Ferrari of Washington

[WCH]

Originally Posted by junglistluder

I just returned from Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale, and their dealership is soooooo cool and fun to hang out at! Just like a clubhouse. They gave me and my brother a guided tour of the showroom, service shop, race shop, then drove us (in a Ferrari FF) to the restoration shop to show us all the cool classics they had. They took an entire half a day just to show my brother and I around and make us feel welcomed. I knew I made the right choice by sending my car to FoFL for service. They even picked up/delivered my 355 for free!!! Twice!!! Even the owner of the dealership regularly called my cell phone personally just to make sure I am being taken care of 110%. Best guys in the business, hands down.

And that's how FoW was, until 3 years ago.

Nice to see they have loyal, satisfied customers. I remember all the wonderful people they fired.

[Chupacabra]

Originally Posted by junglistluder

I just returned from Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale, and their dealership is soooooo cool and fun to hang out at! Just like a clubhouse. They gave me and my brother a guided tour of the showroom, service shop, race shop, then drove us (in a Ferrari FF) to the restoration shop to show us all the cool classics they had. They took an entire half a day just to show my brother and I around and make us feel welcomed. I knew I made the right choice by sending my car to FoFL for service. They even picked up/delivered my 355 for free!!! Twice!!! Even the owner of the dealership regularly called my cell phone personally just to make sure I am being taken care of 110%. Best guys in the business, hands down.

Agreed. They have an exemplary operation down there!

I must say that I have never encountered a snobby attitude at FOW, but a few times it was like a ghost town.

[KJM3SMG]

really weird u all had these experiences.. I've been going to FOW for years.. they've been accommodating. Even got a tour.. when I wasn't interested in anything yet.

And I don't exactly look like a buyer..

[Zinger]

Originally Posted by junglistluder

I just returned from Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale, and their dealership is soooooo cool and fun to hang out at! Just like a clubhouse. They gave me and my brother a guided tour of the showroom, service shop, race shop, then drove us (in a Ferrari FF) to the restoration shop to show us all the cool classics they had. They took an entire half a day just to show my brother and I around and make us feel welcomed. I knew I made the right choice by sending my car to FoFL for service. They even picked up/delivered my 355 for free!!! Twice!!! Even the owner of the dealership regularly called my cell phone personally just to make sure I am being taken care of 110%. Best guys in the business, hands down.

+1

I visited Ferrari Ft. Lauderdale last year when I was in south Florida for a boat show. I showed up to the dealer at 6:05 and they closed at 6:00. I tried the door and it was locked. I peaked in the window to see what they had on the showroom floor and a salesman ran over to greet me. I said "I know you are closed so I dont want to take up your time but I am in town from Virginia and wanted to see your dealership". He insisted I come in and take a look around. He showed me all of his cars including a red 458 with Cuoio interior=gorgeous! and a few others. He let me sit in them and we bull****ted for a good 20 minutes. He would have chatted for an hour but I did not want to be rude. I walked away feeling really good and "at home" and I had just been to the dealer for the first time. I would feel very comfortable doing business with them.

I purchased my 2008 F430 coupe from Algar in PA 8 months ago and they are a class act as well. I cant say enough about Francis, Tony K, and Stephen. Algar made me feel very special and really made my first experience owning a Ferrari a true dream come true down to the delivery to my doorstep. I felt as if I did business with a friend, or close neighbor, thats the way it should be...

As for Ferrari of Washington I just dont get that warm and fuzzy feeling when I walk through the door, not sure why. I have tried to buy multiple cars from them but it never seems to work out. Price has always been an issue but its more than price, its the way you feel. When you buy a car you should be 100% confident in the car, the dealer and the salesman. I just have not had all 3 come to play with FOW. Years ago Ralph, Auggie, and Allie Ash made the place feel like the other dealers I mentioned, now its kinda cold and all business. You can hear a pin drop in the showroom and my blood pressure jumps up out of nerves, weird ,but its true. I am trying their service for the first time (cracked muffler and bracket) and so far have been pleased with their service advisor Shawn, (who is new). I hope I can at least have a decent service relationship with them while my car is under factory warranty since the next Ferrari factory dealer is 3 hours away. If they burn me I will use Competizione or Josh at ECS, they have great reputations in the area. I live 10 minutes from FOW so I wish it could be the whole package! Maybe in time it will

[toggie]

Originally Posted by Bryanp

This may be true, but FoW is no longer the nucleus of local Ferrari enthusiasm that it used to be. No Redding Finney's there.

Originally Posted by Piper

I'm new to the marque, couple years, and never knew or heard of this fellow. Assume he was the manager there under Ash? Heard great things about that time. Very unusual and very cool for a business. I wonder how many, if any other ferrari dealers around the country are similarly run like clubs. Doesn't say anything about them, or about how FOW is managed today. Just a different era for Washingtonian enthusiasts.

Redding was the marketing director (I believe that was his FOW job title) back in the day.

Here is a pic of Redding Finney (in the tan suit) in the FOW parking lot with some guy named Jean who claimed to run the Ferrari F1 team at the time.
.

[mswiek]

Originally Posted by junglistluder

I just returned from Ferrari of Fort Lauderdale, and their dealership is soooooo cool and fun to hang out at! Just like a clubhouse. They gave me and my brother a guided tour of the showroom, service shop, race shop, then drove us (in a Ferrari FF) to the restoration shop to show us all the cool classics they had. They took an entire half a day just to show my brother and I around and make us feel welcomed. I knew I made the right choice by sending my car to FoFL for service. They even picked up/delivered my 355 for free!!! Twice!!! Even the owner of the dealership regularly called my cell phone personally just to make sure I am being taken care of 110%. Best guys in the business, hands down.

A few years ago when FoFL was still under the Shelton name/ownership, my son and I stopped in while visiting Florida on a fishing trip. We received the same type of warm, open armed welcome that you described even though we were not in the market for a purchase. When we mentioned that we were Ferrari owners, we were given a complete tour and extended wonderful hospitality and courtesy by Benn Coreale, one of the very gracious salesmen there. I have not had a chance to drop by for a while now,and don't know if Benn is still there, but if he is, you can't do better.

Mike

[Piper]

Originally Posted by 360gtracer

I really hate to throw gas on a raging fire, but I'm afraid I must disagree. "If they don't have the thing you want and don't want to go find it for you", that *IS* poor customer service.

When I bought my 308, I bought it from a private seller out west. Because of my long-standing (at the time) relationship w/ FoW, I went to Allie before word got out on the grapevine. At that time, if you lived in the Mid-Atlantic region and bought a Ferrari outside the region (from another dealer), FNA wanted to know why the local dealer was not servicing their customer base. I wanted Allie to know that I had not gone behind his back to another dealer. Since the car I bought was an older carb'd 308 - it was not something they would normally have dealt in anyway, so all was cool.

But for someone looking for a newer car (even if used) and they can't be bothered to help out? That's most definitely NOT cool. Arnie's the only one left of the "old guard" and when he leaves, it truly will be the "end of an era".

Okay, again I'm new to the marque, so from a newbie's perspective, that amazes me if true. FNA wants to know why you bought a car you couldn't acquire locally from elsewhere? That makes no sense at all to me, but I'll try to accept it at face value. I'm trying. I'm still trying. Why would FNA care that one of their dealers didn't go out of their way to locate an antique for a client?

Originally Posted by KJM3SMG

really weird u all had these experiences.. I've been going to FOW for years.. they've been accommodating. Even got a tour.. when I wasn't interested in anything yet.

And I don't exactly look like a buyer..

Yeah, me too. Been all the way to the back a few times now. They don't consider it a big deal, where all other car dealers would bar you from entering the service entrance. I get that FOW used to be cooler. They're still the best dealership experience I've come across.

[4REphotographer]

When I was about 10 I first stepped foot in FoW, the old FoW. Everyone was so incredibly nice, let me sit in the cars, take tons of pictures, walk around the service area, even got to see Allie's F40. I went in there about a year ago and it was just depressing, I couldn't believe the changes it's gone through over the past few years.

[RedFlyer]

I used to post on here many many moons ago and just looked off and on for past several years, but seeing that this thread has continued to attract posts and that the current version of FoW has gotten any words of praise whatsoever, I just had to add in.

FoW is currently so mismanaged and so overrun with dysfunctional individuals that it is hard to believe it has gone on the way it has for as long as it has since the change of ownership, esp. given that the owner / owner’s front man or whatever he is has such a depth of experience running other Ferrari dealerships, not to mention supposedly working for Ferrari NA for some time. The fact that it has gone on the way it has for as long as it has truly is a testament to the strength of the brand and product offerings.

It is astonishing the number of sales (all brands new and preowned) that I know have walked out the door there because the front office / floor staff are so totally incapable of even acting remotely like normal human beings (and that’s just the ones I know of). Not to mention none of them currently there are really car people that know much (beyond what you’d get from being sent to Ferrari sales training few times a year or being privy to production schedules) and talking to them for more than a few minutes that becomes abundantly clear. Those guys could care less about cars…. any kind of cars. I can’t even begin to count the number of people I know who have bought multiple cars there over the years who say they will NEVER buy a car there again. They had a top top notch sales guy come on since ownership change and from what I know firsthand and heard he sold a bunch of not-so-easy to sell cars like Lamborghinis that had been languishing around for many many many months and the place is so mismanaged they couldn’t keep him more than a few months. I will say in fairness there is one salesperson I believe is still there, Jonathan, who I can’t fairly comment on.

And don’t even mention the service department. Aside from Arnie who wisely just holds his nose and hides in the back doing his thing, it is now nothing but kids plucked from Honda and BMW dealerships. I think now there may be two techs there with more than 2 years of experience working on F-cars/Maseratis or Lamborghinis. I would seriously bet there are multiple techs at Algar or Ft. Laud. or Long Island that have more Ferrari service experience than the whole FoW shop en masse (ex. Arnie who isn’t going to be touching your street car anyway). The service mgr. & writers are like a bad joke. Mostly short lived jokes; they turn over about every 2-3 months, except for the worst one. He has somehow lingered on to emit his completely unfounded air of arrogance, and of course to drive customer cars around at length, at will all over NoVA, profiling like they’re his. They let the one senior tech they had, a really good Ferrari corp. award winning one, just walk out the door supposedly because they couldn’t pay him with any kind of reliability or predictability because the totally unqualified kids they had “running” the service office couldn’t make things happen on their end, combined with most of service business running far and fast in the other direction over the past few years as they became disenchanted with the nonsense and hubris overflowing off the sales floor and front office.

And keep in mind all of this this is in an outfit that by definition – for its main brand - sells every new car that it can get its hands on, before they can even get their hands on them. If these guys were selling a product that didn’t have such a gross, mfg.-engineered undersupply and scarcity of sales-outlets (i.e. pretty much any other kind of car made) they wouldn’t even be in business, unless someone was blindly throwing lots and lots and lots of money at it.

For me it isn’t even so much about are they as welcoming and engaging as the prior mgt. regime or other dealers out there. I can deal with standoffish front office /sales people, even ones that don’t really know much about what they’re dealing in, but the current rendition of the place known as FoW is just a bad place full of bad people and that vibe hits most people hard and fast when they walk through the door, as the majority of posts on this thread testify to. Don’t believe me, just take a day and go visit FoW and then ride up to Algar and check them out, you’ll swear you’ve been on two different planets.

In northeast everything is so small and compact, there are plenty of other reasonably close options for sales and service. Use them.

[355dreamer]

Is Franklin still there? I've always thought he was more than accommodating, knowledgable, and enthusiastic.

[Piper]

Originally Posted by 355dreamer

Is Franklin still there? I've always thought he was more than accommodating, knowledgable, and enthusiastic.

Yes. His fiancee actually works at our club, too. They're both incredibly nice people. Franklyn, Jonathan, Alfred and Emir are all very nice people. The last two service managers, Terry and Glenn, were also terrific people. Some of these posts are just bizarre. I hope FOW returns to the days of old so I can actually understand what it is these people miss, because as best I can tell, it's run like a dealership.

[Gh21631]

I was there back in the day (~2002) looking at 355's, this was before they moved to the new bldg. Allie was very accomodating, in fact I al also met him in Fontana (by accident) at an Indy race. They were running challenge cars ahead of the main event. He was very gracious and took my clients and I around the pits and showed us around. I did not buy a car back then but was still treated very well. I cant say that my most recent experience was any better or worse but this time I did buy a car and would probably buy my next one from FoW. I go through cars pretty fast and have worked with just about every highline dealer in the area and I would rate FoW near the top.

I think some of the negativity comes from personal experiences, so far so good for me.

[4REphotographer]

Originally Posted by Piper

Yes. His fiancee actually works at our club, too. They're both incredibly nice people. Franklyn, Jonathan, Alfred and Emir are all very nice people. The last two service managers, Terry and Glenn, were also terrific people. Some of these posts are just bizarre. I hope FOW returns to the days of old so I can actually understand what it is these people miss, because as best I can tell, it's run like a dealership.

I think that is the problem, it used to be so much more than just a dealership. There used to be a real passion for Ferraris there and now they just sell cars.

[Piper]

Originally Posted by 4REphotographer

I think that is the problem, it used to be so much more than just a dealership. There used to be a real passion for Ferraris there and now they just sell cars.

Which is no reason to throw them under a bus.

[4REphotographer]

Originally Posted by Piper

Which is no reason to throw them under a bus.

I don't think anyone is throwing them under the bus, it's not that FoW is bad in any real sense it's just not as good as it used to be, which was much more than just a dealership.

[RedFlyer]

Originally Posted by 4REphotographer

I don't think anyone is throwing them under the bus, it's not that FoW is bad in any real sense it's just not as good as it used to be, which was much more than just a dealership.

I'm throwing them under the bus. They're terrible. They have totally ruined the place and like I said before, if they weren't a Ferrari franchise selling a product whose demand dramatically outstrips its supply they wouldn't last any time at all running the place the way it is ran.

Having NO techs or service managers/writers with any appreciable experience while flying the Ferrari flag is dastardly misleading and a real disservice to anyone duped into bringing their car there, warranty work or not.

The current mgt. is dysfunctional and dishonorable. They've fired all the good people or they've left on their own accord, both the good people they inherited from old regime and the couple who came aboard after. They are known by many to manipulate and game the new order waiting list and the corp. mandated max new sales price with dubious straw-man transactions and follow-on "preowned sales" of new-to-market and limited edition models.

And I can't really blame the salespeople who are collecting checks "selling" products that sell themselves; the place is rotten from the top down. I'm sure some of the sales floor guys could be nice to casually shoot the breeze and have a beer with, but don't get that twisted with what matters in assessing the merits and worth of the outfit as a business. It is in the sales guys executing their duties as instructed and/or influenced from the people running the place that they are totally incapable of acting like normal human beings with any sense of righteousness, which again is why so many sure-fire sales have walked out the door over the past few years, a shortcoming which again is greatly obfuscated by the fact that they can sell every new car Ferrari will give them - just like anyone else could.

And again as far as service, they aren't even worth debating. They are a bunch of kids with some factory tools and software and legal rights to the Ferrari logo. The taking over of FoW by the current regime is the best present Richard & Fernando could have ever gotten and good for them for being poised and prepared to take advantage of it. And unlike some of the sales guys, having a casual conversation with the service writers (at least the only one that has been there more than a few months) would be an exercise in contemptible belittlement and frustration and a very unpleasant and unenlightening experience likely to conjure thoughts of violet acts in some.

It is way more than saying the place just isn't as good as it used to be or as good as all the other Ferrari dealerships. The whole place is putrid from the core and stinks. I feel bad for you guys who feel tethered to them for some geographic or warranty or a misplaced sense of comradery or whatever reason.

[360gtracer]

Originally Posted by Piper

Okay, again I'm new to the marque, so from a newbie's perspective, that amazes me if true. FNA wants to know why you bought a car you couldn't acquire locally from elsewhere? That makes no sense at all to me, but I'll try to accept it at face value. I'm trying. I'm still trying. Why would FNA care that one of their dealers didn't go out of their way to locate an antique for a client?

I was around when FoW opened their doors at the *OLD* location. Full disclosure - I was not an employee, but was treated like one (GOOD thing!). So I have some historical perspective here.

I personally know of at least one person who bought - not an antique by any stretch -a 348SS from an "out of region" dealer. FoW got their wrist slapped by FNA for one of "their" customers buying elsewhere. The reasoning, as I understood it, was that if local customers are going elsewhere to buy their cars, then the service/treatment at the local dealer must be sub-par.

It had nothing to do w/ the relative age (i.e. "antique") of the car, it had everything to do with the level and quality of service. And the old FoW was so good, this didn't happen more than once or twice that I know of (my "time on scene" was from opening of the old shop in the mid-90's to sale of the new just a few years ago).

FWIW/YMMV/yadda yadda yadda......

[360gtracer]

Originally Posted by Gh21631

I was there back in the day (~2002) looking at 355's, this was before they moved to the new bldg. Allie was very accomodating, in fact I al also met him in Fontana (by accident) at an Indy race. They were running challenge cars ahead of the main event. He was very gracious and took my clients and I around the pits and showed us around. I did not buy a car back then but was still treated very well. I cant say that my most recent experience was any better or worse but this time I did buy a car and would probably buy my next one from FoW. I go through cars pretty fast and have worked with just about every highline dealer in the area and I would rate FoW near the top.

I think some of the negativity comes from personal experiences, so far so good for me.

Fontana '02 was a Grand-Am race w/ the 360GT (s/n 2008), not challenge cars. FoW had loads of success w/ Challenge cars, and even more in the GT series (winning a then-record 5 races in a row at the end of '02, as well as back-to-back GT championships in '02 and '03).

The great thing about Allie, which seems to be lacking in the current FoW, was that he was (and remains) a Ferrari owner and enthusiast. That's why you got the royal treatment.

Once again, FWIW/YMMV/yadda yadda yadda.....

[trivia question - without peeking, who can name those 5 races?]

[Robin]

Originally Posted by RedFlyer

Having NO techs or service managers/writers with any appreciable experience while flying the Ferrari flag is dastardly misleading and a real disservice to anyone duped into bringing their car there, warranty work or not.

I just got a letter about some sort of 355 recall item, which the dealership will fix for free. Having been through that mess before, I'll be taking it to Gaithersburg and will be paying instead.

[Piper]

Originally Posted by 360gtracer

I personally know of at least one person who bought - not an antique by any stretch -a 348SS from an "out of region" dealer. FoW got their wrist slapped by FNA for one of "their" customers buying elsewhere. The reasoning, as I understood it, was that if local customers are going elsewhere to buy their cars, then the service/treatment at the local dealer must be sub-par.

So does that mean that Ferrari dealers are expected by FNA to really try hard to find you the used vehicle you request, in the year, color and options you want, and have it transferred? If FNA is to come down that hard on a dealer for circumstances seemingly beyond their sphere of influence, it would also seem to mean that dealerships should be inclined toward reciprocity, moving metal between each other, even if that phone call means your commission was just halved. Is this close to the case? When I see a car I want at any Ferrari dealer nationwide, are we saying my dealer should have the pull to get that car and sell it to me?