What do you not like about your 458, 488, F8

I just moved from an F430 Spider 6 speed. My comments are related to only my car, since its my only point of reference. It's a 2010.

1. Throttle response is too sensitive
2. Car feels heavier than my F430
3. Lack of battery kill key.
4. A little more creaky than I expected
5. Infotainment system is a joke.
6. Poor daytime tach illumination (yellow tach).
7. Engine compartment isn't as beautiful as the F430
8. Carbon Ceramic brakes : I'd rather have steel to be honest even though it dirties up the car. It's cheaper to maintain.

I'm having a bit of buyer's remorse you could say. I love the looks of the 458. I love the handling. I love having more modern tech than the 430. I think the design is more timeless. It's faster, but not by much. I need more seat time to give a full review. If I had to pick just a few items as most important, it would be 1,2 and 6. I wish I could afford to own both but I have decided to put most of my money in real estate.

Joe, your car should have come with a battery tender outlet, near the passenger door, below the dash. You can use it rather than hooking your ctek to the battery directly. It looks like a round hole.

 

488 Spider - besides the horrible radio controls;

1. The wife says that Ferrari got the mirror in the passenger sun visor from a carnival fun house
2. The dang thing starts up in Auto mode all the time
3. I would pay dearly for someone to tell me how to disable the stupid beeping when in reverse
4. The radio turns its self on when the engine is turned off even though I had just turned it off
5. The A/C comes on full blast when first turned on
6. The fact that none of my non-exotic cars at 20% of the cost have any issues
7. And of course its penchant for eating batteries

 

You can sleep in a car but you can't drive a house.

• I think the pit speed/cruise control interface is terrible. All of my other cars have a stalk and it's super easy to set CC and then adjust the speed to a specific mph. With the 458 I gotta reach over to a fiddly little knob.
• The paddle shifters don't have quite the mechanical feel that McLaren seems to have gotten so right.
• The car is too quiet at low speeds. I installed a remote so I can manually open the valves but while it gets louder I wouldn't say it sounds particularly good under 3k rpm.
• With the stock exhaust software, the opening of the exhaust valves is too abrupt. It barks when the valves open and still doesn't sound particularly good.
• The CF seats are great and look great and I appreciate being able to adjust the backrest. But the bucket seats in my GT4 are way more performance-oriented.

All is forgiven when driving it like it's meant to be driven, though.

 

The GT4 is a combination of (slightly) underpowered and poorly geared. But it's also (less than?) half the price of a 458. The GT4 RS should hopefully solve the power problem but I just love the manual in my 981. I want power and three pedals.

:Edit: The solution is obviously to get a manual GT3. A 991.2 would be lovely.

 

Cruise Control? I didn't even know it had cruise control!

 

Haha not all cars have it as it was an optional extra.

If your interface doesn't have the "Pit Speed" knob then you don't have it.

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Nope, I don't have it. Regardless, I've been too spoiled by radar equipped CC now so it's not something I'll miss not having.

 

As much as I love the GT4 I'll be putting it up on BaT soon. I need to downsize a bit. Will probably be getting married and having kids soon so I gotta focus on that. Would love to pick up a GT3 someday, though.

Like I said, it's terrible. You're definitely right and not missing much.

 

The side mirrors look bad to my eyes. Not much design going on there. Very bland.

 

Sticky buttons, sagging headliner. Fixable, but a PITA.

 

Okay I'm really going to vent about the CC because it really is an incredibly bad interface.

On my GT4 it's a stalk. I don't have to take my hands off the wheel to use it. I simply click a little button on the end of the stalk to turn it on and then push down to set a speed. The display in the dash very clearly tells me that the system is on and what the set speed is. Adjusting the speed, cancelling, turning it off completely is all done with simple flicks of the stalk. Takes a fraction of a second. My hands never leave the wheel. And everything I'm doing is confirmed on the display.

Now for the Ferrari.

To turn it on you have to reach your left hand over to the knob and press it down AND HOLD IT for about 3 seconds. It's a tiny little knob that isn't easy to find (hold your jokes) and the "click" you feel doesn't feel like something from a quarter-million dollar car. So after you've taken your hand off the wheel for 3 seconds the system is on. But now to set a speed you have to REACH OVER AGAIN and twist the knob to the right. There's a spring that resists the twist and it goes maybe 60° before stopping. You have to apply juuuust the right amount of torque so you reach the stop but not so much that you break it (which it always feels like you're about to do).

Now your speed is set, but nothing tells you that that's so. If you take your foot off the gas and maintain speed then it's set. Great. Oh now you want to change the set speed? REACH OVER AGAIN and twist the knob right or left. Don't break it! How long do you twist it to get to the new speed you want? I don't know. If you think you got it right take your foot off the gas and see if you maintain the speed you want.

To turn CC off you have to (wait for it) reach over again and hold the knob down for another 3 seconds.

The only way I know how to cancel it is to quickly and lightly hit the brakes.

 

Weak brakes

 

Oh and this talk about CC reminded me of another nit pick.

The digital speedo updates too quickly. On all my other cars it updates around 2Hz. If you're accelerating hard you'll definitely skip some mphs on the display, e.g. 60, 67, 71, 75, etc.

The ferrari updates probably at 10Hz. It's great fun when you're accelerating and seeing numbers quickly fly by. But if you're just cruising you can get that annoying behavior as it cycles between two speeds very quickly, e.g. 80, 81, 80, 81, 80, 81, etc.

 

2012 458 Spider

Serious exhaust drone (need earplugs) with top up at highway cruising speeds. S-line exhaust. Ok with top down
Abysmal "infotainment" system POS.
Clunky interfaces on just about anything electronic.
Invisible tach during daytime.
Vibrating Outside mirrors
Inoperative electronic dimming of interior mirror with poor silvering.
Inoperative garage door opening function Homelight? (sic)
Eats Batteries
Twitchy throttle. (Modified this with a Mase tune.)
Broken plastic mirror in passenger visor. Had leather shop open and replace mirror and re-stitch.
Difficulty with CF racing seats aligning height and rake adjustments
Poor seat belt retractor and need for replacement of belts and airbags.
Hokey battery tender plug system. Remedied by running a long charging wire from battery under carpet edges to behind drivers seat with a long pigtail. Just get out and pull it out and plug in. Converted connector to SAE 2 prong Shielded + and all chargers have that plug interface. I have a charging stand on wheels to roll over to car and plug in, close door. I can use a multitude of chargers for power source while fooling with anything electronic etc.

Other than that, it runs like a beast.

 

2012 458 -

I think they could have designed the dash a little better. The way the controls and vents stick out is a little much. Other than that it may be the perfect car. Really hard to even come up with that complaint.

 

On the 488: lack of a battery switch ... and the OEM CCM brake set-up: outdated Brembo discs (the Surface Transforms are incredibly better) and calipers attached with bolts that tend to eventually destroy their threads.
However, the 488 currently satisfies my value-for-money expectation: the 296 is undoubtly faster, and impressive on some aspects, but to me the price gap is excessive.

 

**BTW OP - My battery cover has a small threaded hole/finger bolt that holds it in place - perhaps a later "fix" for the earlier velcro? Perhaps a retro-fit option? Or just use the factory tender connector as suggested - BUT be aware that the car cannot start with this connected.

2014 458 Spider - List of what I don't like or would change is quite short - it is a fantastic car - but here you go:
1) While the DCT is fantastic I wish it was a manual
2) In any of the more aggressive (Race+) Manettino settings the louder exhaust is "on/off" at annoying RPM ranges for normal driving - Sport is fine
3) Idle is a bit low but in speaking with my tech is what it should be
4) Wish it had a battery shut-off switch - The battery drains so quickly even with the alarm off that I would prefer to just shut it off like my 355/360/Testarossa etc.- Yes I know there is a terminal disconnect but using that as a regular thing is not recommended - that said I also realize the complexity of the car does not tolerate regular battery disconnects.

Otherwise I absolutely love the car

Cheers

 

The media side is really stupid. I laugh at how much trouble it is to complete the simplest task.
That's about it.

 

1. The right TFT display controls are unusable while driving. And borderline unusable when parked.
2. Nav sucks (right display)
3. Cannot switch between functions RADIO-MEDIA-NAV without turning the radio on (right display)

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