FF - Your opinions on whether this would be a good (first) Ferrari

Hi lovely people from Ferrari Chat!

My way of introduction my name is Nick and as the title suggests I am looking at a specific FF that is currently for sale. This would be my first Ferrari. Ever since the launch of the FF it has been one of my favorite models along with the 458 and F12. The FF is just so unique and rare though compared to the other two. I was going through the classifieds one night and this price and spec seem like good value. It is quite intimidating though for me, so I am looking for your advice and any help would be greatly appreciated, especially from people who know what they are talking about.

To give you guys some background which may also be relevant for your commendations. I am aware of the fact that FFs may suffer from PTU failures and that they can be rebuilt for around EUR 8.000. I am also aware that in some FFs the DCT gearbox may fail. In the Netherlands a Ferrari dealership 'Kroymans' can rebuild these DCT gearboxes so in case that happens, I should reach out to them for a rebuild. Apart from this I know that is very important to keep the battery fully charged. On my other cars I usually use a Ctek 5.0 charger if I don't intend on driving the car weekly. To date, I have only ever owned three cars in my life two of which I still own. My first car was a 2007 BMW E60 M5 which I have now owned for 7 years. Some of you may be aware that the E60 M5 has quite a reputation of itself but that has not stopped me from getting one and I enjoy the ownership experience quite a bit. The other car, and currently my daily, is a BMW E87 130i. The 130i, once sorted, is a rather bulletproof thing that can take quite a lot of abuse. On my E60 M5 I change the oil every year which equates to around one oil change every 6.000-7.000km. On the 130i I change it every 12.000 km which equates to around twice a year (25.000km per year). My annual mileage is therefore around 30.000km and the FF would probably do around 5.000-8.000km per year maximum. With my car history I am used to higher fuel bills and maintenance bills. Based on my current fleet, would the maintenance of an FF be from a different level or would you expect similar costs to the E60 M5? I do not like cars that depreciate and in fact I think my 130i and E60 M5 have gone up. I do not own cars to speculate, but I simply do not like depreciation. I think now would be a pretty good moment to get into an FF without facing major depreciation.

So the FF then. It is a 2012-built car with its first registration in 2014. For the specs please refer to the pictures I attached. I have asked the seller to send the car to a Ferrari dealership for a check. Please find the report of the dealership attached. With respect to the comments (written in German): the rear hatch has some corrosion. Some of the buttons are sticky. The seat ventilation button is broken. I asked the dealership if they could comment on the carbon ceramic discs and the dealer confirmed that they got replaced on 09/2023 and that they have only 5% wear at the moment.

The car has done 96.000km which makes it one of the highest mileage FFs out there. The price is 99.000 euro's. The dealer report seems to be quite positive on the car. The car does not have a perfect history though. Some of the service history is missing (see pictures) and for example, the change of the carbon ceramic brakes is not documented at all. Another important fact to note is that the car has been resprayed on certain panels from the left side.

On paper, it would appear quite a fair deal, but please let me know your thoughts on this particular car and your advice/recommendations for me!



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Thank you for your feedback! I live in the south of the Netherlands, so Forza is quite close to me. I was planning (if I would buy the car) to have it maintained by the Engineer's Garage in Breukelen (they also service my BMWs). However, they have stopped their Ferrari focus and will no longer service them. So Forza would seem like to best place to take it to. The car is pretty far away actually, as it is located in Vienna. I have paint tickness gaues so I can check the paint myself and see if the match is good. Would you recon that the inspection done by the official dealer in Vienna would be thorough enough to rely on?

Without any tricks the BPM would be 16k. Which is still pretty crazy, but that would bring the total to EUR 115k which is still significantly lower than the lowest FF for sale in NL. I think there is one with 80.000km in Grey with an asking price of EUR 137k.

 

I like the spec of the car. If I would have ordered an FF from new, it would have been this. Although I think I would have opted for daytona seats.

The grey one is just grey and with black wheels. Not what I would have chosen and this is the case with many other FFs aswell.

Ofcourse the 99k car in Vienna also has brand new CCB brakes which is probably something that you can expect in the near future with cars with +/- 80.000km. Along with the added depreciation the difference adds up. There is another Rosso Maranello car in Germany with 97k with black leather which is also nice. The rosso corsa one which is offered by Dresen Sportwagen with creme interior is good, but black wheels and grille are a bit wrong in my opinion. That car only has 28.000km though which is significantly less than the others I’ve looked at.

From what I understand and what I have also seen with M5s is that low milage does not really mean anything if the car is already 10+ years old.