Are regularly driven Ferraris really more reliable?

Properly maintained Ferraris are more reliable. However, a Ferrari that has miles means it's a runner. With a garage queen you never know what you are going to get.

 

I drive my Testarossa at least once every two weeks, a highway drive to a reasonably distant breakfast spot. One benefit of 40,000+ km of regular use over 17 years is that I have developed and can maintain a ‘feel’ or memory of what the car should feel like if operating correctly. I paid almost nothing for the car (it was a barely running basket case when I found and restored it) and don’t really care about the effect of mileage on resale.

When the idle changes, the brakes or clutch feel a tiny bit different, the steering wheel vibrates a little more or the temp needle moves from its usual spot I notice and investigate. Usually I find the reason right away, typically before it becomes a material problem. For that reason alone I feel that regular use results in a better (more sorted) car. It also allows me to relate to it more and appreciate the engineering and artisanship that went into it.

 

In my 4+ decades of experience, observations & full-time preoccupation with vintage cars, in most case when buying an older low mileage, garage/trailer queen, regardless of make or model, people usually end up paying a premium (often huge) basically for deferred maintenance which can & often does result to unexpected expenditures (or estimates of) so high (to bring it up to snuff) that the proud new owner just relegates the car back to its “garage queen” slumber without spending much if anything and eventually sells it to the next uneducated/-informed/-suspecting victim(?) enamored by the romanticized idea of a “virgin”.

P.S. Over the decades, I’ve bought & owned more than a few aforementioned low mileage, garage queen type 25+ y.o. vintage cars & sorted out several more to other people so I have some idea what it takes to make them practical & reliable drivers. Most people would crap their pants if they saw the time & money involved, not to mention photographic evidence of that “deferred maintenance”.

 

Cars are meant to be driven. This is particularly true for Ferraris. They're like people. If you don't use them they dry out . I owned two 550 Maranellos. One had 53K miles on it when I sold it. The other had 16K miles when I purchased it and was probably imho one of the most beautiful specs in the country. Guess which one ran better and gave me zero issues. Correct. The 53K mile car. As soon as I started driving the low mileage car things went wrong with it. The alternator went on fire etc etc necessitating a major overhaul to the tune of 17K. Moral of the story: don't worry so much about mileage when you look at these cars. Look at whether or not they were driven regularly and service records.