Newbie queries on Portofino M

My opinion:

"Soon" means different things to different people. I've not heard of any Portofino Ms being delivered yet. The order process discussions have indicated people with orders from a year ago may be hoping for Q1 2022 deliveries.

1. The Portofino/California series cars work great as daily drivers providing you have parking which protects the car as you like. I use my Cali T in Los Angeles traffic on streets and freeways just fine. Usually I have the top up on freeway driving since the noise from other cars can be interminable when top is down.

2. Long trips are fine providing parking meets your expectations. I've not heard of overheating issues and I live in Southern California which has much higher temperatures than British isles.

3. Putting kids, and also their kid seats when needed, into the rear seats has worked for some and been problematic for others. The Cali T the owner's handbook is very clear on not allowing anyone over 59 inches tall (4 ft, 11 in,, 1.50 m) to sit in the back seat for safety reasons described in the handbook (top mechanism, rear window clearance from rear passenger head, and for roll bar safety equipment in an accident). Presumably this 59 inch limit would apply for booster seats by considering the torso height plus seat elevation for a child. The Cali T manual gives an example of a maximum child height of 40 in (1.02 m) when using a specific Britax-Romer approved child seat. Also, the legroom is rather limited in back, one should consider how much legroom is needed even with front seats forward to comfortable driving position. Maybe it would work fine for you.

 

Hi,

Forgive me for this but you mention being new to UK//London.

1. Car will cope with traffic in central London but I’m not sure you will. It’s certainly not the best place to drive but it does depend on how “central” you mean. Movement in central London is no faster than when we used horses 100 years ago. Check the postcode for congestion charges. The Ulez zone should be ok but double check that. Roads are not well laid out grids like a lot of the US.

Parking/garaging is a very real cost if your property does not have parking provision.

2. Car will come alive on a trip like Scotland. It’s about 500 miles to the lower parts and 680miles to the top. The England motorway bit is a boring until you get up there. but will be comfortable in a Porto and the better roads up in Scotland will make it worth it. Put in perspective great roads in europe are a very similar distance without poor Uk motorway and heavier traffic here. Hence why a lot of us go into Europe for road trips or ship the cars up to Scotland and fly up to meet them.

4. Assume £180k plus options (first years road tax is loaded with a luxury car levy).

5. You can spec different tyres but not sure runflats are an option. If you get a puncture you phone Ferrari assist and get recovered to a tyre place. Same with most next cars of this ilk.

Hope this helps.

 

I am a Portofino (not the M version) driver and could answer some of your questions
1.

 

I am a Portofino driver (not the M version) and could answer your questions
1. I use my car as my daily drive: cities, motorways, small country road, the lot. No problem with driving in a city but you will get a lot of attention and people taking videos of you.
2. I used my car in the summer in the south of France with 300 km drives at 30 degrees temp. No overheating issues but plenty of battery issues if you do not plug the car in every day. It is absurd but I am now on my FOURTH battery. The first three went dead on me. Three!!!!
3. As I am just 5' 7" my seat is quite forward and two not-too-tall adults can fit in the back. Will be uncomfortable for long trips as you have to sit rather upright. Possible but not comfortable. Put the roof down to get in and out: makes a huge difference
4. No idea about UK prices but here in the Netherlands the dealer had a list of "compulsory options". Talk of an oxymoron. You dealer may have that too. Once you buy it the car is not expensive to run but expect fuel consumption to be high.
5. Flat tire means calling the assistance. My dealer said run flats were definitely not recommended.

Hope this helps. It is a fabulous car to drive and not tiring for long distances.

 

Took the portofino M out for a 45 minute drive from DL Swindon and it’s a lovely car. I drive a Cali 30 atm

I thought there wasn’t much difference between the Cali 30 and portfino M other than you can tell it’s got 120bhp more (but like foot down in 3rd and suddenly you’re in triple figures) and it felt far more planted on the road. For some reason comfort mode wouldn’t auto change up when I redlined it in the car. Liked the moving roof up and down but you lose all rear visibility when doing so. Sounds system and display good. This one had heated and ventilated seats that were fully electric including the side and back bolsters. Steering wheel felt a bit plasticky - probably the indicators on wheels that led to that. Hugely impressed though. Is it worth an extra 100k - probably not I’d spend it as a deposit on an F8 instead.

I take the kids wakeboarding, do my shopping and Costco runs in it and the daily school run. If you want more space then a GT4Lusso or TT may be a better bet for you. Most of them have HELE (stop/start) in them so you should be fine with emissions.

if you don’t have a parking space then yes - some ungrateful scroat will scratch it for you. Bonus prize - with all the tall buildings in London - any foot dump on the accelerator will get echoed back to you and sound awesome

 

Check your local dealer in the UK as they have a team of 20 over here from Maranello doing test drives of the Roma, F8 and portofino M at the moment. H R Owen should be able to advise if you can get in or missed it