Is 2009-2011 California good buy?

I’m on record here with my thoughts on Cali’s. I have had no bad trouble with my 2011 that I purchased in October 2017. I have put 11,000 miles on mine in that time.
I had a window motor go bad but was covered by the warranty.
Get a decent battery maintainer, not the Ferrari unit that comes with the car. CTek 5.0 is what I bought. That is a critical piece of the equation. Low voltage causes all sorts of problems, mostly inexplicable. Best advice is to drive the care regularly. Limit short trips, I drive to the gym or grocery store which normally a 10 or 15 minute ride in my Audi I take off through the country and make it at least 30 minutes.
GET THE WARRANTY, an alternator replacement is north of 2500 dollars. Nothing is cheap so know you are going to spend way more money when something goes wrong than you would on a BMW or a MB.
There’s a saying that if you can’t afford a new one you damn sure can’t afford an old one.
In closing I am as happy as can be with my first Ferrari, and if I live long enough not my last.

 

I dont know if there is a percentage anyone can really give you as to the amount of cars that have had DCT issues but if you do it will cost, and it really depends on if your Ferrari dealer had a mechanic trained to do the sensor swap. Top issues can occur on any of these cars especially
given how many sensors are in the harness for the top mechanism.

As far as the warranty goes you can get the new power warranty for up to the cars 12th year and then a stripped down version of the warranty for an additional 2. So short answer is yes you can get a warranty for around 4500 a year.

The California is getting quite affordable, but be aware of what items cost, if you have Ferrari replace all the brakes and rotors it’s around a 30k bill for example and the previous reply gave an alternator replacement example. Also I personally would seriously consider the new power warranty on the California’s 2012 and older, and think about it on the 13-14. While the California requires much less maintainance the most Ferrari’s I’d still keep a nice fund set back for repairs and maintainance.

The California really is a great car, hard top convertible GT and quite a few under 100k even at Ferrari dealers. The back seat really isn’t what I’d call a back seat though. I recommend you really look at one and try to test drive one.

 

I agree with all of the points made by Azlin75. It’s a helluva lot of fun to drive. I have a Porsche that is more fun to actually drive but the Ferrari is the best to be seen driving in. Lotta looks. Priceless.

 

I'm 2.5 years and 15 K miles into my Ferrari adventure. Loving it. It's still an event every time I take her out for a drive.

The F-chat dogma is that later in the first gen, the transmission sensor issue seems reduced. But as others have said, no telling what the real failure statistics are.

If you've done a realistic financial analysis and can afford this car without it impacting your other fiscal responsibilities, plus have enough $$ socked away for a rainy day in case of a major repair bill, then go for it. You don't want to be stressing when you're styling and profiling around town in a drop top Ferrari.

Good luck...T

 

Call me a skeptic but I’m not so sure that warranty is as good as it claims to be. There are lots of folks here that can attest to how good the Ferrari new power warranty is. No it doesn’t cover everything but it DOES cover the big ticket items which is why you buy it in the first place.

The following is from Steve at Boardwalk Ferrari pertaining to the cost of the new power warranty.
V8 Pricing
$4,500 Year to Year ( MSRP )
$375.00 Renewal discount ( If you have coverage during the prior year and renew again )
$375.00 Discount if you had no claims in the prior year

v12 Pricing
$5,760 Year to Year ( MSRP )
$375.00 Renewal discount ( If you have coverage during the prior year and renew again )
$375.00 Discount if you had no claims in the prior year

If you choose to go with the other warranty I’d really scour the documents to make sure what is covered. Maybe also research what others experiences are with it. I’ve personally been burned by warranty’s offered by third party’s so I tend to shy away from them. It sure sounds too good to be true. What ever you choose the California is an excellent car but it is a Ferrari and as such subject to parts being at a premium.

 

If you have Ferrari do the service yea its 30k. Remember these cars are equipped with carbon ceramic brakes. Another member was asking about the brake service as his car was at 95k miles and his rotors were cracked. He found out he could get the parts and have a Indi mechanic do the brakes but it was still steep. And brakes aren’t covered under warranty as they are a wear item. I don’t recall but I think the rotors are around $1500 to 2k a piece from eurospares or ferrparts. Dealer prices would be higher. Not sure what all ferrari does for a full brake service but I’d imagine it’s a fluid flush, pads, rotors, and bedding at a minimum. They may also replace some seals in the calipers as well but I don’t know.

Yeah 30k is a minimum for a DCT replacement, and yes up to 10k for sensor replacement depending on sensors needed. As far as finding out weather or not your dealer has a tech trained for DCT repairs you would have to ask. It seems that if a dealer doesn’t have a tech they replace the DCT.

 

My understanding is if you don’t track the car you won’t be faced with brake rotor replacement. Pads maybe but not rotors. My 30k service completed about 2 months ago there was no mention of break wear.


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Yeah that is the claim, but another user with 95k on his Cali and didn’t track the car had to replace his rotors due to cracks, there was however life left if it weren’t for the cracks. I don’t recall to interval on the breaks but it seems like a long time. Heck even around 100k miles on a set of rotors is awesome. But it could happen that a person could need to replace the rotors and it ain’t cheap.

 

Get a PPI and a Ferrari New Power Warranty. And haggle on the price but don't act cheap. I just told them I'd take my car for 11K under asking price. First and last offer. They took it. It was the easiest car buying experience I've ever had, who knew lol.