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Often a Ferrari gets passed from person to person and becomes a story of deferred maintenance and disrepair. It's very interesting to see what really goes wrong with some of these in the 'real world.' We have lots of little niggles in our cars, but, so often I just hop into mine, turn the key, and think "what could possibly go wrong? Nothing." And so it goes until something actually does show signs of failing. Big deal.
What is also very interesting is seeing how reasonable many of the prices are. My father has a 2001 Pontiac Aztek (yes, not exactly a crowning engineering achievement, but, he likes it). Their fuel level sender went willy-nilly on them a couple of years ago. The dealer wanted over $600 to fix it. So, just for kicks, I called the local Ferrari dealer and asked them what they would charge to replace the fuel level sender in 'my' 2001 Ferrari 550. hmm... parts and labor on a $25k hunk o' plastic versus a $250k near-work-of-art... The cost for the Ferrari? $325 TOTAL (yes, that's parts and labor). My folks have been paying nearly Ferrari-like prices on their Pontiac. The Aztek has been quite problematic, too.
Anyway, people sometimes look at an old Ferrari versus a newer Porsche. You can find a 308 in good shape for about $30k - about the same as you'd pay for a 2003 Boxster S or a '98 or '99 911. However, a major service (30k) on the Ferrari will run you about $8k. On the Porsches it'll run only about $1200. The price of entry is the same, but, you sure pay for the Ferrari on the upkeep.
Recently, there was an episode of 'Ultimate Factories' on the National Geographic channel that featured Ferrari. It's amazing to see how much of the car is truly hand made and how utterly meticulous the manufacturing process is. No expense is spared in the crafting of a Ferrari. However, despite all of this, they are relatively unreliable (as evidenced in that article) and need a lot of attention in order to keep them in peak condition.
It makes you wonder if the price of entry is really worth it. After all, a 25-year-old Ferrari was state-of-the-art in its time. But, for the same price, you can buy a car that is near the state-of-the-art now. And the irony is that the new car is likely going to outperform the old Ferrari, will certainly be less expensive to own and will definitely be more reliable.
Very interesting, indeed.
posted by 207.92.198...
, Sun, 10 Dec 2006 12:17:48
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