Is a Ferrari a Real Car?

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I was trying to find a great car that I could realistically afford if things go well for me. Something around 100K. I started looking at used Ferrari's. Found a used 2006 F430 for $150K. It has 7K Miles on it.

Looking at the listings it looks like these cars are never driven.

What's the point of having a Ferrari if you never drive it? Can a Ferrari even make it to 100K miles?

I guess that's my question. Are these high end sports cars real cars that can handle every day use?

If I owned a Ferrari I would want to drive it everywhere all the time not just stare at it in my garage. :)

P.S. No I cannot afford it now. I was trying to set up an attainable dream car.
 
The thread title confused me. And I'm willing to bet I wasn't the only one.

That said, I agree with you. If you buy a car, drive it. That's what it was built for. I hate seeing a brilliant car hidden away, even if it is a potentially ludicrous investment. Mainly because the owner is taking that car off the streets and out of the hands of true enthusiasts who will get the most of it. Yes, you can handle high-end supercars in day-to-day life, especially things like the Ferrari 430 or Porsche 911. When you start getting into Enzo territory, then it becomes more impractical. But that's still no excuse to keep it rotting away in the garage.
 
MowTin
I was trying to find a great car that I could realistically afford if things go well for me. Something around 100K. I started looking at used Ferrari's. Found a used 2006 F430 for $150K. It has 7K Miles on it.

Looking at the listings it looks like these cars are never driven.

What's the point of having a Ferrari if you never drive it? Can a Ferrari even make it to 100K miles?

I guess that's my question. Are these high end sports cars real cars that can handle every day use?

If I owned a Ferrari I would want to drive it everywhere all the time not just stare at it in my garage. :)

P.S. No I cannot afford it now. I was trying to set up an attainable dream car.
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I'm sure other more knowledgable members will chip in but the way I see it, a Ferrari simply isn't practical for your needs.

Ferraris are highly valued for their performance and engineering. Such high performance engines require regular tuning and maintenance by professional mechanics - which costs money. Even if 100k sounds like a reasonable amount of money for you to pay for a car, expect to pay at least that much again in servicing and repair bills.

On top of that, you will also have fuel costs to consider. Ferraris are not renowned for their fuel efficiency.

Oh and insurance. Good luck trying to get cover on a Ferrari that is being used as a daily driver.

For all of the above reasons, I think that is why you see a lot more Porsches on the roads.
 
Maybe not 100k miles but...

DSC02460.jpg

This Ferrari F50 that I spotted last year has over 50k miles on the odo. And the owner also has an Enzo with over 50k miles.
 
And that owner also has a tremendous amount of money to his name, and probably doesn't give a hoot about maintenance costs or resale value. He's got too much money in gold and silver to worry about the appreciation of a couple cars.

Yes, Ferraris are real cars, provided you can afford to maintain them just like any other, except at disgustingly inflated prices. If you're looking at F430s you're obviously not worried about appreciation, because they're not going to any time soon.

If you think you can afford a car, do research on how much it actually costs to own it. If somebody dents your Ferrari, well...bro you own a Ferrari so you better have it fixed within the week. Don't even complain about that 8 quart, $250 oil change. New tires? Yeah, the ones on there might have the same name as the one at the tire store, but the compound is made specifically for that car and it probably costs double it's normal counterpart while lasting half as long. Brake pads? Fluid changes? How much does it cost to replace a water pump in an F430? When is the last time a stock Ferrari engine crested 100,000 miles? Normal cars do it all the time.
 
Keef
When is the last time a stock Ferrari engine crested 100,000 miles? Normal cars do it all the time.
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I guess that's what I would like to know. Are they durable or fragile? Can an f430 make it to 100K without any major issues like a well made Japanese car?

Given the quality of the work that goes into those engines I would expect that should be durable. But being that they are high performance maybe it's like the old adage "what burns brightest burns out twice as fast."
 
Pretty much any of these "entry" level ($100K+) high performance cars built within' the last 5 years can be daily driven. The biggest issue is that you'll be needing maintenance just that much quicker & the maintenance costs tend to go up at every interval just because more & more of the parts will need replacing & to be ordered. You afford that, & the car can see whatever mileage you want. We have a Diablo owner on FChat whose car has seen over 100,000 miles. He's got a Testarossa pushing 70,000, only 2 cars he owns. The cars can see that kind of mileage with only a few major service intervals.

A lot of people buying these cars don't bring this into thought when buying, so after they've had their fun putting 500 miles on them, they find out they can't really afford to put 10,000 miles on the car within' even 6 months b/c the cars love to run through parts.

Most of these cars also change hands so often, because the owners sometimes buy them for show or when a new model comes out, they can only afford the one car. Pretty rare to see a guy have a 360 Modena next to a F430 when out of the 2, the latter has everything the former does & more.
 
The main reason these cars tend to have low mileage is depreciation... higher mileage cars lose a disproportionately higher amount of money vs low mileage cars... and with a sticker price in the 100's of thousands, the financial impact can be big!

However, most cars will cover the mileage, but the running costs will vary massively depending on the particular model. There's a guy who contributes to Evo magazine who has 2 Murci's, one is an early car and has over 175k miles on it, the other in a newer model and is close to 100k. Some of the repair/servicing bills would require most people to take out a 2nd mortgage!

In general, 911's will be the cheapest of the higher end sports cars to run over big mileage. They tend to be reliable, and the servicing and repair costs are not too bad if you use a specialist rather than the OPC network.

Ferrari's can be expensive to run... particularly those with paddle shift gearboxes (F1's), where clutch life can be very short, and replacements are several thousand pounds. Other than that, the big expense is belt changes... which I'm pretty sure is an engine out job and costs a small fortune. Belt change intervals vary by model.

You need to be relatively brave to buy a higher mileage 430... or you need to have a decent contingency fund for unexpected repairs.
 
Contingency fund, hell... You need the money to buy a whole other car every year if you plan on doing any high-end sportscar as a daily driver.
 
Ferrari 360 , One of the best ferrari's IMO , & im sure you'll find one under $100k
 
Guys I will tell you that there is nothing cheep about owning a high performance automobile, Ferrari has gotten better about making them go longer between maintenance but it's still super expensive, major maintenance can be 10k. I have a 2000 Bentley with what can be described as a tractor motor and it's 400 Plus for an oil change. If you want bang for the buck Corvettes are good or Cadillac CTS-V's, or even NSX's or S2000. My 2 cents worth.

MotorCityDriver
 
niky
Contingency fund, hell... You need the money to buy a whole other car every year if you plan on doing any high-end sportscar as a daily driver.
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I use my 911 as a daily driver (it's covered 46k miles in the last 3 years).

Costs about £2k per year in servicing and 'unexpected extras'.
 
Stotty
I use my 911 as a daily driver (it's covered 46k miles in the last 3 years).

Costs about £2k per year in servicing and 'unexpected extras'.
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911 is a bit different that a F430 or something similar though. The 911 is/was made and advertised as the everyday sports car and are less finicky and cheaper. (I'd much rather have a 911.)

I would not want to daily (meaning commute every single day) an exotic for a variety of reasons. Maintenance, vandalism, cost, etc.
Keep in mind when you're looking at used Ferrari's or similar cars, the upkeep costs don't depreciate along with the sticker. Make sure you can afford to keep one, not just purchase one.
 
freedomweasel
911 is a bit different that a F430 or something similar though. The 911 is/was made and advertised as the everyday sports car and are less finicky and cheaper. (I'd much rather have a 911.)
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Agreed... but provides some perspective as Ferrari running costs likely to be significantly higher than this 👍
 
Well, considering its Italian I doubt i'd make it to 100k! Lol, JK, JK. In all seriousness people rarely drive them because they are cars that are made to make the person that owns them look good. Thats why the owners are afraid of getting a scratch or doording, it would mess up the look. Or if someone backed into it, it would cost 5-6,000$ to repair, and after a car that costs so much, it might never get repaired. Sad really as those cars should be enjoyed as much as any other sports car, but its the same fate for all supercars.
 
Stotty
I use my 911 as a daily driver (it's covered 46k miles in the last 3 years).

Costs about £2k per year in servicing and 'unexpected extras'.
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See, £2k for all that doesn't seem too bad to me. I know there's a little apples/oranges here, but in the 13 months I owned my MX5 it probably cost me £2k in all the jobs I needed to do to that, and it's not like I have a particularly well-paid job.

Brings me onto another thought about running something like a Ferrari of course - fuel. Much as newer Ferraris are comparatively fuel-efficient cars, you're still talking probably 20mpg or so at best (UK or US gallons? Doesn't really matter...). If you're thinking of doing 10k miles a year it's going to cost you. More in the UK obviously.

There's also the issue of how special it would really feel if you used it day-to-day. Sometimes it's nice to save a car like that for the weekend so it feels more special, rather than being sick of it by the weekend because you've been sat in traffic in it all week.
 
niky
Contingency fund, hell... You need the money to buy a whole other car every year if you plan on doing any high-end sportscar as a daily driver.
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Gotta admit, the cars aren't generally designed to live a long life because they typically don't. The vast majority of exotics are driven very little, and their high-mileage reliability is unproven. Even if they did last as long as a mass-market car, you can still expect routine repairs like belts and pumps and other regular maintenance to cost something astronomical.
 
We had a saying in the service departments at Lexus and at Audi: "You've got to pay to play". Crank that statement up two more notches, and that's probably what maintenance and repair bills are like with a Ferrari. Having heard some other managers' and advisors' war stories at the exotic brands, they really aren't kidding. And don't think for a minute the independent shops are offering massive discounts, they might be less expensive, but bargaining isn't exactly going to work in your favor. Never mind that lots of tire and lube places probably won't even raise your hood, for fear of losing a month's profit (or greater) if something went wrong.

Back when I had a 10+ year-old Lexus, the repair and maintenance would probably set back the typical customer roughly $2000-3000/year. Serious repairs like a transmission or motor job would be about double, depending on car; thankfully, there wasn't much of that. So it would have been more had been a high-mileage example. And that's just a Lexus.

I've also heard that some of the old 308/328 models were comparatively easy to work on, if you're a DIY mechanic. But I'd imagine that some of the more sophisticated Ferrari models start to give headaches when they don't run nicely (quite a lot like most any computer-controlled car that's turning 10-15 and hitting up 150k miles).

One last thing; a daily-driven Ferrari in New York City seems akin to putting an elephant in a dog cage or a killer whale in a fish tank...or taking a trans-Atlantic economy-class flight with a 2 year-old child: lots of screaming but you don't feel like you've gone anywhere, and you'd really like to stretch your legs.

If you can, hey...you only live once, and more power to you...[insert cliche]
 
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That's really the thing, owning a ferrari means you have money - and that means you're going to get soaked every time you need work done on it and for all parts. It's also a magnet for cops (who are not going to give you a warning) and something that needs to look perfect because it's going to attract an amazing amount of attention. When was the last time you saw a dirty ferrari? When was the last time a ferrari went by and you didn't look at it? Also, be prepared for some ugliness if you stiff the valet or car wash guy.... and by "stiff" I mean "give them a $5".

The reason so many of these get driven so rarely is because of the cost of driving them. Owners are counting on re-selling them, insuring them for low mileage, and using them for very specific purposes. It costs a great deal less to buy a daily driver than to use the ferrari as a daily driver. If you crunched the numbers, I'd bet it would cost you less to drive a cayman every day and keep the ferrari in the garage until you needed it to show off or tackle that mountain road than it would to drive the ferrari every day. The depreciation and maintenance can buy whole other cars... nice ones.

I'm just going to come out and say it. The reason these cars don't get driven every day is because it would be stupid to do so. Many people in this thread have been criticizing owners for leaving their ferraris in the garage, but honestly a ferrari isn't as good at driving back and forth to work as cars that cost a fraction of the price to own and maintain. Why spend gobs of money to be uncomfortable cruising at 60 mph down the freeway when you could spend a lot less and have a better experience. Save the ferrari for what it's meant for, driving hard and showing off.

Most people use cars like sledgehammers. They pound all of their transportation needs down with one blunt instrument. Ferraris are scalpels. You use them surgically where they are needed at the things they are good at. You don't take them to the grocery store, you don't load it up with a bag of dirt, maybe you don't even drive it when it's raining outside. Why not? Because you're saving it for when it really matters - because that makes sense when you own a car that's designed for speed. Would it be good in the rain? Yes. Would you get your money's worth out of it when you're driving it in the rain? or would you worry about visibility and putting it into a guard rail and decide to take it easy?
 
Fuel of course will be more expensive, but these things are relative... 10k miles at 20mpg vs 30mpg is only £1,000.

You also need to remember tyres will cost a lot more too... my 911 does 6-8k miles on a set of rears, and with tyre costs increasing >20% in the last 2 years as the pound devalues that's £1,000 a year in tyres alone... which I forgot to figure in to the £2k a year costs above. Will be very similar for a 430.

Ultimately, Ferrari's don't make sensible day to day transport.

As Danoff says, if you own something so special it will lose a certain amount of that specialness if used too frequently.
 
I would dare say if you lived along a well-maintained 2-lane mountain road with nearly no traffic during either commute to and from work, then it really wouldn't be a "bad" daily driver (as long as you never pick up anything bigger than one sack of groceries on the way home).

But...[/makes money-money guesture by rubbing thumb against index finger]

That's really unlikely, though.
 
Nope. Holograms I'm afraid. :(
 
As far as legit daily drivers that can be used as track day monsters, I think it comes down to the NSX, 911s, M3s, or maybe some of the new Corvettes. If you expand it to 4-doors, then there's a host of other options. All of which fall under $100k.
 
Wow, thanks for the replies. I'm really impressed by the wealth of car knowledge in this forum.

So far I gather that the parts would tend to wear out faster--the tires especially--simple oil changes, gas and maintenance would be expensive. And as some have mentioned many people buy these cars to look good so they don't drive them often.

But it's good to hear that there some here who know people who have 70k to 100k miles on an exotic.

Most people mention the 911 as a more durable everyday exotic. My brother-in-law has a BMW M5 that he drives often. I don't like the boring BMW styling but I think the M5 may be the best overall sports car. The next best may be the Nissan GT-R and then the Porsche 911.

So for the price of a used Ferrari I could have a brand new M5 or GTR with a factory warranty.

So I think the GT-R should be my attainable dream car and the Ferrari should be my unattainable dream car. :)
 
If you have the money, buy a Ferrari, by all means. God knows they're worth it. Just make sure you actually drive it.
 
100k Ferraris eh? I'm just imagining just how much a timing belt change is gonna cost. Tell me when you go broke. :P
 
One day I will get me a F355 Berlinetta with 6 speed manual, That's my goal before I turn 35, it's the holy grail in my car world. A future classic under 100K, if not that than a 993 Porsche will have to suffice.
 
Stotty
Fuel of course will be more expensive, but these things are relative... 10k miles at 20mpg vs 30mpg is only £1,000.
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Which is more of an issue if you're buying the car second hand than brand new. If you're buying brand new then fuel costs probably won't bother you much. If you're buying an F355 for £30k then an extra £1k in fuel on top of several thousand quid in the first place probably would be a little off-putting.

As Danoff says, if you own something so special it will lose a certain amount of that specialness if used too frequently.
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Hey, I said that before Danoff did :p
 
I won't rehash much of what has been said...we know this: exotics are extremely expensive to own, run, and maintain.

I'm fortunate enough to live in the "cheap" sports car world. My 370Z is NOT my daily driver, and I can't even fathom the thought of it being my only car--it's too impractical for real world tasks. Still, even though it's "cheap"...it ain't cheap. Let's do some math, shall we? ;)

What if you want it for a daily driver? Let's look at the first 60,000 miles. I'll assume the car gets driven a "normal" 12,000 miles/year (so it's an even five years), and the car will be paid off in that time. This COMPLETELY IGNORES unexpected repairs and expenses.

Gas: 60,000 miles @ 23 mpg = 2,690 gallons @ $4/gal (premium) = $10,760
Tires: 30,000 miles/set (if you don't abuse them) = 2 sets @ $1,200/set = $2,400
Oil Changes: 60,000 miles / 3,000 miles = 20 oil changes @ $100 (uses 'special' oil) = $2,000
Maintenance:
15K service = $300
30K service = $500
45K service = $300
60K service = $1000

Depreciation: If the car is paid off in five years, down payment + principal + interest on the loan totals $45,000. With 60,000 miles, you can probably sell it in 2014 for $22,000-$25,000, meaning depreciation costs $20,000 over that period.

Total cost to drive and maintain the car for 60,000 miles = $37,260, or $7,452/year, or $0.62/mile for EVERY MILE. This means my 58 mile round-trip to work ultimately costs me $35.96.

Even if you ignore depreciation, since it isn't really "real" until you sell the car, it's still $3,452/year, or $0.29/mile...for a "cheap" sports car. This is a Japanese sports car that will easily live 150,000 miles, and it shares many parts with millions of other cars on the road. Ferrari? For me...no thanks. Not now. Not ever.
 
I'm sorry, what?!

$1200 tires?
$100 oil? (not to mention you're changing it far too often at 3k miles)
 
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