Lusso advice please

If it's a car you like, I'd negotiate in a warranty--clarify that it covers the PTU

 

I had a similar dilemma with the '13 F12 that I purchased and have owned for a year and a half, but it had that "just right' color combo (Blu America/Cuoio) that wasn't easy to find so I went with it and haven't had any regrets so far. Best I could tell it had ~ 4,600 mi as a demo with 2 subsequent owners only adding another 3k mi. to the clock. I shared my concerns about the car's early life as a demo and the salesman's response was that most dealers were careful with their demos and didn't just turn them loose to every F1 wanna-be. No doubt he could have easily been telling me a story, but the car was coming with a 2 yr CPO warranty so I gambled and haven't been sorry. I did purchase the car sight unseen though and as the CPO prep was described felt a cross-country trip and PPI was unnecessary but received the car with an intermittent backup camera and the LED rpm indicators not functioning, so I guess you can never be too careful.

The replacement motor and dash could be a bit of a concern though. I'd certainly want to try to get the story behind those events if possible and barring any credible explanation, I would consider that an option for some price negotiation if the car looks appealing otherwise.

 

Wait, you’re not supposed to redline the first two gears and then slam on the brakes? That’s what I do every time mine leaves my garage haha

FYI, I don’t know what your dealership is like, but mine doesn’t just let any dude-bro take cars out for test drives without a salesman in the passenger seat. All of my test drives, both with and without my salesman, have been very respectful. I and I doubt those 7000 demo miles were from test drives. That many miles sounds like maybe a dealership employee commuted in that car for a while.

 

Replacement engine is a concern. New dash is probably not. It’s not super uncommon for the leather to be funky sometimes, and is probably a good thing they already replaced it.

 

I understand the concern over the car being a demo, but, with any pre owned car, you almost will never know how someone was driving the car prior to you. I would get the added warranty coverage. I love the Lusso and to me its more refined and actually better resolved ride than the F12- not as relatively raw, but definitely better as a GT. Every car has its strong and weak points. We know them well for the Lusso. I wish you the best of luck in getting the car and let us know how it works out [emoji4]


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Warranty should cover the PTU, but assume that PTU and/or the DCT *will* need work at some point and you won't be disappointed when it happens. For me that was a little over a year and 12k miles from purchase and they did the DCT (2 weeks in shop, warranty covered).

Dash warping and leather shrinkage just happens. I've seen 4 year old Ferraris on their second dash leather (yep). I wouldn't expect warranty to cover that though.

I would ask why it got a fresh engine, but the new engine would probably be a plus IMO. My bet is that an internal gasket went bad - I've heard some cautionary tales about the 812 block in particular and have observed one on the shop floor getting a whole new engine installed.

I would expect a decent discount for the demo history. Not as bad as a wreck or a rental, but something off of typical Manheim #s.

 

If the lusso is like the 812, it won’t allow you to redline during engine warm up, so I wouldn’t really be worried about that. After warm ups, redlining is just an Italian tune up, and I make sure to do it multiple times whenever I’ve got my cars out for a drive. That said, I would want to know why the lusso received a new engine.

As for demo cars, it does vary dealer to dealer, but they can be given to people for more than a day at a time as extended test drives. I spent a day in an F8 spider courtesy of my dealer, and low and behold I ordered one. While I am respectful of things owned by others, you bet your ass I still drove that car to my level of enjoyment after it was properly warmed up.

And while it isn’t officially a Ferrari sanctioned statement, when I asked multiple people at my dealer about break-in, I was told to enjoy the car. That follows along what my engine builder has said after initial run in of the engine (which is only about 20-30 mins and an oil change). Break it in how you want to drive it is my philosophy.

 

Does the T Lusso/ V8 only offer rear wheel drive? That is no PTU (issues)?

 

No PTU/4wd on LussoT.