Ferrari of Washington

I think you have to realize that the limited production of these cars, which make them exclusive and protects their value, also creates a competitive situation between dealerships. Although selling cars is the ultimate goal, they are very sensitive to the fact that they only receive delivery of so many new vehicles. To let those cars get snatched up by some guy from NYC or Miami, they would immediately have a serious dilemma, "what do you do for your loyal customers who want the new model and have repeatedly purchased from you in the past?" Do you tell those guys, "first come-first serve - sucks being you." Or do you protect those folks and reserve the limited supply for your best customers. If you're running that type of business, and are dependent on a limited number of buyers, I think the answer is obvious.

I had this conversation with a Ferrari Dealership in Florida a few weeks ago and he confirmed that's the way it works. Obviously, Ferrari could cure this with increased production levels, but everyone on this Forum would blast them for eroding values. This is one way that Ferrari keeps their buyers loyal and coming back for more. It's working for them and look at all the 458s currently on the market. What was once exclusive and impossible to buy, is now readily available a couple years later. The car is no less desirable and realistically, if you had to wait 18-24 month for delivery of the new car, are you really getting special access that you couldn't get by waiting a couple years for people to trade in their vehicles with 2,500 miles on them.

I think we have to keep this in perspective.

 

Don't forget selling in-territory protects service revenue. If all you cars left the area, what would you fix?

 

Good point. Hadn't considered that.

 

That might be true up to a point but I would think the two wouldn't be directly related. Buying a car 2,000 miles away and sending your car 2,000 miles away every time it needs work are two different propositions. I would bet that any dealer, good or bad, needs are large enough local owner base to stay in business.

 

Dont be fooled by Ferrari of Washington's charisma or presence. Between the lies they are just as shady as Eastern Motors. The car i bought (360 stradale) was supposedly up to date on services...fresh gear oil, tensioner, variators, clutch, etc... Took it to competizione and found that the gear oil was black, variators never changed, and the clutch was toast. I bought the car anyway at a significantly reduced price. After a couple thousand miles the engine blew up due to the injestion of metal fragments from the catalytic converters. Luckily it was covered under the 8-80 emissions warranty because my "certified" car had no warranty. 5 months later my car still doesnt run. The engine builder was going to rebuild my engine by reusing the heavily gouged piston and scored liner. I told him that reusing those parts were not kosher and i believed they should be replaced. They said ferrari wouldnt pay for it so i said i would pay out of pocket for a complete rebuild of the bottom end. After a couple months of inactivity from the dealer and a few fights with the staff i demanded a copy of the warranty work order from ferrari. reluctantly they sent it to me and clear as day it had time and parts for a piston and liner replacement. I was told by competizione to pay very close attention to this dealer and in particular the technician in charge of the race shop. They told me exactly what they would do and how i would get scammed one way or another. So after agreeing on a total rebuild we came up with a price i would pay out of pocket for the build that wasnt covered through warranty. Now that i was putting up an extra $10k+ i figured they would actually get it done in a timely manner. Not the case... 5 months later my car doesnt run. Motor has a misfire and makes noise. It will probably be pulled back out. At this point i dont know what my options are. I have a spare motor. I might have to pull the car from the dealer and install the spare at competizione and in another year or so when my new motor is done maybe i will have to have it swapped back at the dealer. Ultimately my experience here has been terrible. No communication, no returned calls, sold me a lemon, and they couldnt care less. Walk in the dealer service area... if you are lucky to find someone they are either playing video games or checking facebook. This has been a ferrari nightmare.

 

Yikes. Best of luck with the CS. You're in good hands with Richard and Fernando.

 

Isnt there a Ferrari of NA rep that you can contact to help you get this resolved? I had some issues with Porsch I bought a while back and the rep stpped in and took over.

 

I'm confused - how does the engine *injest* anything *FROM* the cats?? Last time I checked, the cats were pretty well downstream from the intake, or any reciprocating parts....

Even if the cats injested something which caused them to clog, would that blow up the engine or merely cause it to stop running? (I'm reminded of the scene in "Beverly Hills Cop" where Eddie Murphy puts the bananas up the tailpipe of the other cops' car - funny stuff!)

Can someone help me understand?

Thanks.

gp

 

Anyone? Anyone? Surely there must be someone who can help me understand this?

Thanks.

gp

 

Not cats; precats. The exhaust manifolds have catalytic converter material, inches from the cylinder head. These precats take tremendous abuse, but it's not the catalytic converter material that is of greatest concern, but the welds themselves have been reported to fragment. Variable timing often gives rise to both intake and exhaust valves being slightly open at the same time, the resultant vacuum creating a back pressure that can draw material back into the cylinder head.

 

Thanks!

gp

 

I'm actually looking at a F355 for sale that FOW has right now. What do you guys think?

 

Why not? I would buy from them again.

 

Always get a ppi, regardless of the dealer, there can be many hidden problems with the F355.

 

As a former FOW employee from the "good ole days" when Richard and Fernando (among all the other greats) still worked there, I can vouch the new FOW is not the family it used to be. I know way too much about that place to cut them any slack for the way customers and employees were treated after the dealership changed hands. I was lucky to get out of there before everything crumbled.

I am glad to hear they do have some firm supporters now. For a while, I think it was very rough for them in rebuilding their reputation. Although, after seeing what they did to people that are close friends of mine I can't say I could ever be a supporter of their organization with their current ownership/management in place.

 

http://doubleclutch.ca/1305/losing-a-generation/
Back in the 80s, as a pre-teen and teen, I would step into Amrican Service Center to eye and finger print the 308s, 512s, Testarossas sitting there and the sales staff would let me sit in them, and give me the one page picture/stat sheets. When Ferrari of Washington popped up in Sterling, I would drive out to the office park, once again eye and finger print the 308s, 328s, 348s, 355s, 550s, and TRs and Ralph, Redding or Allie would pop the hood and doors and let me plop on in, they didn't have any fliers for me and they didn't sell me a car, but they sold lots of hats and t-shirts to me and a couple of cars to friends I sent their way. Today I go out there and it is the cold shoulder of quiteness, feel like I am in a library where I am not allowed to touch and my word might marr the paint job.....

Where is our Maclaren dealer?

 

agreed, Tam and Ralph were great. Ralph was booted out with the new ownership. He was talking about starting his own exotic dealership locally but I have not heard about anything opening yet.

 

As a sidebar comment, I called this afternoon to arrange for a test drive tomorrow, but spent about five minutes on hold listening to Christmas Carols. Needless to say I eventually hung up and called Criswell Maserati and will be meeting with their sales team tomorrow morning.

 

odd I always get through. Don't give up so soon just drop by... my test drive was just a random visit

 

I agree just show up and they are always glad to acommodate. I have never had any issues. In fact service has taken my car without appointment and has even worked on it while I waited.

 

I have to say I have been impressed with Ferrari of Washington in the last year. The service dept has shown great care for my F430 and I stopped in for a check engine light a few weeks back without an appt and they looked and deleted my CEL in 10 minutes. I am not sure how the sales dept is these days but service has exceeded my expectations and I was nervous givin the bad responses regarding FOW on this forum. My advice to the OP is give FOW a chance to earn your business. Being on hold for 5 minutes is not a reason to go elsewhere in my opinion. Now if you are treated rude, the prices are out of line, sure, go elsewhere but these guys are in the business to sell cars, im sure they would love to assist you if they are given a chance.

I have also noticed FOW has grown the used car selection dramatically, they have over 40+ examples of used cars on the website. I am not sure if all the cars are FOW's cars, could be a number of them on consignment but they are trying to make moves in the right direction if you ask me, just my 2 cents.

 

+1. Agree, FOW is a good place these days.
My 458 goes in for it's annual service next week.
.

 

Was there yesterday and my ideal 458 was in the service bay on a lift, Rossa Fiorano over tan with yellow calipers. Stunning.

 

New owners or just the existing ones finally figuring things out?

 

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