after I choose from Manettino the type of driving like wet, race etc.
I think this is NOT an error message only info that option driving modes at E mode selection are not available. And it’s logical. I hope this is the case.

 

Ferrari KNOWS they have stuffed up many items but this one they have acknowledged and put buttons back on the F80 Steering wheel.