What its like to own a Ferrari....

[dingo]

I found this on FerrariChat.....written by Peter Spann (Brisbane property millionaire) who is an owner of a Ferrari(s)

"WARNING - If you do not like gratuitous bragging and showing off – do NOT read this post because I am going for it!!!

OK, if it's one thing I know, I know Ferrari's...

Establishing Credentials on Ferrari’s and cars:

I currently have an F360 Spider in my Garage… In fact there's been one in my garage since 1995 - so 10 years of continuous ownership. I’m off to the Grand Prix this weekend in the Ferrari Corporate Box in the Paddock Club as a guest of Ferrari.

I have visited the factory twice. I have the 3rd F 430 Spider into the country on order and that’s only because I was away the day they announced they were taking orders and missed the email.

I have photos of me and Michael and Rubens and Jean Todt on my wall, and have sat in (sort of – too chubby to get right in) a real F1 racing car. (Girlfriend who is considerably thinner than me got right in!).

I have driven EVERY super-car currently available for sale in Australian and I still come back to the Ferrari. I have driven Ferrari’s in the European Club Sport races, and raced a F355 for 2 years, and driven them on roads in the US and Europe.

Ferrari’s rock. They are not old man’s cars (as somebody ignorantly accused) and even if they are you’d soon become young again. And yes, believe it or not many women do love them. I have had ample incidents where I have become instantly significantly more attractive because I was standing near my Ferrari and actually took out the keys. And I have had some women date me just because of the car – don’t start – I knew what they were after and didn’t care!

The sound, the smell (Connolly Leather), and the feel of the car is unbeatable. The handling is AMAZING – just like a go cart. The clink of metal on metal as you change the gears through the famous Ferrari metal H gate… all experiences you just don’t get with other cars.

And yes, I have ordered an SL65 and yes they are awesome cars but I owned an SL55 and everybody thinks they are worth about $150,000 (when they are worth $300,000) and no doubt that won’t change with the SL65. Like all German cars it is awesomely quick, very efficient, will never get you into trouble but lacks the one thing the Italian has in droves… Soul.

And people LOVE Ferrari’s - I have owned other cars as well Porsche, BMW, MB, etc and they are often vandalized and so on, but I have never had my Ferrari as much as scratched.

Police let you off speeding fines, but never in a Porsche, parking Nazi’s at the airport let you park the car in the 2 minutes zones, people stop to let you into traffic (try that in my BMW and you’d end up with a BIG dint). Hotels will always Valet park them for free. People have their photo taken in front of them. People buy you lunch. I’ve had one situation where I used to park the car at work and come back at the end of the day and it had been washed and polished by somebody I didn’t even know (and this went on for 19 months until I finally caught him 2 weeks before we moved office to thank him).

And people who own Ferrari’s are unique too… Yes some are w@nk#rs but most are genuine enthusiasts and always have an interesting story to tell. And when you get together at social events their partners are invariably good looking and intelligent – it seems the admiration of the same qualities comes through in both car and woman.

In the US 29% of buyers are now women too. You will NEVER see me wear any promotional gear on any clothes except Ferrari at GP time. I have been to the Monaco, Monza, Indy, and Chinese F1 to follow the team and every F1 driver in the world wants to drive for them. Even when they were losing!

Ferrari is not a car it is a way of life, a way of being, a state of mind. On the good days a Ferrari is just a wonderful car to drive, on the bad days a Ferrari is just a wonderful car to own because every time I get in one I feel just a little but better about myself.

They make people smile. To the little boys and girls who wave at you to the teenagers who get down on their knees and “worship” as you drive pass to the mums in the people movers who give you a wistful smile and the guys in other cars who look and drool, yes even the girls with the long hair who’ll date you just to get a ride in one. And that doesn't happen in any other car I own. Not one. People give you the forks as you drive past in a Porsche, ignore you completely in a MB and BMW's are as common as Holden's these days, but most people smil even just a little and often bust into spontanious happines and give you a little wave when you drive past in a Ferrari – everybody loves a Ferrari.

And if you don’t then I feel sorry for you. Not only are they an awesome automotive feast, they are beautiful to look at – a genuine mobile piece or art (and MB haven’t been able to achieve that since the gull wing). You may never want to own one but it’s hard not to admire the company for their technical genius and amazing branding – most people who support Scuderia Ferrari will never get to own one in their lives and yet they still weep when Ferrari wins a GP.

To answer the original question – cost of ownership… Surprisingly little (well at least compared to what everybody thinks it is). They have a 3 year, 100,000km warranty and a 5 year warranty on the Aluminum body. They have an annual check up which costs about $750 but their first real service is at 50,000km. Insurance is cheap ($3,500 per year – my Porsche cost $6,500 and the SL55 was almost $10,000) because they are never stolen (in fact the insurance company is VERY suspicious of every theft claim because of the rarity of the event). Why? Because the immobiliser is bullet proof so no joy riding, and there is no secondary market for the parts (all numbered) and no imbecile would risk the warranty by not taking their car to a Ferrari garage to fix it, so no professional theft. Most people don’t drive them – tragedy – so they are rarely crashed but when they are it is usually a right off.

Parts are expensive and if you do prang them it’s really going to hurt, plus Ferrari don’t keep much in stock so they time off the road is exasperated by the delay time in ordering the part from Italy.

Depreciation occurs most when the models are replaced - everybody not interested in the old model any more, but stabilises then and they rarely lose their value from their. Other than that during the model life cycle they can usually be sold for only a $10K to $30K less than you paid due to the extended waiting lists for most people, and the fact that in times of good economics (like the last 10 years) demand exceeds supply. As somebody rightly pointed out they can also appreciate in value. The maximum amount I have lost on a Ferrari when I came to sell / trade was $30,000 and that was on a car with 30,000 on the clock (like 150,000 in any other car) and the dealer knew that I had pranged it (not a big bang but a bang none the less).

Contrast that to the last Range Rover which I bought for $135,000 and sold 2 years later with just 7,500kms on the clock for $60,000 and my last 911 which I paid $265,000 and sold 2 years later with 9,000 kms on the clock and sold for $190,000 and you can see how awesome those figures are. One Ferrari, my Barchetta I bought for $605,000 and sold for $670,000.

Cars to me are a part of life and life is just a little bit better with a Ferrari in it. To all those guys and gals who want one I can only encourage you to go for it – keep dreaming – it’s worth it – and more importantly learn to scoff at people who say cars are only for getting from A to B – they will never know the joy and passion they are missing out on."