OK, so which one of you bought Doug Demuro's 360 Modena?

Until this thread, I've only seen some of his funny videos. Reading his articles about the 360, it is obvious Ferrari is not his passion and the car owned him. What to him is a nightmare is to most of us here a dream come true. So he recommends a Porsche (nothing wrong with that). Who fn cares?

 

Doug Demuro's form of entertainment caters to the child like mind that is the average American male. Not sure why people on here are upset over that?

He's also correct. The old cars simply suck. Why? Because you need optimal conditions to really enjoy them. Maybe like 1% of areas in the United States are useable for a Ferrari. You've got crumbling infrastructure, congested traffic and a hostile police force. When watching youtube videos of supercar cruising in US, the level of agressive reactions from the public is startling. So yea, the attention quickly gets negative. All these things really take away from the enjoyment. Driving in a straight line at low speed limits, hitting pothole after pothole and listening to everything rattle is not a dream. Demuro' reality check is backed up by tons of low mileage cars sitting, most owners realize they aren't enjoyable.

I think the magneride + DCT was a huge game changer for these cars in terms of actual useage, the pre 458 generation just seems so dated in terms of ride quality.

 

Oh, they mind...

 

Congratulations on your purchase! Enjoy in good health and welcome to the forum!

I personally look forward to reading your adventures in the car. :-D

 

Perhaps read some posts from the user "Napolis" on this site about how he lets his "old Ferrari's" collect dust. What the articles 12 month owner speaks of ownership shouldn't be confused with true dedicated owners. I know someone in the local FCA who drives his 330 as a "regular car" for at least 10 years.

 

Sonoma Boy FTW!!!!! I am hopeful that you are blessed with good roads and the means to enjoy them! About DD's car... I was thinking that he had a seriously good one since I never saw or heard him complain about the gear changes. A lot of guys have issues with the feel from first to second and he had enough confidence in his car to race it but more importantly he let a ton of people drive it and none of them mentioned anything at all as far as I recall. The car must indeed be a solid one so you are starting off right. Congratulations!!

 

I think the negative tone of the beginning of the quote above is a bit of an unfair generalization. In between the coasts, there are plenty of us who have at our disposal well-maintained infrastructure with low traffic and enthusiastic police. I have easily been given at least a dozen "thumbs up" from LEO's, which always gets me to smile. The ONE time I've been stopped for speeding in my red 360 Spider, the LEO was very kind, asked me a lot of questions about my car, very respectful to me as an owner, and LET ME GO WITHOUT EVEN A WARNING. He told me I made his day by giving him bragging rights at the station. Hostile? Not exactly.

Aggressive reactions from the public? Maybe. But, I haven't experienced this. Usually, I get smiles from pretty girls, thumbs up from kids, and tons and tons of pictures and videos from males of all ages. So, no, not aggressive reactions by any means.

Since my experience has been a positive one (and this may not be universal, but a negative experience is an unfair generalization just because we're in the USA), all the public attention has actually ENHANCED my ownership experience. Been interviewed on TV news about my car? Check. Had a pretty newsreader ask to sit in my car? Check. Taken pretty girls for rides in my car? Check (and I'm married with 2 kids!). Let other people who seem nice and enthusiastic sit inside my car? Check - absolutely.

Even if your Ferrari experience is more like sour lemons, its up to YOU to turn that around into a nice glass of Lemonade. Would I like to live in Monaco where the supercars are plentiful? Nope - I'll take my experience exactly as it is.

 

Agreed with IDriveM5, part of the fun of F-ownership is the attention, its experience package you get from it.

I doubt an Merc SLS will attract the same attention which is approximately 3-4x the cost of a 360

 

I think I wrote it wrong. It not that they suck, it just that they require amazing conditions to truely enjoy. Yes there are die hards who put up with it, but realistically that is a small % of owners. If I was wrong we wouldn't see dealers jam packed with ultra low mileage cars. Owners realize the novelty quickly wears off when you sitting in bumper to bumper traffic or hitting pothole after pothole.

 

Actually I lived in North America, the experience over here in Europe is completely different(nothing beats blasting through Italian tunnels along the riviera). As I said from my real world observation, maybe 1% of North America is useable, facts speak for themselves with tons of low mileage cars sitting. Some owners barely last 6months before realizing what have I gotten myself into. This is exactly why Ferrari stepped up their game with DCT's and magneride.. If you paying $300k+ for a consumer toy you want it to be a positive experience. Doug Demuro has some highway cruising videos where it looks like hes driving in the third world.

My Ferrari experience has been excellent(12k miles in a summer), I made sure of it by doing it properly in Europe.

 

My $.02 based on my time here:

Ferrarichat is a VERY serious forum filled with users that don't take kindly to humor, sarcasm, self-deprecation, etc and especially anything that may disrupt the mystique of the brand.

Doug's articles don't appear to share this same mindset and I believe that's why they are met with such negativity.

 

Well I'd agree most of his content is lame, but come on it's a car made by a profit seeking corporation(that pumps them out like fresh bread), it doesn't have feelings contrary to what most on this forum believe.

 

I gotta say you are full of it. You either have no clue what North American roads are like or you are delusional. I have lived in Stuttgart Germany for the last 3 years but grew up in the US. If you think Italian roads are good you are a liar or a fool. I drove a 458 all over Marenello and much of Tuscany and it beat the crap out of the car and me.

Inside of large American cities, the potholes are bad especially in the north where they get a lot of snow and ice. The other 98% of American road quality will put most of Europe to shame with the exception of Germany where all the roads are amazing.

 

Fair enough, but I'm still not sure I agree with your logic here. So, what you're saying is that there are lots of low mileage cars because there are virtually zero places to drive them? I'd say that's quite a leap, and if you're right, I'll eat humble pie.
What other reasons could exist?
Could it be that people add a Ferrari as part of a larger collection? Therefore, they have a lot of cars to spread mileage maybe?
Could it be that they bought the car but don't have the time or occasion to drive it? I'm guessing that this would go to Doug D's "Point A to Point A" car argument.
Could it be that some percentage of these cars aren't maintained regularly (perhaps because of one of the points listed above) and therefore aren't really "road ready," and would need some maintenance and upkeep that the owner isn't willing to invest at the moment?

Point is, you say that your side is proven because there are a lot of low mileage cars. But, you seem to suggest that this is solely because there are limited conditions suitable for a drive. So, where does that leave the "high mileage" cars, or the cars that some people use as daily drivers? How do we explain these cars? Why are these cars, which exist in the same environment, being driven? Further, to drive this one home (no pun intended), just because from your real world experience you suggest that there exist few ideal conditions to drive a Ferrari in the USA, that doesn't mean that all of us suffer from the same ills and we're unable to drive our cars.

Full disclosure: my Ferrari is in hibernation right now. I don't drive it during the winter season and I only drive it on sunny days. That sure doesn't mean I CAN'T drive it year round because the roads are poor, the public hates the car, and the cops are profiling me. Nope. Is every time behind the wheel of my Ferrari under "ideal" circumstances? Hell no. Does that matter? Nope.
Also, I would love to drive a Ferrari through Europe, but I'm not trading my day-to-day experience for that. Never.

 

I'm like so confused how I managed to find the 1% of roads which have allowed me to drive across the country hitting major cities. Multiple trips to Chicago also. Almost daily drives into and around Pittsburgh.

I've always known I was lucky. But 1%? Ok, if you say so! ; )

Look the roads in the US need work for sure; but maybe people could use some toughening up as well? Just saying...

 

^^^^ now THAT'S funny and entertaining to read. Thanks for the laugh.

 

Let's make it 2%. I drive my car a minimum of twice a week. And yes, there are some crappy parts of town here in LA where there are deep potholes, but for the most part, our roads are pretty damn good. Especially in our local canyons. Besides the occasional gravel or dirt, they are pretty clean.

A car in hibernation sounds like a garage queen.

And I do like Doug's articles, I find them slightly entertaining to a point. But he did use the stereotypes of Ferrari to his advantage. And seeing how society feels about those who currently own exotics, he fueled the fire amongst them to continue the stereotypes. His post is now on the front page of yahoo explaining what a nightmare the ownership is. But seeing he really didn't have the car long enough to even experience anything. He would fall in the typical ****** who purchased the car for an image and than unloads it quickly before any actual investment or labor is put back into the car. To say maintenance is expensive? How would he know when he only had a nail in his tired and made himself look like a tool for going to the dealer. He was making a point to show how the stereotypes are true. But what he doesn't go into detail about is that the car is damn reliable. The maintenance is pretty damn minimal on the car. Most of which could be done by someone with average automotive skills.

At the end of the day, the car was nothing more than a promotional tool for his own agenda. And being that every service, part and component can be written off by him, How does he justify that as a real cost. As most would not be able to write those services off.

just my 2 cents..lol

 

Unless he has the car owned by an LLC, please explain to me how to do this. I would LOVE to have my ownership written off. I can't imagine the IRS letting him get away with this. Like using your car as an "advertising medium" right. I'm sure they've heard it before.

 

I read a post he replied to. It was a response to one of his readers that asked if he was able to write off the expenses of the vehicle.

 

I'd love to be able to write it off too...lol

 

Sonoma congrats on the car buddy! If you look closely in the glove box you might find a holiday card there from the Fchatters in this thread who all unanimously admired Doug's work...um don't look too hard though! hahahaha

Enjoy in good health...and for heavens sakes throw the receipt for the TV that was strapped to the roof away, it's probably wedged between the seat somewhere - yikes!

 

Trying being the operative word. This guy is damn boring and trying way to hard to be ''casually funny''. Personality of a carrot, this one.

 

I think Doug had DC tags? and their roads are horrible! I've bent all four BMW wheels and blew out all four tires in one winter. DC is not Ferrari friendly, especially on the Anacostia Freeway.

 

What kind of makes me mad about this article is that its just not written by a life long tifosi.
I just bought my first F-Car in May and have nothing but the exact opposite feelings about it. It's better than I could have imagined. Everything about it is awesome. I drove it pretty much where I wanted to drive it. Even down into detroit a few times. Not just A to A. but honestly, sometimes A is what its about. Driving it is the reason to drive it!

I just think he's searching to make up things wrong about it so it's easier to justify selling it already.

Oh he should have bought a blue 456 if he didn't want attention. lol.

 

I am not really amused by his youtube clips. If he is trying to find reasons not to own a ferrari, then we all know it.

I am sure he thinks he so smart. But we all have our reason why we own one.

When you start to own 1, 2 or 3 ferraris and then 1, 2 other exotics, if you are really smart, you do not rationalize why you own them. It becomes now a hobby or a passion. How can you justify it, you can't.

I tell this to some of my friends who ask me why I have the cars I have, "I just like cars!"