RE: Ferrari 575M Revisited

RE: Ferrari 575M Revisited

Author
Discussion

G4HKS

2,673 posts

218 months

Thursday 17th December 2009
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Hmmm.. My last Ferrari was a 550 and it cost a bloody fortune in repair bills. Lovely machine to look at, drive and that was about it. Even cheaper to buy now (I owned mine 2 years after they first appeared )but as several have mentioned on here they can be very expensive to maintain. And yes, it was properly serviced & maintained at Maranello all its life and only had 3k on the clock when I bought it. Ferrari must have improved, they couldn't have got any worse. And I thought my Griffiths were bad but I wouldn't hesitate in buying another tomorrow. Another Ferrari? Nope.

paul0843

1,914 posts

206 months

Thursday 17th December 2009
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harrys car had a gearbox failure which was covered by warranty,,everything else was
mostly wear and tear items...mostly tyres which were only lastng 5-6k miles...
probably due to some spirited driving...

last annual service on my 575 at hr owen... £1000
last annual service on my wifes diesel range rover sport... £800

Bebs

2,913 posts

280 months

Friday 18th December 2009
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G4HKS said:
Hmmm.. My last Ferrari was a 550 and it cost a bloody fortune in repair bills. Lovely machine to look at, drive and that was about it. Even cheaper to buy now (I owned mine 2 years after they first appeared )but as several have mentioned on here they can be very expensive to maintain. And yes, it was properly serviced & maintained at Maranello all its life and only had 3k on the clock when I bought it. Ferrari must have improved, they couldn't have got any worse. And I thought my Griffiths were bad but I wouldn't hesitate in buying another tomorrow. Another Ferrari? Nope.
Oddly enough, I had 3 TVRs and between them 4 new engines - 3 in 1 year! The Griff and Tuscan RR gave me nothing but trouble and both came back from Europe on loaders every time I took them abroad. In the end I just dumped the Tuscan after a year and moved on to a 360. In 7 years it has never let me down even once, no niggles, no problems, nothing. It just drives and drives and gets some attention once a year at Verdi, that's it. Wear and tear only. Its by far the most reliable car I have ever owned thumbup

G4HKS

2,673 posts

218 months

Saturday 19th December 2009
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Hi Bebs, maybe I should re-visit Ferrari but having owned 5 Griffs (yes really) I never had an engine or gearbox problem. Don't talk to me about the rest of the car....!

Bebs

2,913 posts

280 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2009
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G4HKS said:
Hi Bebs, maybe I should re-visit Ferrari but having owned 5 Griffs (yes really) I never had an engine or gearbox problem. Don't talk to me about the rest of the car....!
You haven't driven the Griffs hard enough then hehe
Mine gave up in Germany at 160 following a 355 driving Engine starved of oil apparently and BANG weeping I had it from new and it was properly run in etc..
But it was when the wind screen wipers started standing up at over 120 I just had enough.. I mean really.. a Ford Focus would do better than that, Having to pull over every time you go over 120 (I drive on the continent a lot) in order to put your wipers back down banghead
Don't get me wrong - I loved the Tivs - had 3 of them after all. But in hindsight, they were a piece of plastic with a chocolate engine yes

JazzyO

1,125 posts

180 months

Tuesday 2nd March 2010
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G4HKS said:
Hmmm.. My last Ferrari was a 550 and it cost a bloody fortune in repair bills. Lovely machine to look at, drive and that was about it. Even cheaper to buy now (I owned mine 2 years after they first appeared )but as several have mentioned on here they can be very expensive to maintain. And yes, it was properly serviced & maintained at Maranello all its life and only had 3k on the clock when I bought it. Ferrari must have improved, they couldn't have got any worse. And I thought my Griffiths were bad but I wouldn't hesitate in buying another tomorrow. Another Ferrari? Nope.
I'm not saying you haven't a right to be annoyed, but that has not been my experience at all. I've done 20,000 miles in my 550 since 2007 and it's been solidly reliable. The computer's just packed up and it's the first and only thing that went wrong with it. Now that my Griffith is in pieces, I can tell you with absolute confidence that it is a piece of crap engineering compared to my 550. I still love the Griff and I am restoring it to better quality and spec than when new, but comparing the two is comparing apples and Agent Orange.

Comments were made about service costs. Well, let's see. I bought a 4 year old 3-series BMW in mid 2008 from an official dealer, including a major service. 6 months and 3,000 miles later it needed GBP2,200 in repairs on aircon and engine. The 550 was serviced in the same month - the full major one - and it cost only GBP300 more. So which was the more expensive and which the more reliable car? I also find it funny that my Ferrari specialist charges me Euro 70 an hour and my regular BMW wrench monkey 105... Another 3-series BMW has given me similar reliability - good but not better than my Ferrari. And there's a rattle in the dashboard of the 3-series, BTW.

Look - I'll never say that owning a Ferrari is cheap. It's not supposed to be. But they can be perfectly reliable and more affordable than you think. In three years, I've spent GBP2,500 on a major service, 400 yearly on minor service, 1,500 on 4 new tires (yes those are expensive), and quite a lot on fuel bills (yes, it is thirsty). Insurance is around 800 quid a year. The money I spent on detailing I won't include because that's a choice you make. Depreciation has been higher than expected due to the crisis, but not bad - around GBP6k a year and it shouldn't drop further - 550's are starting to come up again. And besides, I'm not planning on ever selling so it's a moot point. All in all I think it's a perfectly acceptable cost for owning one of the best GT's ever built.

For what it is worth, I own two other Ferraris including one from 1966 and that has also been very reliable in 4,000 miles so far. I think the secret is to make sure your car is 100% and then staying on top of it is easy.

Onno

Daniel1

2,931 posts

197 months

Tuesday 2nd March 2010
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im going to have a look through the classifieds smile