New Owner - 14 Cali30 with HS package

Welcome to Cali ownership.

The best advice is to keep it on the battery tender.
Better yet, upgrade the tender to a CTEK model and keep it on that.

And drive it - don’t save the miles for the next owner!

 

Welcome. Congrats. Drive it, that's my best advice. The more you drive them, the more well behaved Ferrari are. Oh yeah, and post pictures or it doesn't count!
T

 

Congratulations! I think you are going to LOVE it!

 

Enjoy it of course!

Driving it is the best way but looking at it in the garage or driveway works too. We could use a look.

 

I use a Ctek MXS 5.0 with a home made connector cable for the charge port. Much better than the Ferrari supplied one.
Def.

 

I have the 4.3. Plenty of people have success with that, the 5.0 and the 7002.

The adaptor cable you need for the ctek to plug into the Ferrari specific charge port is available on eBay.

 

Correction. I have the MXS 5.0 not the 4.3.

 

If you're handy with a soldering iron, check out www.kumari.net. Instructions to make a cable and links to buy the parts.

 

Lovely, your good health to drive it Yari.

 

Black roof with black wheels combined with the gorgeous Ferrari red plus pop of color from shields and calipers. Classic, & still gorgeous. May you have nothing but happiness behind the wheel...T

 

Which tyres are on it, and how old are they?

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Two...Make sure to also check the manufacture date code on the sidewall. Should look something like the picture below. A lot of Ferrari tires time out due to decomposition of the tire compounds before they wear out the tread from too many miles.
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T

 

Right. Consider getting rid of those. Not only are they the least valued of all the offerings, they are more than likely pretty old.

Get yourself a Porto MPS4S set instead. Much newer tech and by far the best sport car road tyre on the market today.

 

When you start the car, always turn the key and wait a few seconds for the series of small beeps, that will tell you all the sensors and computers have checked in. If you just twist the key and hit the button right away, you're apt to get a bunch of weird error messages ... mannetino failure, go to dealer, etc. ... but that's just because the car wasn't ready to start. And, keep the car on the charger when you're not driving it, even a slightly low battery can cause issues. It's a little more of a pain in the neck on the Cali 30, as you have to pop the trunk, the California T has a magnetic charger that just attaches next to the license plate.

Speaking of the trunk, people will warn you to unlock the car before you open the trunk rather than just popping the trunk on a locked car. Supposedly, this can confuse the alarm and cause issues.

When you shut off the car, you just turn the key off and remove it, no need to shift into neutral, etc. It goes into park by itself. And when you want to park the car briefly and leave it idling, you pull both paddles to get to neutral, then pull the emergency brake, it will say "hold" but the little "park" light will come on when you open the door. When you get back in, just pull the paddle and the parking brake will release itself.

Beware accidentally putting the car in "car wash" mode ... that will leave it shut off in neutral without the parking brake on.

The carbon ceramic brakes create almost no visible brake dust, not that you would notice on black rims, but if you get some squealing when braking, after the car has cooled down, just rinse the rotors and calipers with clear water and it should quiet right down. Never use any sort of wheel cleaner on the rims, you don't want to damage the rotors, they cost a mint. And, if you remove the rims yourself, be extra careful with the rotors when removing or mounting the wheel, lest you actually chip a rotor.

Sometimes the climate control system will have a mind of its own ... for example, sometimes it will not blow air out of the dash vents, no matter how much you fiddle with the controls. But it will usually work properly next time. It is an Italian car, after all, you have to expect some quirks.

You can change the mileage indicator from actual miles to range left on the gas tank ... this is a good thing to do if you worry about adding miles due to the attendant depreciation

Oh, and never drive the car in Auto mode, that's what the paddles are for!

 

As Ronald Reagan said, trust but verify!
T

 

Where was this info when I bought my Cali?!?
I think I hit on all of these in my first year.
Great post.
T

 

Sonax Wheel Cleaner Plus and a few other quality cleaners are perfectly safe for CC rotors. No need to tell people otherwise when it is not true.

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Drive your car as much in Auto as you like. Trust me, most people use Auto quite a lot.
Yes some will say that they NEVER drive in Auto. God forbid they would ever use their two tonne Hector of a GT as, uh, a GT lol.
Put it in comfort and hit Auto. Sit back and enjoy the ride. If you want to go everywhere thinking you're Schumacher, by all means, but you'll get the most out of your car if you enjoy all aspects of it.
No shame in using Auto. It's wonderful to let the car do some of the work some times.

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I use auto/comfort almost exclusively driving with the wife in the Cali. It's hard to simultaneously concentrate on shifting gears and her nagging me about my speed!

I drove almost exclusively in auto for the first year of ownership. To be frank, the Cali was a lot more HP than any car I had owned previously, and the nearest in HP - my 911S - was rear engine. Much different driving dynamics & feel. Didn't want to be one of those guys who bins their brand new exotic. So, I took the time to get to know the car and it characteristics...T

 

Congratulations on a beautiful car, I hope to join you with my own Cali real soon. If mine does not come with a black roof and pillars, that is the first thing I will add. I think it adds a little anger to the look.