Hey everyone, I’ve been looking for a fun car to drive on the weekends and take to car shows and what not. I started looking at a 911 GT3, then a R8 V10 plus and R8 RWS. I considered a Huracan, but the R8 is pretty much the same car for less. Then I stumbled upon a 2014 FF with 9k miles with an attractive price point. The car has been in a small fender bender that seems to be fixed at this point. Now after researching the FF, I began to be very interested in the fact that it’s very good looking in my opinion, with a V12 and 4 seats. A practical supercar. The idea behind the R8 RWS for instance was to take it out occasionally and keep the car in mint condition to sell it for a good price a few years down the line... it’s a limited edition car. However Audi is being too pushy to close the deal and I’m abroad, so if I miss out on the car then I would need to find another car. The FF does not make sense to seldom drive it, and much less expect to sell it for a good price down the line considering they’ve depreciated pretty strongly lately. However, it’s an interesting car after all and I’m wondering if you guys could point me in the right direction. I don’t know much on Ferrari from the owners viewpoint so I’m concerned as to whether or not I should be worried about technical problems the car may bring upon, considering it’s a 2014 used car. This would be my first ever used car purchase, so I’m not familiar to the process although I have a trustworthy mechanic that would check out the car before I would buy it. So are there any specific problems I should be looking out for in the FF that are known to happen commonly? Are these cars reliable in general? Is a 2014 car, essentially 4-5 years old now with 9,000 miles, considered old and/or having too many miles on it? 9k for a non exotic car is extremely low, and a 4 year old car is also not anything crazy in terms of its aging. However, it seems like exotic cars don’t always follow those rules the same way. I don’t think we would bother to be driving this car on a daily basis. We already have 2 cars that do us fine for daily drivers and it would probably not be convenient to leave one of them behind to drive the Ferrari every day. I do understand that the FF is meant to be driven every day, but should I have any concerns about only taking it out on the weekends? Of course, I would keep the battery hooked up to the conditioner but is there anything else I should be wary of? How does the warranty work in pre owned Ferrari’s? I’m not sure this car is a CPO as it’s not being sold at a Ferrari dealership and it also has a minor accident reported on the carfax. What are my possibilities for extended warranties or things of that sort? Are those protections even worth having ? This car wouldn’t stay around for too long. I look at it as our first supercar that will serve as a gateway into another car that is newer and more powerful years down the road. Lots of questions I know, but hopefully I’ll have a better understanding of everything with this thread. Thanks in advance!
Try doing a search on the FF as there are a few threads discussing maintenance, use as DD etc. seems like a lot of car for the money if you can get by the rear quarter view. Most owners speak quite highly of the car.
First, you should have a pre-purchase inspection done at a Ferrari dealer. Some dealers say they don’t do PPI’s, so ask them if you can pay to do the extended warranty inspection. You can get a powertrain warranty from Ferrari with a car purchased at an outside dealer, but it has to pass inspection. Crash damage may or may not disqualify the car, so you would want to know that first. I have an FF I drive daily, use winter tires, and I love it. It is nice if you have kids and still want to enjoy your car while with the family. The FF is very complicated and very low volume, I think the warranty is a must. $6k/year. Some here have said banking that $ and paying if you have problems is best. I have had over $25k in warranty work in 16months of ownership(and it’s currently in the shop for a likely new ECU) so in my case it’s a no brainer. For some it may not pay off. Just keep in mind the PTU (front wheel drive system) has been reported to fail on these cars, it did on mine. It’s a minimum $20k repair. A crash damaged Ferrari is difficult to sell, if it is a HUGE bargain and can be warrantied then sold with remaining warranty, it can work. But if you are talking 10-20% difference to clear carfax car and you only plan to have two years, then pay up a little for pedigree.
I would recommend anyone getting the first Ferrari to do so through a Ferrari dealer. But that's just me. What kind of problems have you come across? What year is your car and what's the current mileage? Did you have it since new? If pre-owned, was it a CPO or from a non-Ferrari dealer?
I do agree, buying from dealer is best I have a 2012 FF. 6k miles when purchased used from non-Ferrari dealer. I have about 15k miles now. I had a Ferrari dealer do a PPI and it had a good report. I had it shipped to my local dealer to inspect and I purchased the Ferrari Warranty that you can buy yearly for about 5-6k. I don’t know if it is considered a CPO, or just a powertrain warranty. I started getting PTU warning lights, and (short version) they had to replace the PTU twice. I explained the whole ordeal in another thread posted by someone else who had a PTU issue. I had a window motor fail, and now a coil is being replaced after triggering a engine management system failure warning.
Jason - Thanks for sharing. I do remember the discussion on that thread about PTU being replacement twice. I hope all those issues will be resolved quickly so you can enjoy the car.
Latest issue all done and everyone happy, thanks. All covered by CPO, and car delivered to and from my house. But even though I’ve had more issues than most, I hope my posts do not dissuade ggonzaga from considering the FF. It is still a strong recommend in my book. Can’t think of anything else out there for $150k that’s even close. Was just conveying the importance of CPO in my case.
