Living with a McLaren 650s Spider as an (almost) daily
Discussion
davek_964 said:
I'm trying to decide if I do have some problem at the front of the car. It seems like almost every time I use the car after it's been parked, there is a bit of a clonk from the front about 5s after pulling away. However - it makes no sense because it only ever seems to do it when the car has been parked (I've not heard it any other time, and I did 200 miles yesterday), and it seems unrelated to whether I've used lift or not. I can't think of anything which would explain this so at the moment, I'm still not 100% I'm not imaging it.
Could be air brake returning to lowered position. Mine makes a clonk too after being parked with the spoiler up.
996t said:
Could be air brake returning to lowered position. Mine makes a clonk too after being parked with the spoiler up.
Ah, you may be right. I've heard other people say the same, but never noticed mine do it before. However, I was thinking this morning that I've not heard it the last few times I've used the car - and by chance, the last few times I've parked it's been with the spoiler down.davek_964 said:
Ah, you may be right. I've heard other people say the same, but never noticed mine do it before. However, I was thinking this morning that I've not heard it the last few times I've used the car - and by chance, the last few times I've parked it's been with the spoiler down.
Yep, I had the same. No oil pressure in lifting mechanism so naturally drops.So - first point : The clunk which I thought was from the front is indeed the spoiler as suggested. I'm sure it didn't used to do that - but I know it's normal so nothing to worry about.
I've started using auto mode much more - I think partly because I'm using the car all the time, and sometimes it just makes sense to drive "normally" and not overtake everything at every opportunity. It also has the advantage of pushing the tank range up a tad - and on a pure motorway run today of ~40 miles (immediately after putting petrol in) - I averaged 28.1mpg! I did some sedate motorway runs when I bought the car, and didn't get close to that - so I wonder if the engine has loosened up a bit. It had 7k miles on it when I bought it, and will hit 13k in about 150 miles.
The car has been receiving a lot of love from the general public recently. Last week I was taking it around the block - and got flagged down by a guy in his 20s who asked if I'd take him out in it. Slightly random - and the tattoos across his knuckles were disconcerting - but what the hell. He loved the car, and announced that McLaren are better than Lamborghini.
While filling up with petrol, I was asked - for the second or third time since buying it - whether it was worth over a million pounds. Ironic given some of the comments on here about value!
The paintwork / PPF still looks superb - so another recommendation for Azuri if anybody is considering PPF / detailing. In fact, on a run today I was chatting to somebody who's considering PPF and when I said I'd recently had it done he said : I didn't know it had PPF on it. Exactly!
Today's run with ~20 other cars was both good and bad. Mostly good - some excellent cars, and good company. Despite being a general supercar club, it was extremely McLaren heavy! Seems they're a bit common.......
In case carspath is reading this - yes it was a supercar club, yes it is restricted to specific types of car and no, there were no MX5s.
The bad...... I mentioned that about 3 weeks ago, the car suddenly refused to recognise that the key was in the car. After that one incident, it went back to normal behaviour. The problem with McLaren is that they occasionally have niggles - and if they don't do it again (which is often the case) you simply ignore it - which I had.
Unfortunately, every time we stopped today - it refused to acknowledge my key was in the car. At one point I thought it was never going to start - but fortunately, eventually it did. The buttons on the fob always worked, but that doesn't help you start the car.
When I got home, I decided to try the spare key - which is when I discovered that's so flat even the buttons don't work! Fortunately, I had a spare battery and that seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Apart from that, the car has been pretty much faultless. I have concluded that it's pointless buying another car at the moment, and will look again in winter.
I am just a couple of weeks away from one years ownership. Thanks to lockdown, mileage has only gone up ~5k - although that's a big percentage when I bought it at ~7k. I'm back to averaging about 1k a month - even though I'm WFH - so I really really need to avoid using it much in winter. We'll see........
I've started using auto mode much more - I think partly because I'm using the car all the time, and sometimes it just makes sense to drive "normally" and not overtake everything at every opportunity. It also has the advantage of pushing the tank range up a tad - and on a pure motorway run today of ~40 miles (immediately after putting petrol in) - I averaged 28.1mpg! I did some sedate motorway runs when I bought the car, and didn't get close to that - so I wonder if the engine has loosened up a bit. It had 7k miles on it when I bought it, and will hit 13k in about 150 miles.
The car has been receiving a lot of love from the general public recently. Last week I was taking it around the block - and got flagged down by a guy in his 20s who asked if I'd take him out in it. Slightly random - and the tattoos across his knuckles were disconcerting - but what the hell. He loved the car, and announced that McLaren are better than Lamborghini.
While filling up with petrol, I was asked - for the second or third time since buying it - whether it was worth over a million pounds. Ironic given some of the comments on here about value!
The paintwork / PPF still looks superb - so another recommendation for Azuri if anybody is considering PPF / detailing. In fact, on a run today I was chatting to somebody who's considering PPF and when I said I'd recently had it done he said : I didn't know it had PPF on it. Exactly!
Today's run with ~20 other cars was both good and bad. Mostly good - some excellent cars, and good company. Despite being a general supercar club, it was extremely McLaren heavy! Seems they're a bit common.......
In case carspath is reading this - yes it was a supercar club, yes it is restricted to specific types of car and no, there were no MX5s.
The bad...... I mentioned that about 3 weeks ago, the car suddenly refused to recognise that the key was in the car. After that one incident, it went back to normal behaviour. The problem with McLaren is that they occasionally have niggles - and if they don't do it again (which is often the case) you simply ignore it - which I had.
Unfortunately, every time we stopped today - it refused to acknowledge my key was in the car. At one point I thought it was never going to start - but fortunately, eventually it did. The buttons on the fob always worked, but that doesn't help you start the car.
When I got home, I decided to try the spare key - which is when I discovered that's so flat even the buttons don't work! Fortunately, I had a spare battery and that seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Apart from that, the car has been pretty much faultless. I have concluded that it's pointless buying another car at the moment, and will look again in winter.
I am just a couple of weeks away from one years ownership. Thanks to lockdown, mileage has only gone up ~5k - although that's a big percentage when I bought it at ~7k. I'm back to averaging about 1k a month - even though I'm WFH - so I really really need to avoid using it much in winter. We'll see........
davek_964 said:
The bad...... I mentioned that about 3 weeks ago, the car suddenly refused to recognise that the key was in the car. After that one incident, it went back to normal behaviour. The problem with McLaren is that they occasionally have niggles - and if they don't do it again (which is often the case) you simply ignore it - which I had.
Unfortunately, every time we stopped today - it refused to acknowledge my key was in the car. At one point I thought it was never going to start - but fortunately, eventually it did. The buttons on the fob always worked, but that doesn't help you start the car.
When I got home, I decided to try the spare key - which is when I discovered that's so flat even the buttons don't work! Fortunately, I had a spare battery and that seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully it won't happen again.
This issue does seem to be related to low voltage in the fob battery. Even though it seems to work fine when you press the buttons. Always a good idea to carry a few spare batteries in the glove box.Unfortunately, every time we stopped today - it refused to acknowledge my key was in the car. At one point I thought it was never going to start - but fortunately, eventually it did. The buttons on the fob always worked, but that doesn't help you start the car.
When I got home, I decided to try the spare key - which is when I discovered that's so flat even the buttons don't work! Fortunately, I had a spare battery and that seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Targarama said:
This issue does seem to be related to low voltage in the fob battery. Even though it seems to work fine when you press the buttons. Always a good idea to carry a few spare batteries in the glove box.
Glove box? I dream of when I used to have a car with one of those 
But yes - I only had one battery at home so I've ordered some more and intend to keep one in the car.
davek_964 said:
I've started using auto mode much more - I think partly because I'm using the car all the time, and sometimes it just makes sense to drive "normally" and not overtake everything at every opportunity. It also has the advantage of pushing the tank range up a tad - and on a pure motorway run today of ~40 miles (immediately after putting petrol in) - I averaged 28.1mpg! I did some sedate motorway runs when I bought the car, and didn't get close to that - so I wonder if the engine has loosened up a bit. It had 7k miles on it when I bought it, and will hit 13k in about 150 miles.
I get approx 34- 38mpg from my 675LT on the Motorway. Yesterday, on a run to Goodwood and back, I drove down in manual, a 1hr:20 min drive on mixed roads, and got 30.5 mpg. I drove back fully auto slower than going there and got 28.5mpg. I usually better the auto's mpg with my own driving....This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of me buying the car. So seems a good time to look back on the year, summarise what's happened with the car and see what my views are now. When I bought the car, I made it clear that I was well aware of all the internet negativity and was about to find out myself whether it was true.........
I bought the car with 7,100 miles on it - it's now got almost exactly 6k miles more on it. It would have been higher if not for lockdown - and since it's got a long journey planned next week is likely to roll over 14k within the next 2 weeks.
In the first 4 months, I seemed to have repeated problems - at least one or two a week - which varied in severity :
PCC fault (suspension) - had this a couple of times but it always coincided with driving off the driveway onto the road while the car was re-lifting. I've stopped using lift for the driveway anyway now - and I've had two front accumulators recently so that might mean it doesn't do it anymore. It's never shown the error under any other condition.
Headlights - they were crap last year, and as the evenings get darker, they're still crap. Very bright in front of the car, but high beam really is useless - to the point where I really don't enjoy driving the car on dark country roads.
Slightly leaking roof - this is an odd one. Even last year, I'd quite often see a few drips on the seat base (at the back) on both seats. It was very obvious the seal wasn't fitted properly between the two roof sections - some of it was proud of the roof, some was below the roof line. I assumed it was glued in, and did nothing about it.
After the car was painted, the leak was slightly worse. This time, I did investigate - and found the seal is not glued in, and was fitted incorrectly. It sits in a plastic channel, and the front of the seal should hook over the front of that plastic channel - wihch seals the gap between the channel and the back of the front roof panel. But mine had all been squashed into the channel.
I fitted it properly - car no longer leaks.
I did have another leak by the front quarter window - which killed my climate unit - which was replaced as goodwill. Having investigated the roof seal problem, I'd say that seal is over engineered. The seals where the quarter window is are..... the stupidest design ever.
Various electrical glitches (drivers mirror failed to fold out about 4 times over a month, , IRIS had some issues (which wouldn't surprise most McLaren owners) etc. etc. But these pretty much fixed themselves.
After ~6 months, I decided my paint was different shades on some panels. With no need to argue at all, McLaren paid for the entire car to be repainted. I've said it before - but this still amazes me. I bought an almost 5 year old car, and 6 months later (when it was 5 years old) said "I'm not happy with the paint" - and 2 working days later was told it would be sorted. Astounding customer service.
I seemed to have constant wheel spin problems last year. Swapping to Michelin cured that completely - traction control has still kicked in occasionally, but it now seems to work as I'd expect. With Pirelli, it seemed you'd be in a hedge before the traction control decided the wheels were spinning.
I also found the suspension was harsh around town - fine out of town, but crashed about in town. New front accumulators made more difference to this than I expected - suspension is still firm (even on normal) but no longer crashy and no longer jolts me out of the seat on a nearby road. I still think the "magic carpet" ride that's attributed to McLaren is........ optimistic though.
In general, the car has very few problems now. It has the odd niggle - for example, when I put the windows up while driving it will very occasionally drop them back down to halfway. No idea why - and it's not anti-trap since they both do it together - but it happens about 1 time in 30+ uses so I ignore it.
And in fact, that summarises what I've learned about McLaren ownership over the last year - at least my car. Will you manage a year without anything odd happening? Probably not - but 99% of things seem to happen once (or 4 times in the case of the mirrors), clear themselves and never happen again. Even with this, I don't want to give the wrong impression - while these niggles did happen multiple times a week for the first 4 months of my ownership - that's no longer the case. They are now pretty rare occasional niggles.
The latest was that the engine lid cover only unlatched on one side. Repeated attempts didn't solve it. Putting slight weight on the lid to relieve the pressure on the catch didn't solve it. Pulling and re-installing the fuse didn't solve it. Waiting for the car to cool down didn't solve it. Smacking it hard twice with my hand........ did.
As I mentioned at the start, the car will reach 14k miles - double what I bought it at last year - within the next few weeks - so no doubt is worth 50p now. However, the car is - in my opinion - much better than the one I bought. It's had an entire respray, which is perfect. It's had PPF applied over the entire car. And it's had soft close doors fitted. Plus - for whatever reason - it breaks far less often, and it no longer leaks in the rain! My car uses absolutely zero amount of oil, so I guess at least the engine is sound.
So - after a year, what do I think?
I think that there are some known quality related issues with McLaren cars. The paint bubbling issue is probably the most significant (although not one I've had) - but to be fair, I've had other cars where that was a known issue too (looking at you Aston.....). Things like oddly behaving windows seem to be something many owners experience - and as an owner, stuff like that is annoying. Electric windows are hardly revolutionary tech.
But, the car seems to appreciate being used and at least my niggles have faded away. The odd thing happens - but it's the exception rather than the rule. And at least for me - even those that do happen tend to be minor annoyance rather than anything remotely serious.
The internet - and this place in particular - is full of people who's mate's girlfriends hairdressers dad had a McLaren which was crap. I get sick of seeing it - enough so that I am seriously considering giving up on PH altogether. There are half a dozen people who've made it clear what they think of McLaren - and really don't need to be repeating the same old crap over and over again.
I think that the car is the best semi-daily car I've ever owned (in fact, my car is now 100% daily during summer). Enough so that I've pretty much given up looking for a replacement for the Ferrari I sold in June, because I know I simply wouldn't use another car during summer. I will reconsider in Winter.
Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely - I still think it looks amazing, and is a car that I really shouldn't be able to afford - McLaren depreciation does have its positives.
I still don't really feel like I gel with the car (handling wise) 100%. I've mentioned it before but I don't like the steering - while most people rave about it, I preferred the turn in of the 360 which was much faster. The 650 needs a good old turn of the wheel to go round a bend, and it just doesn't seem to happen naturally for me.
I do think I need to take the car on a track though - the supercar weekend completely transformed my feeling for what the 360 could do and I think I need similar for the 650. Assuming I intend to keep it, I will book a driver training day next year.
So will I keep it?
At the moment, I don't know. It does everything I want it to do - but I mentioned at the start of this thread that in the last few years, my desire for supercars was waning. It was one of the reason I took the chance on McLaren - because if I did get sensible, I wanted to have driven what was (for me) a dream car.
I do still feel a bit like the supercar experience is a hassle I could sometimes do without (specialist servicing, fairly highly strung car, a car where mine is already hitting "high mileage", 15mpg, expensive running costs etc. etc.). However - I am sure I don't want to sell it this year, so I'll see how I feel next year - I suspect I'll be keeping it, but who knows.
Finally - on the subject of cost - mine has been pretty cheap to run. Service in December was £1k. Four Michelin tyres were £650 (Costco deal). Everything else was covered by the warranty (obviously the PPF and soft close weren't, but these are vanity costs).
Obviously the cost of the warranty can't be ignored - but mine will not expire for another year. I don't know yet whether I will renew.
So that's it - after a year, I have no regrets about buying it - and I now own a car that's even better than it was a year ago.
I bought the car with 7,100 miles on it - it's now got almost exactly 6k miles more on it. It would have been higher if not for lockdown - and since it's got a long journey planned next week is likely to roll over 14k within the next 2 weeks.
In the first 4 months, I seemed to have repeated problems - at least one or two a week - which varied in severity :
PCC fault (suspension) - had this a couple of times but it always coincided with driving off the driveway onto the road while the car was re-lifting. I've stopped using lift for the driveway anyway now - and I've had two front accumulators recently so that might mean it doesn't do it anymore. It's never shown the error under any other condition.
Headlights - they were crap last year, and as the evenings get darker, they're still crap. Very bright in front of the car, but high beam really is useless - to the point where I really don't enjoy driving the car on dark country roads.
Slightly leaking roof - this is an odd one. Even last year, I'd quite often see a few drips on the seat base (at the back) on both seats. It was very obvious the seal wasn't fitted properly between the two roof sections - some of it was proud of the roof, some was below the roof line. I assumed it was glued in, and did nothing about it.
After the car was painted, the leak was slightly worse. This time, I did investigate - and found the seal is not glued in, and was fitted incorrectly. It sits in a plastic channel, and the front of the seal should hook over the front of that plastic channel - wihch seals the gap between the channel and the back of the front roof panel. But mine had all been squashed into the channel.
I fitted it properly - car no longer leaks.
I did have another leak by the front quarter window - which killed my climate unit - which was replaced as goodwill. Having investigated the roof seal problem, I'd say that seal is over engineered. The seals where the quarter window is are..... the stupidest design ever.
Various electrical glitches (drivers mirror failed to fold out about 4 times over a month, , IRIS had some issues (which wouldn't surprise most McLaren owners) etc. etc. But these pretty much fixed themselves.
After ~6 months, I decided my paint was different shades on some panels. With no need to argue at all, McLaren paid for the entire car to be repainted. I've said it before - but this still amazes me. I bought an almost 5 year old car, and 6 months later (when it was 5 years old) said "I'm not happy with the paint" - and 2 working days later was told it would be sorted. Astounding customer service.
I seemed to have constant wheel spin problems last year. Swapping to Michelin cured that completely - traction control has still kicked in occasionally, but it now seems to work as I'd expect. With Pirelli, it seemed you'd be in a hedge before the traction control decided the wheels were spinning.
I also found the suspension was harsh around town - fine out of town, but crashed about in town. New front accumulators made more difference to this than I expected - suspension is still firm (even on normal) but no longer crashy and no longer jolts me out of the seat on a nearby road. I still think the "magic carpet" ride that's attributed to McLaren is........ optimistic though.
In general, the car has very few problems now. It has the odd niggle - for example, when I put the windows up while driving it will very occasionally drop them back down to halfway. No idea why - and it's not anti-trap since they both do it together - but it happens about 1 time in 30+ uses so I ignore it.
And in fact, that summarises what I've learned about McLaren ownership over the last year - at least my car. Will you manage a year without anything odd happening? Probably not - but 99% of things seem to happen once (or 4 times in the case of the mirrors), clear themselves and never happen again. Even with this, I don't want to give the wrong impression - while these niggles did happen multiple times a week for the first 4 months of my ownership - that's no longer the case. They are now pretty rare occasional niggles.
The latest was that the engine lid cover only unlatched on one side. Repeated attempts didn't solve it. Putting slight weight on the lid to relieve the pressure on the catch didn't solve it. Pulling and re-installing the fuse didn't solve it. Waiting for the car to cool down didn't solve it. Smacking it hard twice with my hand........ did.
As I mentioned at the start, the car will reach 14k miles - double what I bought it at last year - within the next few weeks - so no doubt is worth 50p now. However, the car is - in my opinion - much better than the one I bought. It's had an entire respray, which is perfect. It's had PPF applied over the entire car. And it's had soft close doors fitted. Plus - for whatever reason - it breaks far less often, and it no longer leaks in the rain! My car uses absolutely zero amount of oil, so I guess at least the engine is sound.
So - after a year, what do I think?
I think that there are some known quality related issues with McLaren cars. The paint bubbling issue is probably the most significant (although not one I've had) - but to be fair, I've had other cars where that was a known issue too (looking at you Aston.....). Things like oddly behaving windows seem to be something many owners experience - and as an owner, stuff like that is annoying. Electric windows are hardly revolutionary tech.
But, the car seems to appreciate being used and at least my niggles have faded away. The odd thing happens - but it's the exception rather than the rule. And at least for me - even those that do happen tend to be minor annoyance rather than anything remotely serious.
The internet - and this place in particular - is full of people who's mate's girlfriends hairdressers dad had a McLaren which was crap. I get sick of seeing it - enough so that I am seriously considering giving up on PH altogether. There are half a dozen people who've made it clear what they think of McLaren - and really don't need to be repeating the same old crap over and over again.
I think that the car is the best semi-daily car I've ever owned (in fact, my car is now 100% daily during summer). Enough so that I've pretty much given up looking for a replacement for the Ferrari I sold in June, because I know I simply wouldn't use another car during summer. I will reconsider in Winter.
Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely - I still think it looks amazing, and is a car that I really shouldn't be able to afford - McLaren depreciation does have its positives.
I still don't really feel like I gel with the car (handling wise) 100%. I've mentioned it before but I don't like the steering - while most people rave about it, I preferred the turn in of the 360 which was much faster. The 650 needs a good old turn of the wheel to go round a bend, and it just doesn't seem to happen naturally for me.
I do think I need to take the car on a track though - the supercar weekend completely transformed my feeling for what the 360 could do and I think I need similar for the 650. Assuming I intend to keep it, I will book a driver training day next year.
So will I keep it?
At the moment, I don't know. It does everything I want it to do - but I mentioned at the start of this thread that in the last few years, my desire for supercars was waning. It was one of the reason I took the chance on McLaren - because if I did get sensible, I wanted to have driven what was (for me) a dream car.
I do still feel a bit like the supercar experience is a hassle I could sometimes do without (specialist servicing, fairly highly strung car, a car where mine is already hitting "high mileage", 15mpg, expensive running costs etc. etc.). However - I am sure I don't want to sell it this year, so I'll see how I feel next year - I suspect I'll be keeping it, but who knows.
Finally - on the subject of cost - mine has been pretty cheap to run. Service in December was £1k. Four Michelin tyres were £650 (Costco deal). Everything else was covered by the warranty (obviously the PPF and soft close weren't, but these are vanity costs).
Obviously the cost of the warranty can't be ignored - but mine will not expire for another year. I don't know yet whether I will renew.
So that's it - after a year, I have no regrets about buying it - and I now own a car that's even better than it was a year ago.
Edited by davek_964 on Saturday 22 August 10:58
davek_964 said:
This weekend is the 1 year anniversary of me buying the car. So seems a good time to look back on the year, summarise what's happened with the car and see what my views are now. When I bought the car, I made it clear that I was well aware of all the internet negativity and was about to find out myself whether it was true.........
I bought the car with 7,100 miles on it - it's now got almost exactly 6k miles more on it. It would have been higher if not for lockdown - and since it's got a long journey planned next week is likely to roll over 14k within the next 2 weeks.
In the first 4 months, I seemed to have repeated problems - at least one or two a week - which varied in severity :
PCC fault (suspension) - had this a couple of times but it always coincided with driving off the driveway onto the road while the car was re-lifting. I've stopped using lift for the driveway anyway now - and I've had two front accumulators recently so that might mean it doesn't do it anymore. It's never shown the error under any other condition.
Headlights - they were crap last year, and as the evenings get darker, they're still crap. Very bright in front of the car, but high beam really is useless - to the point where I really don't enjoy driving the car on dark country roads.
Slightly leaking roof - this is an odd one. Even last year, I'd quite often see a few drips on the seat base (at the back) on both seats. It was very obvious the seal wasn't fitted properly between the two roof sections - some of it was proud of the roof, some was below the roof line. I assumed it was glued in, and did nothing about it.
After the car was painted, the leak was slightly worse. This time, I did investigate - and found the seal is not glued in, and was fitted incorrectly. It sits in a plastic channel, and the front of the seal should hook over the front of that plastic channel - wihch seals the gap between the channel and the back of the front roof panel. But mine had all been squashed into the channel.
I fitted it properly - car no longer leaks.
I did have another leak by the front quarter window - which killed my climate unit - which was replaced as goodwill. Having investigated the roof seal problem, I'd say that seal is over engineered. The seals where the quarter window is are..... the stupidest design ever.
Various electrical glitches (drivers mirror failed to fold out about 4 times over a month, , IRIS had some issues (which wouldn't surprise most McLaren owners) etc. etc. But these pretty much fixed themselves.
After ~6 months, I decided my paint was different shades on some panels. With no need to argue at all, McLaren paid for the entire car to be repainted. I've said it before - but this still amazes me. I bought an almost 5 year old car, and 6 months later (when it was 5 years old) said "I'm not happy with the paint" - and 2 working days later was told it would be sorted. Astounding customer service.
I seemed to have constant wheel spin problems last year. Swapping to Michelin cured that completely - traction control has still kicked in occasionally, but it now seems to work as I'd expect. With Pirelli, it seemed you'd be in a hedge before the traction control decided the wheels were spinning.
I also found the suspension was harsh around town - fine out of town, but crashed about in town. New front accumulators made more difference to this than I expected - suspension is still firm (even on normal) but no longer crashy and no longer jolts me out of the seat on a nearby road. I still think the "magic carpet" ride that's attributed to McLaren is........ optimistic though.
In general, the car has very few problems now. It has the odd niggle - for example, when I put the windows up while driving it will very occasionally drop them back down to halfway. No idea why - and it's not anti-trap since they both do it together - but it happens about 1 time in 30+ uses so I ignore it.
And in fact, that summarises what I've learned about McLaren ownership over the last year - at least my car. Will you manage a year without anything odd happening? Probably not - but 99% of things seem to happen once (or 4 times in the case of the mirrors), clear themselves and never happen again. Even with this, I don't want to give the wrong impression - while these niggles did happen multiple times a week for the first 4 months of my ownership - that's no longer the case. They are now pretty rare occasional niggles.
The latest was that the engine lid cover only unlatched on one side. Repeated attempts didn't solve it. Putting slight weight on the lid to relieve the pressure on the catch didn't solve it. Pulling and re-installing the fuse didn't solve it. Waiting for the car to cool down didn't solve it. Smacking it hard twice with my hand........ did.
As I mentioned at the start, the car will reach 14k miles - double what I bought it at last year - within the next few weeks - so no doubt is worth 50p now. However, the car is - in my opinion - much better than the one I bought. It's had an entire respray, which is perfect. It's had PPF applied over the entire car. And it's had soft close doors fitted. Plus - for whatever reason - it breaks far less often, and it no longer leaks in the rain! My car uses absolutely zero amount of oil, so I guess at least the engine is sound.
So - after a year, what do I think?
I think that there are some known quality related issues with McLaren cars. The paint bubbling issue is probably the most significant (although not one I've had) - but to be fair, I've had other cars where that was a known issue too (looking at you Aston.....). Things like oddly behaving windows seem to be something many owners experience - and as an owner, stuff like that is annoying. Electric windows are hardly revolutionary tech.
But, the car seems to appreciate being used and at least my niggles have faded away. The odd thing happens - but it's the exception rather than the rule. And at least for me - even those that do happen tend to be minor annoyance rather than anything remotely serious.
The internet - and this place in particular - is full of people who's mate's girlfriends hairdressers dad had a McLaren which was crap. I get sick of seeing it - enough so that I am seriously considering giving up on PH altogether. There are half a dozen people who've made it clear what they think of McLaren - and really don't need to be repeating the same old crap over and over again.
I think that the car is the best semi-daily car I've ever owned (in fact, my car is now 100% daily during summer). Enough so that I've pretty much given up looking for a replacement for the Ferrari I sold in June, because I know I simply wouldn't use another car during summer. I will reconsider in Winter.
Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely - I still think it looks amazing, and is a car that I really shouldn't be able to afford - McLaren depreciation does have its positives.
I still don't really feel like I gel with the car (handling wise) 100%. I've mentioned it before but I don't like the steering - while most people rave about it, I preferred the turn in of the 360 which was much faster. The 650 needs a good old turn of the wheel to go round a bend, and it just doesn't seem to happen naturally for me.
I do think I need to take the car on a track though - the supercar weekend completely transformed my feeling for what the 360 could do and I think I need similar for the 650. Assuming I intend to keep it, I will book a driver training day next year.
So will I keep it?
At the moment, I don't know. It does everything I want it to do - but I mentioned at the start of this thread that in the last few years, my desire for supercars was waning. It was one of the reason I took the chance on McLaren - because if I did get sensible, I wanted to have driven what was (for me) a dream car.
I do still feel a bit like the supercar experience is a hassle I could sometimes do without (specialist servicing, fairly highly strung car, a car where mine is already hitting "high mileage", 15mpg, expensive running costs etc. etc.). However - I am sure I don't want to sell it this year, so I'll see how I feel next year - I suspect I'll be keeping it, but who knows.
Finally - on the subject of cost - mine has been pretty cheap to run. Service in December was £1k. Four Michelin tyres were £650 (Costco deal). Everything else was covered by the warranty (obviously the PPF and soft close weren't, but these are vanity costs).
Obviously the cost of the warranty can't be ignored - but mine will not expire for another year. I don't know yet whether I will renew.
So that's it - after a year, I have no regrets about buying it - and I now own a car that's even better than it was a year ago.
Informative right up and from my research the 650/675 seems to be the best built and least troubled McLaren. Early 570/720 seem the worse.I bought the car with 7,100 miles on it - it's now got almost exactly 6k miles more on it. It would have been higher if not for lockdown - and since it's got a long journey planned next week is likely to roll over 14k within the next 2 weeks.
In the first 4 months, I seemed to have repeated problems - at least one or two a week - which varied in severity :
PCC fault (suspension) - had this a couple of times but it always coincided with driving off the driveway onto the road while the car was re-lifting. I've stopped using lift for the driveway anyway now - and I've had two front accumulators recently so that might mean it doesn't do it anymore. It's never shown the error under any other condition.
Headlights - they were crap last year, and as the evenings get darker, they're still crap. Very bright in front of the car, but high beam really is useless - to the point where I really don't enjoy driving the car on dark country roads.
Slightly leaking roof - this is an odd one. Even last year, I'd quite often see a few drips on the seat base (at the back) on both seats. It was very obvious the seal wasn't fitted properly between the two roof sections - some of it was proud of the roof, some was below the roof line. I assumed it was glued in, and did nothing about it.
After the car was painted, the leak was slightly worse. This time, I did investigate - and found the seal is not glued in, and was fitted incorrectly. It sits in a plastic channel, and the front of the seal should hook over the front of that plastic channel - wihch seals the gap between the channel and the back of the front roof panel. But mine had all been squashed into the channel.
I fitted it properly - car no longer leaks.
I did have another leak by the front quarter window - which killed my climate unit - which was replaced as goodwill. Having investigated the roof seal problem, I'd say that seal is over engineered. The seals where the quarter window is are..... the stupidest design ever.
Various electrical glitches (drivers mirror failed to fold out about 4 times over a month, , IRIS had some issues (which wouldn't surprise most McLaren owners) etc. etc. But these pretty much fixed themselves.
After ~6 months, I decided my paint was different shades on some panels. With no need to argue at all, McLaren paid for the entire car to be repainted. I've said it before - but this still amazes me. I bought an almost 5 year old car, and 6 months later (when it was 5 years old) said "I'm not happy with the paint" - and 2 working days later was told it would be sorted. Astounding customer service.
I seemed to have constant wheel spin problems last year. Swapping to Michelin cured that completely - traction control has still kicked in occasionally, but it now seems to work as I'd expect. With Pirelli, it seemed you'd be in a hedge before the traction control decided the wheels were spinning.
I also found the suspension was harsh around town - fine out of town, but crashed about in town. New front accumulators made more difference to this than I expected - suspension is still firm (even on normal) but no longer crashy and no longer jolts me out of the seat on a nearby road. I still think the "magic carpet" ride that's attributed to McLaren is........ optimistic though.
In general, the car has very few problems now. It has the odd niggle - for example, when I put the windows up while driving it will very occasionally drop them back down to halfway. No idea why - and it's not anti-trap since they both do it together - but it happens about 1 time in 30+ uses so I ignore it.
And in fact, that summarises what I've learned about McLaren ownership over the last year - at least my car. Will you manage a year without anything odd happening? Probably not - but 99% of things seem to happen once (or 4 times in the case of the mirrors), clear themselves and never happen again. Even with this, I don't want to give the wrong impression - while these niggles did happen multiple times a week for the first 4 months of my ownership - that's no longer the case. They are now pretty rare occasional niggles.
The latest was that the engine lid cover only unlatched on one side. Repeated attempts didn't solve it. Putting slight weight on the lid to relieve the pressure on the catch didn't solve it. Pulling and re-installing the fuse didn't solve it. Waiting for the car to cool down didn't solve it. Smacking it hard twice with my hand........ did.
As I mentioned at the start, the car will reach 14k miles - double what I bought it at last year - within the next few weeks - so no doubt is worth 50p now. However, the car is - in my opinion - much better than the one I bought. It's had an entire respray, which is perfect. It's had PPF applied over the entire car. And it's had soft close doors fitted. Plus - for whatever reason - it breaks far less often, and it no longer leaks in the rain! My car uses absolutely zero amount of oil, so I guess at least the engine is sound.
So - after a year, what do I think?
I think that there are some known quality related issues with McLaren cars. The paint bubbling issue is probably the most significant (although not one I've had) - but to be fair, I've had other cars where that was a known issue too (looking at you Aston.....). Things like oddly behaving windows seem to be something many owners experience - and as an owner, stuff like that is annoying. Electric windows are hardly revolutionary tech.
But, the car seems to appreciate being used and at least my niggles have faded away. The odd thing happens - but it's the exception rather than the rule. And at least for me - even those that do happen tend to be minor annoyance rather than anything remotely serious.
The internet - and this place in particular - is full of people who's mate's girlfriends hairdressers dad had a McLaren which was crap. I get sick of seeing it - enough so that I am seriously considering giving up on PH altogether. There are half a dozen people who've made it clear what they think of McLaren - and really don't need to be repeating the same old crap over and over again.
I think that the car is the best semi-daily car I've ever owned (in fact, my car is now 100% daily during summer). Enough so that I've pretty much given up looking for a replacement for the Ferrari I sold in June, because I know I simply wouldn't use another car during summer. I will reconsider in Winter.
Am I glad I bought it? Absolutely - I still think it looks amazing, and is a car that I really shouldn't be able to afford - McLaren depreciation does have its positives.
I still don't really feel like I gel with the car (handling wise) 100%. I've mentioned it before but I don't like the steering - while most people rave about it, I preferred the turn in of the 360 which was much faster. The 650 needs a good old turn of the wheel to go round a bend, and it just doesn't seem to happen naturally for me.
I do think I need to take the car on a track though - the supercar weekend completely transformed my feeling for what the 360 could do and I think I need similar for the 650. Assuming I intend to keep it, I will book a driver training day next year.
So will I keep it?
At the moment, I don't know. It does everything I want it to do - but I mentioned at the start of this thread that in the last few years, my desire for supercars was waning. It was one of the reason I took the chance on McLaren - because if I did get sensible, I wanted to have driven what was (for me) a dream car.
I do still feel a bit like the supercar experience is a hassle I could sometimes do without (specialist servicing, fairly highly strung car, a car where mine is already hitting "high mileage", 15mpg, expensive running costs etc. etc.). However - I am sure I don't want to sell it this year, so I'll see how I feel next year - I suspect I'll be keeping it, but who knows.
Finally - on the subject of cost - mine has been pretty cheap to run. Service in December was £1k. Four Michelin tyres were £650 (Costco deal). Everything else was covered by the warranty (obviously the PPF and soft close weren't, but these are vanity costs).
Obviously the cost of the warranty can't be ignored - but mine will not expire for another year. I don't know yet whether I will renew.
So that's it - after a year, I have no regrets about buying it - and I now own a car that's even better than it was a year ago.
Edited by davek_964 on Saturday 22 August 10:58
I think every new car gets niggles. My Lamborghini Performante has had a few but nothing that has hit the internet and got exagerrated x 100.
Whilst it was in having the fuel flap fixed there was another one in the dealership having a new engine ? Dealer obviously didn't want to say too much although did say it was rare and the first one he had seen.
Porsche 992's have already had recall after recall, and some of my mates are already p1553d off with them.
I haven't got long enough to go through some of the troubles I've had with all of my Ferrari's in the past.
TBH I think its part of supercar ownership however compared with the old days its less and more electronics related than anything else
Once you have invested the time to sort out the small/minor niggles with a McLaren I think you have a proper supercar bargain.
Personally I wouldn't buy new because of the high initial depreciation but a 1 year old car with 2 years warranty left that you can get any niggles sorted with is the way to go IMHO
Fantastic supercars and incredible value for money if you can live with a little pain initially to get it sorted properly.
Still looking for my dream 675LT spider and hoping to persuade 1 owner to part with his after the summer. Agreed a deal in principle where I I'm over paying for it but I think its worth it to have a car known to me. Just the bl00dy owner is really reluctant to let it go and tried to get me to buy his pista instead
“I mentioned at the start of this thread that in the last few years, my desire for supercars was waning.“
You know, these days as I commute during the week in the Tesla, with its excellent tech and software updates, and it’s effortless thrust that will embarrass any supercar on commuter roads without any fuss (no launch control needed,no waking the neighbors), I sometimes wonder about supercars, too.
It just takes me 2 minutes in the Mac to forget all that sensible commuting business.....
You know, these days as I commute during the week in the Tesla, with its excellent tech and software updates, and it’s effortless thrust that will embarrass any supercar on commuter roads without any fuss (no launch control needed,no waking the neighbors), I sometimes wonder about supercars, too.
It just takes me 2 minutes in the Mac to forget all that sensible commuting business.....
Sounds like yet more credence to using cars makes them happier! I wish the market would get over it’s mileage obsession, they need to be driven and let niggles get worked out. Not just sat in a garage with the owner petrified of taking a bath every time he wants to take the long way to the shops.
Just back from 5 days in Cornwall - a total of around 550 miles.
The car was (mostly) faultless - will get to the reason it's 'mostly' shortly.
Journey down there was mostly free flowing traffic and averaged about 25mpg, which means a tank range of ~300 miles before I want to fill up vs about 180 I normally get. So reasonable for long journeys.
The weather was a tad mixed. On Thursday morning we drove to Lands End, and it was through a monsoon - and that included some fairly flooded roads. It turns out that lift is useful for more than just speed bumps and steep driveways!
On the way home today, we drove through a thunderstorm which made Thursdays monsoon look like light rain...... At least know for sure now my roof is water tight.
The one slight hiccup is that when I cleaned the car, I found something in the rear driver side wheel - which looks suspiciously like the green circle that indicates the jacking point. I guess they're glued on, and using your McLaren as a boat upsets them. I'll have a proper look in the morning when it's not raining. It's obviously fairly critical that the jacking points are clear, so if I have lost one or both I'll get it sorted at the service in December.
(ETA - part of the sticker was still attached, so used a glue gun to stick it back on. Others were all ok)
Overall, very impressed with the car. Comfortable for the journey (traffic on the way back made it a very very long journey) and shrugged off some of the worst rain I've ever driven in. At one point we had to pass a transit coming the other way on a single track road - who warned me that the road ahead was a steep descent and I had no chance of avoiding grounding the front of the car when I got to the bottom of the hill. No chance to turn round so...... I simply activated lift, and no problem at all.
Brilliant car.
Oh - apparently, it's slightly odd when you don't suggest getting your photo taken with your girlfriend, but say that you're moving your car from the main lands end car park to the hotel car park so you can take photos of the car with the sea behind it.....
The car was (mostly) faultless - will get to the reason it's 'mostly' shortly.
Journey down there was mostly free flowing traffic and averaged about 25mpg, which means a tank range of ~300 miles before I want to fill up vs about 180 I normally get. So reasonable for long journeys.
The weather was a tad mixed. On Thursday morning we drove to Lands End, and it was through a monsoon - and that included some fairly flooded roads. It turns out that lift is useful for more than just speed bumps and steep driveways!
On the way home today, we drove through a thunderstorm which made Thursdays monsoon look like light rain...... At least know for sure now my roof is water tight.
The one slight hiccup is that when I cleaned the car, I found something in the rear driver side wheel - which looks suspiciously like the green circle that indicates the jacking point. I guess they're glued on, and using your McLaren as a boat upsets them. I'll have a proper look in the morning when it's not raining. It's obviously fairly critical that the jacking points are clear, so if I have lost one or both I'll get it sorted at the service in December.
(ETA - part of the sticker was still attached, so used a glue gun to stick it back on. Others were all ok)
Overall, very impressed with the car. Comfortable for the journey (traffic on the way back made it a very very long journey) and shrugged off some of the worst rain I've ever driven in. At one point we had to pass a transit coming the other way on a single track road - who warned me that the road ahead was a steep descent and I had no chance of avoiding grounding the front of the car when I got to the bottom of the hill. No chance to turn round so...... I simply activated lift, and no problem at all.
Brilliant car.
Oh - apparently, it's slightly odd when you don't suggest getting your photo taken with your girlfriend, but say that you're moving your car from the main lands end car park to the hotel car park so you can take photos of the car with the sea behind it.....
Edited by davek_964 on Friday 28th August 21:23
Edited by davek_964 on Friday 28th August 21:24
Edited by davek_964 on Saturday 29th August 08:41
Nice update mate...a 650s spider is v interesting at current levels. I've covered 6k miles in my 570s since December with another road trip planned in late Sep (Covid allowing) that'll tag another 2k onto it...drive them and enjoy them you really shouldn't be able to own a Mclaren sub £100k but the depreciation helps on that front!
Ferruccio said:
Penrhyn said:
Dave-964 great write up.
Good to hear from a real Mclaren owner .
What’s the difference between a McLaren owner and a real McLaren owner?Good to hear from a real Mclaren owner .
Still posts tall stories about all the hard to obtain cars he owns on the Porsche forum amongst other places.
There are some strange people out there craving credibility.
Slightly less positive update this time.
My use of the car has reduced a little in the last few weeks - trying to get the Cayenne back into service for mundane trips. Plus, I'm still WFH and have switched to online shopping since masks became mandatory - so there really haven't been that many mundane trips.
I did however go to a supercar display in Kent on Sunday - and rather than take the motorway, went cross country. It was actually a lovely drive there and back - perfect weather, roof down - and meant the car ticked over 14k miles.
Although I enjoyed the drive a lot, I still feel that I'm still not really in sync with the car on a twisty road. I suspect that a day on a track would help where I can explore what the car can do a bit more - but the cost of ceramic brakes makes me a tad nervous about that. It is something I need to solve somehow though, because it's beginning to feel like I should have gel'd with the car by now, and still haven't - which might mean it's not the car for me, much as I like it. It also doesn't help that it had a few niggles at the weekend - one of which is more annoying than the other.
The first was that the sat nav suddenly lost position - and although it then found it again, it continued to lose it, and became unusable. Resetting IRIS seemed to solve it - I'm dubious that's all that was needed but I've even used the nav display a few times since and it seems to be keeping posiiton.
The other issue is more annoying. In November last year, my climate unit suddenly started misbehaving - randomly switching things on and off. Ascot told me water had got into it, wasn't covered by warranty and implied I'd let the battery go flat (so the windows had dropped). After a discussion where I mentioned CRA a few times (I'd only had the car 3 months) they replaced the module as goodwill - and then replaced a seal when I pointed out why the original one had got wet (I believe it was the seal that runs across the top of the windscreen and then down the front of the doors).
However - the climate unit is now doing exactly the same thing again. It might be coincidence and a completely different cause - but that seems unlikely.
Simulating rain with a hose on full power - the car simply doesn't leak. I did previously have some drips from the middle roof seal - but that caused drips on the seat, and none around the climate module.
So if the replacement has got water damage again, I simply do not understand how. It doesn't seem to leak inside the window from the top - maybe it's getting in via the seal / scraper at the bottom of the window?
I now need to decide what to do about this. If it's the same issue as it was before, it's likely to cost me money - I seem to recall Ascot quoted ~£1,350 for a new climate unit. While I expect cars to need money spent on them - I'm not happy to pay that kind of cost when I've already paid for a very expensive warranty - especially if it's caused by some other failure on the car letting water get to the module.
Ascot repair should have lasted longer than 10 months - especially when the car spent 4 months of that in a dry paint shop - so I really should take it back there. But, if they conclude it's water damage - the amount of time since they fixed it becomes much harder to argue.
Or - do I take it to B&C which I started using a few months ago?
My current feeling is that perhaps it should go to B&C to investigate - and then I may or may not decide it needs to go back to Ascot depending on what they find.
Not all that happy - let's hope it's resolved easily, and that I don't find I need a climate unit each year!
It does still look damn good though.
My use of the car has reduced a little in the last few weeks - trying to get the Cayenne back into service for mundane trips. Plus, I'm still WFH and have switched to online shopping since masks became mandatory - so there really haven't been that many mundane trips.
I did however go to a supercar display in Kent on Sunday - and rather than take the motorway, went cross country. It was actually a lovely drive there and back - perfect weather, roof down - and meant the car ticked over 14k miles.
Although I enjoyed the drive a lot, I still feel that I'm still not really in sync with the car on a twisty road. I suspect that a day on a track would help where I can explore what the car can do a bit more - but the cost of ceramic brakes makes me a tad nervous about that. It is something I need to solve somehow though, because it's beginning to feel like I should have gel'd with the car by now, and still haven't - which might mean it's not the car for me, much as I like it. It also doesn't help that it had a few niggles at the weekend - one of which is more annoying than the other.
The first was that the sat nav suddenly lost position - and although it then found it again, it continued to lose it, and became unusable. Resetting IRIS seemed to solve it - I'm dubious that's all that was needed but I've even used the nav display a few times since and it seems to be keeping posiiton.
The other issue is more annoying. In November last year, my climate unit suddenly started misbehaving - randomly switching things on and off. Ascot told me water had got into it, wasn't covered by warranty and implied I'd let the battery go flat (so the windows had dropped). After a discussion where I mentioned CRA a few times (I'd only had the car 3 months) they replaced the module as goodwill - and then replaced a seal when I pointed out why the original one had got wet (I believe it was the seal that runs across the top of the windscreen and then down the front of the doors).
However - the climate unit is now doing exactly the same thing again. It might be coincidence and a completely different cause - but that seems unlikely.
Simulating rain with a hose on full power - the car simply doesn't leak. I did previously have some drips from the middle roof seal - but that caused drips on the seat, and none around the climate module.
So if the replacement has got water damage again, I simply do not understand how. It doesn't seem to leak inside the window from the top - maybe it's getting in via the seal / scraper at the bottom of the window?
I now need to decide what to do about this. If it's the same issue as it was before, it's likely to cost me money - I seem to recall Ascot quoted ~£1,350 for a new climate unit. While I expect cars to need money spent on them - I'm not happy to pay that kind of cost when I've already paid for a very expensive warranty - especially if it's caused by some other failure on the car letting water get to the module.
Ascot repair should have lasted longer than 10 months - especially when the car spent 4 months of that in a dry paint shop - so I really should take it back there. But, if they conclude it's water damage - the amount of time since they fixed it becomes much harder to argue.
Or - do I take it to B&C which I started using a few months ago?
My current feeling is that perhaps it should go to B&C to investigate - and then I may or may not decide it needs to go back to Ascot depending on what they find.
Not all that happy - let's hope it's resolved easily, and that I don't find I need a climate unit each year!
It does still look damn good though.
Edited by davek_964 on Thursday 17th September 07:24
To maybe help gel with the car, you should consider doing a day's one on one driver training. I can highly recommend the guy I used - Mike Cooper (drivertuition.com). We spent the day out doing a number of loops around the Berkshire/Wiltshire countryside learning to get more from the car I had at the time (M4 Competition), and it made a big difference to how I was able to use and enjoy the car. He also does track based driver training if you want to take things in that direction and I've done a couple of those days too when I switched to a 991 GTS.
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