Order procedure, tailor made etc

Just signed "pre-order" for F12 successor. Will be my 1st new Ferrari. Bought the F12b with less than 3k mls, as I walked into the dealer the second time and felt in love immediately. First visit I specced a new F12 and it was a very standard procedure like the dealer was showing me the online configurator and thats all.

Usually I am not that interested in all those nitty gritty details like style and color of stitching etc. But it is starting to grow on me to have an individual and maybe a bit exclusive F that is exactly the way I want.

How will the specification go? Do I have the choice to visit a special config room at the factory?

What about tailor made, is there something like a minimum amount of money to spend? Do they have special advisors or a special procedure?

I am buying in Europe. Could possibly be delivered already end of 2017 if it will be presented in Geneva.

Thank you for all the insights.

 

One thing is sure : They have special Tailor made advisors

 

My dealer said at least $70k in Tailor made stuff that is not part of the regular options offered to standard builds. May vary by dealer.

 

Traveller & Mark Moon are able to give much more informations

 

70k on top of standard options is not exactly nothing but sounds reasonable.

 

Rather than write again, this is a repost of my experience below. Since then I would comment as follows:

TM is housed in an inappropriate basement with virtually no natural light and has an air of impermanence about it, so first impressions are not good.

INSIST on taking samples with you of what you chose and only if you fail, date by which they will be sent. Otherwise take the samples up into the street and photograph with a good camera.

RESEARCH before you go as there is more information on this thread than available at TM as whilst very knowledgeable, they don't seem to know as much in some instances as we do. For example I was told Triple greys were simply not possible by the TM team but thanks to Jeff (F12tm), we know one is in fact available.

CHECK the USB stick with your spec on it to confirm it has a similarity to what you have chosen. When I excitedly loaded it back in the UK, the paint colour I initially chose came out on the PDFs as virtually black, a mile off what we had selected. I asked them to redo it as I wanted a record, but still nothing.

Write yourself a simple clean short brief of what you are seeking to end up with. For example my brief to myself and the TM team, which everyone could easily understand: Stylish, Classic, Sporty but Individual.

Here is my post, slightly amended through recent experience:

TM has been slightly revised and now it appears you have you 'dealer'(I always felt that an appropriate description), a lead designer, a photoshop guru(PG) and a general advisor. Your first sight is the maze of probably 200 colour samples hanging on the wall, compare that to your dealership. To me, the natural starting point was to seek out from this harlequin of colours a shortlist. We ended up with about 6 to start with including a new very white silver, inevitably some greys and a few blues. We then finally reduced this to three and then returned to the configurator. Interestingly, our lead designer personally felt this car looks best in blues and greys or maybe I was just being encouraged and flattered due to my selection.

PG then opened a far superior configurator on a larger TV, both a marked improvement over what the dealership offers. Initially we very briefly looked through to see what others had specified to see if there were any outstanding ideas or concepts and all I can say is that there are some really brave and different schemes taking cues from everything from the FXXK back to the 60's, and in a vast range of colours, stripes, crease line highlighting, whatever, a huge variety. To those wondering about where are the more elaborate and exciting schemes and that all we have seen so far have been fairly standard, I say just wait, you will not be disappointed, there truly is something for everyone coming.

We then started on the exterior and interestingly, the PG had to manually mix the colour purely from sight whilst holding the colour swatch. And so the car gets coloured in and adjusted like a painter mixes their paints on a palette, and then you add all the external detailing from wheels to exhaust. I would suggest, at this stage, to do this for a couple of body colour alternatives.

With that basic envelope established, we turned to the interior and here you can find yourself going down various paths only to find that even at TM, some things are just not possible. For example one of our paintwork options was this bright silver, but to my eye, black alcantara was too strong a contrast and Blue Scuro too grey. The perfect navy we chose would have looked great but it turns out it was only the black alcantara which was approved for use on the airbags, so the perfect navy was out and thus the new silver with it. Including a typically Italian slightly late start, and a visit to the launch spec car, we had now already used up half our allotted time and so far were not even close to a scheme. I was becoming concerned as I knew we had to nail it within the next hour, an almost impossible concept given how I had failed to reach a conclusion in the last 6 months.

Time threatening, silver gone, the knee jerk reaction was to fall back into my grey comfort zone with a new, as yet unnamed grey, a sort of clean Ferro. Apparently a triple layer grey is currently not possible. PG painted that in and naturally the car looked great. So we then looked at the interior. A safe staring point was seat style, and for me, even though every modern Ferrari I have owned I have specced with Daytonas, they are just a little too GT for this car and so a style of racing seat was selected and naturally the entire interior was in black alcantara. We then tried different stitching, baseball, heavy and even smooth concealed piping, and many other alternatives, none of which was achieved by a simple configurator like 'click' but by painstakingly manually rubbing out and removing and adding. We tried contrasting panels on the seats, grey, cuoio etc, in an effort to break the monotony of the interior. In desperation we even looked at half and half but that meant the entire top line in leather and thus a leather top dash and this car has to have an alcantara top dash. Tick tock.

Then our lead designer, understanding my brief and my requests, started producing alternative materials, some you would never find elsewhere, including ultrsuede and others and for a bit we experimented. One of the others was a delicious natural fabric with historical connotations which provided a perfect contrast and PG painted that in. This time, again in a slight nod to the past when the seat was the highlight, we made the entire seat in this material and added minimal detail. Looking good. Then we added some additional cockpit details to reflect our seat material elsewhere, threw in a splash of additional carbon and looking good(expensive). During this entire process, endless manuscript notes are made and crossed out on a large paper tdf schematic by the assistant keeping track of all the minutiae and changes we have agreed.

It's looking good, very good but then it's still not quite right primarily because it's grey, again. Not only is it grey again but I am going to be paying a substantial amount of money for a special grey that only I know is special, whereas to everyone else, it will simply be grey. My third colour that no one seems that interested in, is still left.

I ask PG to colour this in for a third option and as it appears, cries of 'bella'. Now we were cooking. Out to the street to see all the samples in natural light, TM being in the basement, and the streets of the Factory are now coming awake as its lunch time. Tick Tock. In theory our time is up.

Back to TM, agree this is the colour paint, that it works well with the carbon and especially with the special materials and so back to the interior. Another 15 minutes of detailed changes, changes again only possible at TM, and finally, against all the odds even 45 minutes ago, after 6 months of consideration and indecision, we have a scheme, subject to a few details. Coats are on and the girls are reaching for the door and I could have spent another half an hour just going over things, but I was excited with where we had arrived against all the odds just an hour ago. A USB stick with some images, albeit with a very poor representation of the colour, and we were off for the rest of our personalised tour, the Lusso and lunch on TM.

So a brilliant day, so very well worthwhile. My advice would be go there with a distinct brief and outline proposal, certainly on body colour, as otherwise the sheer panoply of choice will overwhelm you. As I said, from being in a panic at 12.00 asking myself how would I ever reach a decision and knowing there was only a theoretical 30 minutes left, 50 minutes later a six month struggle had been resolved but it would not have been without going through this tortuous process of evolving a scheme as you slowly home in on a result.

Did I spend more than I wanted? I think so but naturally no price yet, you just can't ask whilst going through this process and I wait to find out before I push the button. Will it be a special car, for me yes and certainly worthy of being Tailor Made, a true one off, and simply put without this visit I would never have reached this spec, never. I would never even had known what we were were doing was possible. And that is the point, it is only worth doing TM if you take advantage of all their options and facilities, otherwise stick to the Atelier or showroom.

Would I do it with a standard production car, no, simply not worth it unless you were keeping it for a long time, but on a limited car, an incredibly helpful and thoroughly professional operation(save for the premises)but for me perhaps 30 minutes too short. Special mention should go to our lead designer, Helena, who was truly excellent, understanding my brief and really thinking about it, owning it and making many excellent suggestions, some from left field, but unfortunately let down in follow up and delivery.

I hope this is helpful to anyone.

 

Obviously, a superb summary. I think they limit the number of Tailor Made sessions per year to some fairly low number ( we were told 80-100 when we were there in 2014, but perhaps that was hyperbole for marketing purposes). Nobody ever told me that there was a minimum expected, but the FNA rep said that the cars "tend to be more expensive" LOL!!!

I spent about $150 k in options. The whole experience was amazing!!!

 

Now twice a day 5 days a week and in great demand, under staffed and underperforming! No apparent minimum spend but impossible to resist.

 

Thank you so much for the valuable insights. Sounds like a great experience.

Good point on TM for standard production car.

I put loads of miles on my daily driver F12b but I could imagine to keep the F12M as something special. (especially if it will be the last V12n/a standard production car?)

My point of view is, that even a standard Ferrari is something special for me and for my surrounding. A new one even more and a V12 certainly. The TM experience and result could be the icing on the cake.
For sure a 30-50% premium on a non-TM specced car is close to the LE version. But that does not matter when you are not on the list for LEs. Also I like Horses for Courses, a Berlinetta is better suited for our Autobahns while the tdf is still no real track car. For sure this is purely subjective.

 

A tm f12b replacement is a different direction to a tdf. You can have an ultra classy gt with epic performance or you can have a more brutal experience with a lot of heritage Ferrari design. Both epic experiences (I'm assuming) but are vastly different.

If it's a keeper you seek than the tdf will retain its value infinitely better than the new f12 replacement even if it does turn out to be the last v12.

 

Sure. But Ferrari will not sell my a tdf I can spec.

 

What made this car so special for me is the fact that my wife and 12 year old daughter joined me. I'll have this car for life, so the huge sticker just reflects the special experience To me it's the ultimate LE model �� BTW, have dinner reservations at Ristorante Montana in a few hours and the factory tour tomorrow morning. Life is good right now!!! Cheers.

 

Congratulation. Try the Nuerburgring Nordschleife, there is a nice trackday on Monday.

 

Any guess about the percentage of TM cars for standard production and for LE cars?

Like 2%?

 

In the past it was much easier to spec a car. As another stated do as much research before your appointment with TM if that is the route that you are going. TM traveled to the US and met up with them in NYC for round 1. Colors can be much different outside on your car than on a paint sample indoors. Going in I knew this was a preliminary and nothing was locked in at this time. Not sure how to compare the travelling TM to the one at the factory. I do know there are historical options not offered to all, maybe to those with collections like myself. I do know they need to improve their software it would cut much time. I know there are much better engines to configure cars.

Good luck in the future with your specs.