Carbon Fiber interior trim not worth it

People like the look and the idea of carbon fiber which is the mainstay of F-1 chassis construction.

Ferrari likes the profitability of making an extra 15-25K per car!

As far as performance for a street car: ZERO!

Your 458 would go faster by you losing 10 pound more that by adding all the carbon fiber junk.

 

Respectfully, why did you not have the chance to look inside a 458 before buying one? I like Carbon Fiber, but it is a choice. Regarding noises, I had a similar problem and it turned out that when the CF had been removed (when installing a radar system) a hook/screw was not put in properly. Best

 

Mine didn't creak.

I like CF visually. I think it's very interesting. But, in resale, any additional CF is just wasted money.

To me, if you pay this much for a car, you should order it the way you like it. You don't buy one of these every week. Buy it and be happy. Then pass it to the next generation.

If I remember, the dash saves about 10 lbs. But, you'll never feel the difference. It's not about saving weight really. It's really about aesthetics.

 

With all due respect Mr. Mayor, when you give this advice - see above, you should first put your money where your mouth is? you kept your cars for 2 months each and drove them 500 miles - no?

 

He did pass it on to the next generation. Just not his progeny. Someone else's.

 

Same thing here Mayor and I agree with your purchase assessment. CF is alway in the eye of the beholder and often does not return the investment. A proper designed and mounted piece of CF will not creak and I have had no problems with mine in any of the cars that I have owned.

 

Not true. Drove the first one 1000 miles and gave back the 458 spider after 500 miles because I didn't like it.

I bought TWO of them. That's putting money where your mouth is. The '13 spider just isn't as good as the '12 coupe IMO. Shoot me for my opinion of what I like to drive.

But to get the point, according to you, 1500 miles in 2 458's doesn't qualify me to say my CF panels never squeaked? How long do you think I need to drive before I an qualified in your opinion? 2000 miles?

Now, as to driving it, if you actually bothered to know anything me, you would know I'm out of the country 5 months of the year and travel in the US another 3 months a year. When home, I used the cars as my daily driver unless the weather was terrible.

I think I'm the one putting money where my mouth is.

As to the "with all due respect" comment:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-Id_fuXFA]Talladega Nights With All Due Respect - YouTube[/ame]

 

I assume your idea of a "bump" and my idea of a "bump" are the same. If I hit a famous Texas pothole EVERYTHING creaks....if I hit an elevation in the road or a hardened piece of asphalt I have no creaks, groans or pops from the CF. I usually run the car in Race mode with the the bumpy road setting.

 

I think the only CF part I didn't get was the valve covers...because those just need to be red. I have no squeaks or rattles anywhere in the car and I just crossed the one year anniversary.

 

i think mines awesome :

 

Never had that in my Cali or in the 458 spider...and I have a lot of carbonfibre in both cars.

CF is 99.9% related to looks in these cars and I love it. Is it worth the cost? To me most of it yes....but it's purely a personal decision.

 

Unsure what the deal RE weight is with the interior parts, but adding the CF to the engine bay actually adds weight.

The interior bits are simple cheap plastic with 1 layer of wet carbon added. If the total savings for the parts you named are over half a KG i'd be surprised.

If Ferrari used true carbon fiber parts, and not laminated over plastic, each part would be about 5x lighter than what Ferrari is currently doing (going by 360Trev's carbon laminate door handle of 71 grams and his dry carbon 14 grams example).

Fact of the matter is that Ferrari can price their carbon the way they're doing is because it sells, and rarely does a Ferrari buyer actually know that their carbon is in fact inferior, and are WAY overpaying for it.

Carbon Fiber itself is cheap to buy, and the way Ferrari are laminating it over parts almost adds no extra build time at all. It'd be surprised if the 15K options in CF actually cost them more than 300USD in time and materials. It's a f'ing gold mine for them.

 

+1

 

i agree cf that is mostly a cosmetic preference.
one that appeals to me.
a black dash tends to look much better with cf trim, imho.
and oh, the wheel and paddle shifters!
cf transforms these mundane objects into an object of sensual desire!

 

Oh no, I completely agree. It sets of a black or red dash perfect.

 

Excellent response!

 

the average person is just not going to notice interior CF trim on an Fcar. they probably have seen very few Fcars and would rightly assume they are all that way unless you specifically point out the CF. only true Fcar people are going to notice and they are not going to be looking at the interior very much unless you are giving them a ride. if driving, they will hopefully be looking at the road and glancing at gauges.

so in the end you have to please yourself as you will be the one who really notices interior CF trim. Maybe your spouse. Mine could not care less about such details. She rode for over an hour in a friends spider with lots of carbon fiber inside. She was totally clueless and she usually notices everything including a tiny piece of lint on the carpet.

the only interior CF on my spider is the LED steering wheel. sometimes the sun hits it and produces an annoying reflection. the more CF the more relections, especially with the top down...99% of the time for me.

when spending so much money an a vehicle you should get what you want. the thought of getting into a vehicle so expensive and having some regret just seems absurd to me.

Just a word on engine CF. Seems it would be easier to clean with CF.

Life is good.
Life is better driving a Ferrari.

IMVHO lots of CF is popular right now. may fade with time or stay popular. who knows. probably won't effect resale much. doubt if you will get your money back.

 

I've had CF in several cars. I've never had it be the source of creaks or rattles. However, in some cars if the seatbelt toggle can bang into it, that can rattle or make noises. Solution: buckle in loose seatbelts.

Yes financially its not the wisest move. But then again these are things that we here like because they enhance our emotional state. The cost/value proposition varies with each of us.

 

Love all my carbon fiber. Have the racing package and center console. Led lights ect. Absolutely worth it! My friends have no carbon in the interior and it looks naked. Like its missing something. Just my 2 cents.

 

Oh and the carbon fiber winglets.

 

I've read most of your thousands of posts during the last two and a half years and I value your opinions, observations, reviews. You're one of those guys who can drive a car once and give a thorough and accurate review of the pros and cons. The respect was meant for your opinions and it was said genuinely.

That said, both your coupe and spider were specced to go quickly. The coupe was meant to put you high on the list to get the spider and the spider was sold while it could still get you your money back. Nothing wrong with this and the way you manage your finances, but it doesn't exactly spell ownership experience. You could have rented a spider over a weekend and driven 500 miles, but wait it would have cost something, so instead you can "own" it and drive it occasionally for a few months and have it sit in a garage and it'll cost you nothing. This is the smart money choice if you ask me.

Therefore, let me say again, no sir, you didn't put your money where your mouth is and I'm not fooled by your diatribes. And, let me give you one more: you've talked out of both sides of your mouth on several occasions. You've criticized Ferrari owners for not driving their cars enough (in one post comparing them to McLaren drivers who do) as if you drove the cars that you "owned", but wait you didn't like them enough that's why you didn;t drive them and sold them back to the dealer

I don't have the time to go back through the thousands of posts and copy-paste the ones where you played the "Ferrari defender" during your "ownership" months or weeks, recall the posters who called you kool aid drinker and told you the marketing guys have gotten to you? then suddenly you announced the sale of your spider and the whole attitude changed becoming more critical of fcars and Ferrari in general (recall the post where it was revealed you drove the demo F12 when you wrote that review exposing the LV dealer to FNA? you went down on Ferrari because they don't give enough opportunity for test drives of new models while they make cars available to the journos).

That's it. With all due respect

 

for me, I like the carbon, however I don't like it when people order just the dash or just the wheel, its all or nothing that looks good, imo,,

 

have never had CF creak - in terms of looks, it has become a standard - without, the car just looks like an every day car...