buying my first Ferrari - a 458 - tips
Discussion
Durzel said:
People have been prophesising a price correction for years now though. Granted it is somewhat inevitable, and a disorderly Brexit could make it more likely, but as far as I can make out 458 prices have been pretty much static for the past 2 years at least.
Imo you've got no chance getting 10% off a main dealer 458, at any time of the year.
In all fairness most 458 prices have been pretty realistically priced compared to other similar cars and seem to have stopped depreciating..Its just it could be an innocent casualty if the overall economy should tank in the near future..Imo you've got no chance getting 10% off a main dealer 458, at any time of the year.
Durzel said:
People have been prophesising a price correction for years now though. Granted it is somewhat inevitable, and a disorderly Brexit could make it more likely, but as far as I can make out 458 prices have been pretty much static for the past 2 years at least.
Imo you've got no chance getting 10% off a main dealer 458, at any time of the year.
Yep I agree - and it's most likely the reason that some of these cars hang around for long periods of time (although HR Owen in London seem to have done pretty well selling 458s this summer!)Imo you've got no chance getting 10% off a main dealer 458, at any time of the year.
Ferrari manages the prices very well. I don't know how overt their influence is on a day to day basis, but it seems that the network pretty much does not move much on pricing at all, and when they do it is minor and in concert. In fact, Ferrari Edinburgh is the only dealer I've seen that seems to price things under the rest of the network - but that could just be because of location.
I got nowhere trying to get £5k off a well specced £95k F430 F1 Spider a few years ago. The sales guy didn't even "check with his manager". In fairness to him - and Ferrari in general - because the prices are so managed the cars do ultimately sell simply because people who want a Ferrari and want main dealer piece of mind know that they've got no choice, that's the price of entry.
The F430 I was prepared to buy there and then if they gave me £5k off (I knew they'd bought it for £80k - long story) sold within a week of my offer, so they knew they would sell it.
They are also boutique items too ultimately. If you spot a car that ticks all of your boxes and has all of the options you want and more, the chances are there won't be another like it for some time, or possibly ever. I procrastinated trying to find a unicorn F430 with everything, and ultimately had to compromise. You can waste a lot of time looking for a very specific car that might not come up for sale in a reasonable timeframe. Ferrari know this as well.
I got nowhere trying to get £5k off a well specced £95k F430 F1 Spider a few years ago. The sales guy didn't even "check with his manager". In fairness to him - and Ferrari in general - because the prices are so managed the cars do ultimately sell simply because people who want a Ferrari and want main dealer piece of mind know that they've got no choice, that's the price of entry.
The F430 I was prepared to buy there and then if they gave me £5k off (I knew they'd bought it for £80k - long story) sold within a week of my offer, so they knew they would sell it.
They are also boutique items too ultimately. If you spot a car that ticks all of your boxes and has all of the options you want and more, the chances are there won't be another like it for some time, or possibly ever. I procrastinated trying to find a unicorn F430 with everything, and ultimately had to compromise. You can waste a lot of time looking for a very specific car that might not come up for sale in a reasonable timeframe. Ferrari know this as well.
bw1981 said:
Thats surprising. Do you believe 10% is acheivable on a 458 advertised for £150k from a dealer.
Helps with the man math justification!
As per the recent responses, you’ve no chance of achieving this.Helps with the man math justification!
I’ve recently be toying with 488 and have been offered a trade-in and cash to buy offer on my 458 Italia of c£13k less than what the main dealer will retail it at after checks and warranty applied.
Having now negotiated hard and bought 3 cars from Ferrari main dealer in last 4 years, the best I expect you to get is max £2-3k off a 458. Obviously I can’t comment on cars outside the network......
garystoybox said:
bw1981 said:
Thats surprising. Do you believe 10% is acheivable on a 458 advertised for £150k from a dealer.
Helps with the man math justification!
As per the recent responses, you’ve no chance of achieving this.Helps with the man math justification!
I’ve recently be toying with 488 and have been offered a trade-in and cash to buy offer on my 458 Italia of c£13k less than what the main dealer will retail it at after checks and warranty applied.
Having now negotiated hard and bought 3 cars from Ferrari main dealer in last 4 years, the best I expect you to get is max £2-3k off a 458. Obviously I can’t comment on cars outside the network......
Just to give you an idea, I sold my 458 earlier this year, advertised for £149,995.
2011 car, 13k miles, balance of warranty & service pack, fully specc'd, Grigio Silverstone.
Had to pay for a few bits on the car, dealt at £145 so overall about £142k.
Since then, the market appears to be pretty flat, prices are either sliding slightly or the cars are just not selling.
If you are looking for one on SOR you may get £10k off, just depends if the seller either needs the cash or if they want to bail out of the market now.
2011 car, 13k miles, balance of warranty & service pack, fully specc'd, Grigio Silverstone.
Had to pay for a few bits on the car, dealt at £145 so overall about £142k.
Since then, the market appears to be pretty flat, prices are either sliding slightly or the cars are just not selling.
If you are looking for one on SOR you may get £10k off, just depends if the seller either needs the cash or if they want to bail out of the market now.
nbot said:
hi there - just realised I didn't respond to this to say thank you for the valuable insight and sharing your experience. that was rude of me.
Not at all, and delighted to help and hope to hear updates from you. As another observation, ZA or Brexit Max excepted, I agree with all the comments about getting a substantial discount off F dealers. They just don't do it. I do regret wasting a summer and not buying a yellow 458 with a black roof with low miles for about £15k more than the one I ended up buying. It would have been yellow, my preference, would still be lower miles and still be worth £15k more, and I wouldn't notice the £15k spent then, now and of course I would have had the summer in it.
And since I have managed to do almost everything wrong in going about buying a 458, I'm happy to share experiences so that others don't.
Oh and if you are doing a deal outside the network, look up commentary on the garage concerned here on PH. I didn't to my cost in relation to a certain nice black 458 with Daytona seats and not quite the provenance advertised. Had I done so, I would have run a mile and saved hassle and money and involvement of solicitors.
Edited by MingtheMerciless on Wednesday 12th September 15:51
Oh dear - THE 458 price correction 
- this has been going on here for ages! I think a lot of people are waiting for prices to drop before jumping in to one but the fact is that they are not going down and personally I don't see them going down much at all. If anything in the future they will slowly but surely continue to climb up again.
The 488 is apparently not going down too well with a lot of people despite being a cracking car. The press and owner reviews against 458s say it all - on the Ferrari Chat forums a few have even sold their 488s to get back in to a 458 which says a lot!
If you want to buy one just jump now and do it - they are fantastic cars and pretty much depreciation proof unless you stick 20k miles on it in a year. Brexit or no Brexit - this type of car will not be affected as most of the people I know who drive cars like these use opportunities like Brexit to increase their wealth
Here are some historic 458 depreciation posts lol
Have a read and go figure - some go back to 2015! I have had mine since 2016 and it's worth more than i paid for it then even with 10k miles added!
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
- this has been going on here for ages! I think a lot of people are waiting for prices to drop before jumping in to one but the fact is that they are not going down and personally I don't see them going down much at all. If anything in the future they will slowly but surely continue to climb up again. The 488 is apparently not going down too well with a lot of people despite being a cracking car. The press and owner reviews against 458s say it all - on the Ferrari Chat forums a few have even sold their 488s to get back in to a 458 which says a lot!
If you want to buy one just jump now and do it - they are fantastic cars and pretty much depreciation proof unless you stick 20k miles on it in a year. Brexit or no Brexit - this type of car will not be affected as most of the people I know who drive cars like these use opportunities like Brexit to increase their wealth
Here are some historic 458 depreciation posts lol
Have a read and go figure - some go back to 2015! I have had mine since 2016 and it's worth more than i paid for it then even with 10k miles added!
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Edited by PrancingHorses on Wednesday 12th September 16:34
Edited by PrancingHorses on Thursday 13th September 09:32
While I tend to agree with the notion that 458's are not going to depreciate all that much, I actually don't care at all as I expected depreciation and if it doesn't happen so much the better. And if you are buying one, it's healthier to expect depreciation and accept non depreciation or even some mild appreciation as a pleasant surprise. And drive the socks off it and cause compensating depreciation.
However going to the trouble of aggregating all the threads on depreciation is caring too much
. And I for one amn't going to read them.
No offence like.
I wish Spiders or Speciales would depreciate though
However going to the trouble of aggregating all the threads on depreciation is caring too much
. And I for one amn't going to read them. No offence like.
I wish Spiders or Speciales would depreciate though
MingtheMerciless said:
While I tend to agree with the notion that 458's are not going to depreciate all that much, I actually don't care at all as I expected depreciation and if it doesn't happen so much the better. And if you are buying one, it's healthier to expect depreciation and accept non depreciation or even some mild appreciation as a pleasant surprise. And drive the socks off it and cause compensating depreciation.
However going to the trouble of aggregating all the threads on depreciation is caring too much. And I for one amn't going to read them.
No offence like.
I wish Spiders or Speciales would depreciate though
None taken as I actually don’t care much about this myself! It just cracks me up that every 458 post on here ends up talking about depreciation and appreciation and I happened to have replied to most so collating the threads onlh takes a couple of mins as they are all in my post history However going to the trouble of aggregating all the threads on depreciation is caring too much
. And I for one amn't going to read them. No offence like.
I wish Spiders or Speciales would depreciate though
PrancingHorses said:
None taken as I actually don’t care much about this myself! It just cracks me up that every 458 post on here ends up talking about depreciation and appreciation and I happened to have replied to most so collating the threads onlh takes a couple of mins as they are all in my post history
Fair enough. We should get the admins to redirect any guff about depreciation to a that summary in a new thread and then close the thread.I too am looking at a 458. In an ideal world I'd have a Spyder but I can't afford (justify) the £30ishK extra.
My friend had one and it bowled me over with how good it was on a country road.
I'm looking at a couple at Graypaul on Monday. Please O.P. keep us updated with your progress. Thanks.
My friend had one and it bowled me over with how good it was on a country road.
I'm looking at a couple at Graypaul on Monday. Please O.P. keep us updated with your progress. Thanks.
MingtheMerciless said:
PrancingHorses said:
None taken as I actually don’t care much about this myself! It just cracks me up that every 458 post on here ends up talking about depreciation and appreciation and I happened to have replied to most so collating the threads onlh takes a couple of mins as they are all in my post history
Fair enough. We should get the admins to redirect any guff about depreciation to a that summary in a new thread and then close the thread.
Having come fresh from a negotiation on a Ferrari Main Dealer car, I think anyone saying you can get circa. 10% off is probably one hell of a negotiator. I as many others was literally unable to get the dealer to budge from sticker. From my personal experience the Ferrari's dealers are ultra confident of achieving their asking prices and have no hesitation saying 'no deal', which was the case in my example (I was only asking around 1-2% off advertised price)
This is just my personal experience though, if people are getting decent discounts, perhaps you can share some tips with the rest of us!
This is just my personal experience though, if people are getting decent discounts, perhaps you can share some tips with the rest of us!
BlackR8 said:
Having come fresh from a negotiation on a Ferrari Main Dealer car, I think anyone saying you can get circa. 10% off is probably one hell of a negotiator. I as many others was literally unable to get the dealer to budge from sticker. From my personal experience the Ferrari's dealers are ultra confident of achieving their asking prices and have no hesitation saying 'no deal', which was the case in my example (I was only asking around 1-2% off advertised price)
This is just my personal experience though, if people are getting decent discounts, perhaps you can share some tips with the rest of us!
+1. Await the tips...This is just my personal experience though, if people are getting decent discounts, perhaps you can share some tips with the rest of us!
WF36 said:
BlackR8 said:
Having come fresh from a negotiation on a Ferrari Main Dealer car, I think anyone saying you can get circa. 10% off is probably one hell of a negotiator. I as many others was literally unable to get the dealer to budge from sticker. From my personal experience the Ferrari's dealers are ultra confident of achieving their asking prices and have no hesitation saying 'no deal', which was the case in my example (I was only asking around 1-2% off advertised price)
This is just my personal experience though, if people are getting decent discounts, perhaps you can share some tips with the rest of us!
+1. Await the tips...This is just my personal experience though, if people are getting decent discounts, perhaps you can share some tips with the rest of us!
Taaaaang said:
I got a depressing 1k off a 160k, sub 10k miles 458 from a main dealer 2 months ago.
Who cares though, as it's just an incredible machine.
My big issue is I can't stop driving it...it's gonna be worth 50p in 12 months at this rate.
Is it just a mental thing? Would you have felt happier if the advertised price had been £165k and you had gotten £6k off it?Who cares though, as it's just an incredible machine.
My big issue is I can't stop driving it...it's gonna be worth 50p in 12 months at this rate.
You can look at it both ways really. If you can't get much off yourself then you can feel reassured that the market is self-assured and solid (as solid as large illiquid assets can ever be anyway)
If you could get 10% off these cars would there not be a pang of doubt about future values? If a main dealer has to accommodate those kinds of movements, how much would you have to lose to sell it back to them - or worse - privately?
There are some other marques (*cough* McLaren) where you seem to lose money hand over fist, and previously (and possibly still now) you could get serious discounts off of even new cars. Whilst that might benefit you as a customer at the head end of the transaction, it wouldn't fill me with a whole lot of confidence about the ownership proposition.
I'm pretty confident - sadly in fact - that I could've sold my 458 back to the dealer this year for as much as they offered me 2 years ago, based on market prices. In that context having to pay sticker price, or close to it, doesn't seem so bad.
If you could get 10% off these cars would there not be a pang of doubt about future values? If a main dealer has to accommodate those kinds of movements, how much would you have to lose to sell it back to them - or worse - privately?
There are some other marques (*cough* McLaren) where you seem to lose money hand over fist, and previously (and possibly still now) you could get serious discounts off of even new cars. Whilst that might benefit you as a customer at the head end of the transaction, it wouldn't fill me with a whole lot of confidence about the ownership proposition.
I'm pretty confident - sadly in fact - that I could've sold my 458 back to the dealer this year for as much as they offered me 2 years ago, based on market prices. In that context having to pay sticker price, or close to it, doesn't seem so bad.
In 2010 I got £1.0K off a £160,000 California with 200 miles on the clock, from a Main Dealer, and only after a protracted haggle. That is the one and only discount I've ever had from a Ferrari Main dealer. I know my nearest dealer pretty well and there is just no way they are going to give big discounts. If looking for serious discounts you have to go to the independents and try your luck, and I'm not saying that they will all discount either.
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