My First Ferrari Service - Lessons learned

Agree, the solenoids are like $800 a piece on Ricambi, brand new!

They were experienced enough to see a customer who wasn't experienced in shopping for prices for parts!

If you don't mind paying those prices, then all the power to you, but it you want to save some $$$ and "learn a lesson," I'd say do some research FIRST when you get a quote before agreeing to their terms!

 

I agree to this. No wonder some people think that Ferraris cost as much to maintain as a space shuttle. Don´t get me wrong, the F430 is not a cheap car to maintain but when you do your homework it´s not more expensive to maintain then a BMW M, AMG etc.

Still think that the bill is not expensive?

 

Even so, there's still some wiggle room at the dealership for parts if you have a good relationship from them. I just don't see with their labor costs much of a benefit going to them rather than going to the actual Ferrari dealership and having the perceived invrease in resale value (whether you sell it or not) of saying you had it serviced at the Ferrari dealer, especially on big-ticket items like that.

Good luck!

Any Pics of the car? Thatll always be saving grace, either way, in the end, you have a well-sorted amazing car!

 

I do a lot of business in Kansas. What is up with the 7.975% tax rate? The State rate is 6.5%. I'm sure they have a reason for it ....such as a locality tax but that is high.

On the parts.....Ferrari of Washington DC allows me to supply the parts. Their markup on Ferrari parts retail prices is at least 30%......which they argue covers them providing a repair warranty. Since in many cases Hill Engineering has better engineered parts at far more reasonable prices.....I'll forgo the parts "warranty". My experience with parts warranties is the same as marriage.....whatever the circumstances.....it is still my fault.

 

Interestingly enough, if they pick the parts and the part fails on install or is bad THEY have to pick up the labor to fix it. Is 30% the right amount? Who knows but transferring risk has a cost. I haven't had any issues with getting them to fix their work. BUT I don't use the local F dealer because their work is TERRIBLE. On more than one occasion they returned my car with a CEL when it didn't have one when I dropped it off.

 

I'm with you but for me I just don't buy warranties on parts or tools. I can't think of a single parts warranty I have ever used in decades of car work (other than "lifetime" brake pads). 95% of the labor is mine so if I screw up....I get to fix it.

If a Dealer screws up it is a different matter. First, they have to investigate what went wrong which precedes who gets to pay for it. FoW preps race cars as well and does good work. For someone with a blank checkbook they can get anything done for a price. I look at Ferrari owners in 3 categories:

1) Those who get annoyed at paying high prices but have the funds to pay for any repair at a Ferrari Dealership
2) Those that do their own work but from time to time use others to get things done at reasonable prices. Its not that they don't have the money .....its that they enjoy doing their own work.
3) People who should not own a Ferrari. They refuse to do maintenance on the car and complain on YouTube videos what a POS the car is because their Toyota Camry doesn't have these problems.

I make the pilgrimage to FoW once a year for the annual Virginia State Inspections. It is a treat to go there because the new waiting room has a panoramic view of the shop. I like the way they treat the cars and the owners. I doubt I would have them do my next major because $13-15k seems like a pretty steep price even if I supply the tensioners and bearings. Besides, it something I have been looking forward to doing.

 

I wish I hadn't looked at your receipt!
Separate line items for shop supplies and cleaners? That's a curious thing to put on each customer. So I wonder how that works? They must have a kind of high tech dispensing system and the assigned mechanic goes over to the machine and swipes his badge into it and enters how much de-greaser he needs and it is dispensed and a receipt comes out and it gets taken over the the accounting department who includes it in the itemized bill, but this walking around and waiting for the various extra steps are in no way passed on to you as mechanic fees...because that is like clerical work, yeah?

or is it more....

Skeeter is cleaning up the parts they take off and noticed that someone used the last of the bottle of cleaner and there aren't any rags around so he goes to the store and buys a jug and a pack of rags to replace the shop supply and they charge whoever the next customer is....This time it was you! Kinda like the shop supply game but you lost this round.

You should have asked for all the old parts IMO.

I am poking fun of course but... The way they do their paper does raise some questions. Good Labor rates there and they work very efficiently with 3 hours to do the oil and brake flush. Maybe they got you this time around but if you like the shop or have no choices where you are you may do alright there in those years where you just need a basic service.

 

I think the lesson is to shop for a more affordable INDY shop. I have no doubt your shop is a competent one (better be at those rate), but it sure isn't any cheaper than some of the dealer I know.

I guarantee they bought the parts (even from Ferrari dealers) cheaper than what Ricambi charges. Rimcambi gives a standard 10% discount to fchat member, and they give additional discount to garages.

find another shop, if you gonna keep the car for a while.

 

Quality comes at a cost. I'm all for shopping to save money on commodities but this type of service and relationship is special. There is always someone less expensive but that typically does not equal the same level in service, quality and warranty.

 

Very nice! Thanks for posting this thread and all the related information ..... it can be eye opening for other members of the forum.

 

Great looking car. Enjoy

 

The hour rates might seem acceptable but the question is how many hours they charge you for. 3 hours for an oil change... jeez...

How much do they charge for a complete clutch change including throw out bearing, pilot bearing, flywheel (might not be necessary)?

 

Exceedingly glad I will be doing the majority of the work myself on my new to me 08'F430! 15$K seems crazy! ( I'm a retired mechanic ) I guess one needs a Leonardo to do certain things ? and I called and they have a 'DaVinci " that is a sort of JR Leonardo ? for only $7 K ? !! My brother says he will buy it for me! I suppose most can afford to just pay whatever they charge for repairs ! To me, Ferrari ownership & the maintenance seems sort of a busman's holiday hence, I am looking forward to the challenge of repairing everything that needs it! I have worked on far more, or at least equally sophisticated engines! mayhaps I should unretire and somehow become the worlds oldest Ferrari apprentice mechanic! / tech ! now which dealer wants to sponsor me for factory training! it would be a great story! ( was an English/ ESL teacher/ tutor as well so we may as well be a writer too ! ) LOL

 

Neil, I wouldn't recommend buying any of these over priced diag tools as i'm going to build in the equivalent (for end users, not dealers) into my Swiss Army Knife tool and it will be a tiny fraction of these crazy quoted prices... Won't be too long now...

 

Beautiful car. I had a similar experience, but not to that extent. My 2007 F430, CPO had motor mount issues and a few other items that I thought the same thing "all that inspection and they didn't notice these things". After they were sorted, the car was awesomely rock solid for the 3 years I owned it. Good luck and here's to no future bills!

 

Man I am glad I have a fantastic Indy near me for the jobs I don’t want to do. Those charges are out of this world. I would personally shop around if I were you but if 16k isn’t anything to you then I guess it doesn’t matter. Glad you got her back on the road. I’d question wether or not everything that was done was actually required. Was the car seeming very off before your brought it in?


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Thanks for the details on your repair experience. I’m now one month into ownership of my own Grigio Silverstone ‘06 coupe, and I’ve had a similar start. PPI was really good, minor issues found. Got car delivered and filled gas tank - horrible gas smell. Two weeks and $3k later, new fuels pumps were in. Other small issues have been popping up, such as the driver window not returning to closed position after opening and closing door. Interior latch microswitch bad but didn’t resolve issue. Ordered door latch microswitch (from Italy [emoji634]) for $900. 2 weeks later, installed ...and no joy. Tried a new ecu - nope [emoji107]. Four labor hours later and no fix. Now appears could be wiring in door between latches and ecu. I brought car home so I could actually drive it! Also having an actual audio system and backup camera installed (thank you Scuderia Audio!)

So that’s not to mention the manifolds I’ll have to do, the exhaust puking out white insulation in the engine bay, the stickies that need refinishing blah blah blah! The car was priced with some of this taken into account but still, how freaking annoying and pricey! I need some warm sunny days off work to drive and forget about all the annoyances [emoji41]


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Which microswitch was that? I am not aware of any door microswitches costing that kind of money. The door latch microswitch is inside the door lock mechanism itself. The whole unit, including the door latch microswitch, is available from Ricambi for $300.