Grrr! F1 vs. Stick Shift Tranny Complaining

....what are u talking about? the 360 as well as the F430 come with 6 speeds..theres no retrofit, about 10% come with it. period. as does the 575 and 612.

 

Chase, FWIW one of the guys in our "early Sunday morning" club here on Long Island got rid of his 360 w/F1 after 5000 miles because it was taking the fun out of driving the car. He is waiting for his 6-speed 430 at the current time. And waiting, and waiting and waiting ...

 

The idiot that told you that is full of ***** and should be selling ice cream not fixing Ferrari's.

Sorry to say but you got screwed. 7k for a clutch? No way...No how.

 

That's the lamest story I've ever heard from a Ferrari mechanic. You should have shopped around, a clutch job is much cheaper than that...and owning a 6-spd, all things being equal, should be less expensive than owning an F1.

Gary

 

I understood the 6-speed was the standard on both 360 & 430 models and the F1 was an extra-cost option. If Ferrari really wanted to move everyone to F1, then it would be more effective if they made it the standard and the 6-speed became an delete-option with some minor cost-savings. The more they wanted everyone to move to F1, the less they would make the cost savings for deleting it.

Aside from whether Ferrari really wants everyone to move to F1 or not, your mechanic must be implying that the driveline was setup to take F1 and there is something mickey-mouse about the way the 6-speed ends up getting configured. That seems fairly unlikely considering how long Ferrari has been designing manual shift mid-engine clutch/transaxle mechanisms.

 

What kills me is that they could leave the F1 in the car, disconnect and remove the paddles completely, and simply let you control it with a floormounted "clutch" pedal and a center console "stick" shift.

You'd never grind a gear. You'd never miss a shift...yet with the right springs for pedal and gearshift feedback, it would have the feel and look of a 6 speed.

 

I agree with Rifledriver on this one. Your mechanic was talking absolute rubbish. I'm not convinced your mechanic is qualified to sell ice-cream though.

 

$7k? My apologies and all, but sounds like you got F-hosed. Note to self, the $500 in parts and 6 hours of labor for the 308 for new clutch, pressure plate, rear main seal, etc are a bargain.

As much as i admire the capabilites of the new cars, it seems the cost of ownership is so far out of line...

 

Ferrari is constantly trying to be on the brink of technology.

To them, a traditional manual transmission is old-school.

 

Do I hear a little mechanic bashing? $7K?? Who was it so that we all know to stay away?

 

The manual gearbox actually takes some skill to use. Whereas anyone, including your old maid aunt can drive an F1. There is something wrong with that.

Having said that, I have driven the 360 F1 as well as the manual at the track....and I unfortunately have to admit that I was ALOT quicker with the paddles and left foot braking. Would I buy an F1 for the road............probably not. There is something about click-clacking through that gate and double clutching and getting it right that is very rewarding and a big part of the experience that I just can't give up...............yet!

 

Easy to use doesn't necessarily make something 'wrong'. Manual gearboxes are going the way of drum brakes and carburetors -- they were a good design at the time, especially compared to dead-feeling automatic trannies with torque converters that sapped power. The 'manu-matics' like the Tiptronic and BMW's Steptronic weren't much better. But, technology has passed by the manual gearbox.

I hope these F1 systems trickle down to where my everyday driver wouldn't have to be an automatic (CA traffic makes a manual gearbox something of a curse...) but would give me the option to go auto or manual.

 

Chase put it clearly: Stubborn americans who think a 6 speed stick is a big deal just because 99% of american cars are automatic transmission equipped.

IMHO it makes a lot of sense when he said that 360s were designed to carry F1 tranny.
on the other hand, $7 grand for a clutch job is a robbery

 

Retail on the clutch (186158) is about $1000. Retail on the ring gear (186157) is about $600. Did they also replace the flywheel (181596) which is about $900 retail?

I doubt FoSD did just those items for $7K. There must be something else on the receipt. Eh?

 

For a die-hard stick guy like myself, that would be even lamer than buying an F1.

 

Well if Ferrari introduces a new Dino it may come only with a six speed manual. We will have to wait and see.

 

I had heard that early 360's (as in 99's) with sticks had dish shaped flywheels that caused problems and there was an update. O/w everything else I have heard indicates that clutches last longer in stick shift 360's than in paddle shifts.

BTW, most stick shifts are actually sold in Europe. Sometimes I wonder how many paddle shift US cars are sold to people who can't use 3 pedals in the first place.

DAve

 

Just curious (as an owner of a 6-speed 2001 360), how many miles were on your car when the clutch went? And what were the symptoms? Any warnings it was going?

 

This debate is an ongoing one, the only Ferrari I have driven had an f1 box and really its very easy to drive...maybe too easy. Now South Africa doesnt have all that many Ferraris and you would be amazed....in 5 years I have seen only 1....yes ONLY 1 manual 360....all the others have been F1 and I dont think I am ever going to see a manual 430.

For more inexperienced drivers the F1 is probably the way to go but for purests and people that really drive the manual will always be first choice, though having said that the F1 is very convenient in an urban environment.

For me, I honestly dont know whether given the financial ability I would have an F1 over a manual, would be a very tough choice to make.

As an aside...what manaul 360's and 355;s there are in South Africa...these cars are very difficult to sell on the used market.....

 

Didn't you get an itemized bill? Did you ask the service manager exactly what parts were replaced?