Getting close to buying, some questions from newbie

Spec. it the way you want it and buy it new. The price difference is not substantial on new vs. used. I use State Farm in FL. - about $1300 yearly. I waited 5 months for mine but the wait time likely has gone down lately - check with your dealer.

I like your spec. and would add the aluminum footrests. Mine does not have them but I think its a nice touch. Castoro is a nice carpet color - should go well with crema seating. I also have the tunnel and armrest in color - I think it ties the interior together nicely. I don't have film on mine and have 4 small stone chips in 16 months. I think I would add it while new.

You will love this car - its the perfect GT for Florida.

 

I have beige and love it. With magneride and the Comfort mode the ride is very smooth, firm but smooth, sport makes it much much stiffer, not quite as bad as a stupid Chevy Corvette though. I would assume that without magneride the difference would not be as noticable, or maybe even zero difference? Someone that owns a non-magneride car needs to chime in here.

Rick

 

I don't think it matters if you get new or used... IMO, If you find the car you love that has the specs you're looking for, go for it!

It's not worth wasting the time and missing half the summer. Magnaride is great! Definitely a must.

 

Collin- Crema and Sabbia (sand) are both very light colors and hard to keep clean. Beige or Cuoio (natural/saddle) are both very attractive colors in the California. Cuoio is my favorite interior color and just looks richer to me. Here is a comparison of some of the older standard colors.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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I'll chime in for the non magneride supporters on the Cali. For some reason Ferrari did not involve BWI's engineers (the makers of magneride) on the fine tuning of the system on the Cali and IMHO it shows. I have a 458 which comes with the system as standard and where BWI did participate in the set up process. The difference between the set ups in each car is like night and day. The 458 is much taughter and more communicative yet provides a surprising degree of comfort when the softer suspension setting is chosen.

The Cali system has been set up to provide newcomers to the brand with the type of suspension system they will be more familiar with from cars such as the MB SL etc and it is tuned more towards comfort. I found that comfort mode allows too much body roll on cornering IMHO whilst the sport setting firms things up but strangely can't cope with mid corner bumps very well and as a result the car can feel wallowy. Couple this to the lighter steering in the Cali and the effect can be disconcerting when you are used to more precise feel from the suspension and steering in other Ferraris. The standard passive system gives a good compromise and makes the handling far more predictable. I'd liken the magneride to Maserati's skyhook system and point to the fact that for the more overtly sporting variants of their cars Maserati choose to ditch skyhook in favour of a finely tuned passive damper system. I suspect that if Ferrari ever release an HGTE package for the Cali then the magneride system will be significantly recalibrated.

It all depends on what you intend to use the car for, daily driver or weekend toy, and what type of roads you mostly travel on.

 

Collin,
My only contribution is going to suggest that you join at silver or rossa. You will get your money's worth and then get verified for owners forum.
Don

 

See post #53 of the linked thread for my rationalization. http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=140216200#post140216200

Perhaps the decision turns on how soon you "must" have the car and how close it "must" be to the exact specs you want. Well-optioned Rossa Corsa/Beige models will be much easier to find than Scuderia/Crema.

I thought alum footrests were unecessarily expensive for "show and no go." But then again I bought the carbon fiber rear panel. I kind of wish I got them now, as there are small exposed mounting points in my passenger footwell - every time I seem them I'm reminded I didn't get the footrest. But I was still too cheap to take action last time I looked at the price.

Be careful about the film. The installer determines the quality of the application. Many people complain that the film visibly degrades, that applying it damaged the paint where the film was cut, etc. I got a full front quarter wrap by guys that are considered among the best in Northern California, so that no seams are visible. The film they did on my 2-year old 997 still looks perfect.

I got black carpets so that dirt is less visible and it matches nicely with my black stitching and black upper dash. Be careful of an upper dash that is too light as it will reflect glare into the windshield.

I have State Farm, it was easy to add another car.

Have fun at the dealer, one of the support staff at my dealer summed it up succinctly - Ferrari buyers are celebrating their success, so it should be an enjoyable occassion!

Thanks isuk for your remarks and the contrast impressions with 458 magnaride. Very helpful..

 

Buy a new one. It's your money and you should be able to play car designer once in your life.

Screw the Geico gecko. While they try to get biker weekend warrior types, call State Farm.

Btw: the Cali was designed for your purpose. By it and drive the heck out of it no matter what car you choose.

 

I guess I failed to notice the insurance question, I have Home-Owners Insurance Company, they didn't blink at adding it.

 

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=255292

Go to post #18 and you can see a Sabbia interior with black carpet. I've had the car about 18 months and love the color. No cleaning issues as of yet.

Good luck