FF problem

Dont be silly to accept tha car back. It makes absolutelly no sense at all. You handed them a perfect car, and in return after several weeeks of waiting, you get a car that has had considerable amount of damage (50K in repairs) and that's it?

Ask for your money back, or a "new" car in the same conditions as the one you own before they smashed it.

Plus, when the time comes for you to sell the vehicle, most experts will be able to spot that your car has been involved in a crash at some point in its life, thus reducing its value on the market, even if it's still got a clean title.

Did they mention anything regarding the title??

Don't be naive to accept the car back.

 

I wish you would. It would be a great service to the rest of us.

That is a horrible story. I might have the car inspected by someone you trust immediately after getting it back to insure that it isn't a single notch below the condition it was in when you brought it in to them, and if it is I'd go after them to pay for any necessary further repairs.

This is simply outrageous and I personally do not think you can just trust them to repair it fully and properly. These days, just the fact of a car having been in an accident affects its value -- even if it is fully restored.

 

Zuckerman,
I am suspicious of either the dealer's story -- or yours. It is not that stuff like this doesn't happen. It does but it is extremely rare. The dealer is insured for the full loss on damage to the vehicle including return of the vehicle to Ferrari and replacement with a new one for you. That is what you need to insist on... with an attorney at your side.

 

You might want to consider starting your own thread on the matter. It does not relate to the original thread or the OP. You will likely also get more positive feedback if you do. Hijacking of other peoples threads are usually frowned upon. Just a friendly advice.

 

There are a few Ferraris on these forums that are well documented, like the three of mine, that should offer a little assurance to a perspective buyer. Other than that you are correct, you never know what problem you may be getting. That said, my dealer has had a few from a local owner that changes his Ferraris regularly and I'd take their cars in a heartbeat.

Rick

 

To the OP

Sounds you loved the car (which is awesome), had a crappy experience but all resolved to your satisfaction in the end (even if the process was bumpy)

Did you ever find out conclusively 1) what the actual problem was 2) what the fix was and 3) did they repair the car properly (i.e. given your concerns about the interior, et al).

From your symptoms, clearly sounds like a fuel system issue (which is a complex system on a Ferrari DFI engine), not a fuel gauge problem. So I'm curious...

Also, IF they were able to repair the car (under warranty no doubt), and it was done properly with no damage, I would not necessarily think the value of the car is demoted (beyond typical secondhand depreciation...). A LOT of cars have components replaced....and sounds like this was not structural damage or compromised the car (assume again, fixed properly). Also, I think service records for warranty work are traceable by the VIN via FNA should a prospective buyer want to investigate...

Regardless, HOW it was handled was poor, no doubt - but question: if they had fixed it within 2-3 days, would you have happily kept the car?

 

It may or may not be the complexity of the engine that was the problem here. My wife's BMW got a load of bad gas once and it killed the engine for good. In that case the dealer did nothing for her. I think the OP was treated very well here.

 

Get out now with car or cash. Too many unknowns to be "comfortable". Best

 

Thank you very much for sharing your FF experience.

This experience shows how well protected is an USA customer and how well that protection works: that's amazing to my italian eyes.

Here in Italy you would (probably) haven't had your money back: that's a dream here, with every car manufacturer.

Ferrari, Lamborghini and Mc Laren are very small factories that produce low numbers, so quality cannot be so high as other cars like Ford, Mercedes and so on.

I would not purchase any car as a DD from any of those factories, unless it's a shared platform like the future Lamborghini Urus SUV, as in this way they can do a bigger developing, tuning and testing work on the prototypes due to the big numbers of cars they will build on that platform.

I'm very surprised that a DD FF had just one problem: in my opinion those cars are not built to be a DD, even if they say you can use them every day as your single car. Means Ferrari quality is getting better and better.

ciao

 

I think my FF has had a few problems but certainly no more than any large production car. The general design flaws in a Cadillac or a Mercedes are much more numerous (I've owned a few of both). Ferrari seems to get the general design right the first time which is very good. You are right though, with low production numbers quality should suffer. In 5 years of ownership and probably 80,000+ miles the actual failures have been quite limited. Two batteries in the FF and a water diverter valve (called a thermostat), Second Cali had a fan relay. One of the two (forget which) had a leaking air conditioning fitting. First Cali had standard air bag wiring in the door problem, a top sensor failure. There might have been more but I forget. Never did any of the cars leave me stranded. My Cadillac left me stranded a few times although under warranty.

Rick

 

Rick, i dd not want to say that Ferrari are not reliable. I wanted to say that Ferrari, now, are almost reliable as large production cars: the owner here that had his money back at the very first problem he had on the car, is something that here in Italy is incredible, as there are many problems like that with every single car producer, so you cannot expect that a low production number Ferrari will never have some problem or will never have some spare part availability problem.

As a DD, maybe a Mercedes will give you less problem than a FF, even if today F cars are very well built. Of course it can happen that your brand new S500 will strand you somewhere the very first time you drive it outside the city.

ciao

 

Ferrari has come a long way in reliability. I have no hesitation to take the FF cross country -- worry mostly about tires.

In comparing them with German cars I would say that driven the same way they are near equal in my experience. One difference is that Ferraris have fewer electronic widgets such as keyless entry/ignition, lane change warnings, heads up displays, etc. which make for more problems. For example my X5M spent 35 days in the shop in repeated attempts to find a problem in the keyless entry/ignition system. I don;t miss these bells and whistles though I understand why others like them.

 

You do not focus on the most important thing: at the first problem the owner had his money back. I'm not talking of Ferrari or Mercedes, i'm saying that here it Europe looks like a miracle.

I'm very glad to hear that FF is very reliable, even if it cannot be like a Jeep Wrangler, of course.

The most amazing thing is that you consider normal to have your money back in some days if your car has a major fault: here it's just a dream!

ciao

PS
no problem even with the front clutch? It means Ferrari did a great job there

 

Re the front clutch: Germans have the luster of great engineering, but the Italians are very good at innovative engineering.

As for the Jeep Wrangler, not the best example of reliability. 2014 Jeep Wrangler Reliability | U.S. News Best Cars

 

Thank you very much, Noblesse.

I wanted to buy a preowned Jeep Wrangler 2.8 Diesel to do some offroad here around, but it looks i had better to buy a used FF, a more reliable car: i just have to pay attention that the fuel tank level dooes not go into the reserve zone, but who cares, here the forests are full of gas stations.


Ciao

 

I just had a similar issue with a 2015 Mercedes S65. Check engine light kept coming on (3 separate times). Into dealership - troubleshoot light - provide fix - get car back - light back on in 1-2 days. Turns out it was a pinched line to the fuel tank. Had to wait a few weeks while a new fuel tank was sent from Germany. I could have lemoned the car but instead I asked Mercedes to reimburse me for the 4 initial monthly payments I made on the car. Today I picked up a $15k check from the dealership. Check had a memo that said "customer loyalty". Now a new S65, even though it is a $240,000 car, is not a $400,000 Ferrari. If you speak to the F rep again I would ask nicely if they would be willing to reimburse you for payments you are making while the car is unusable (that is obviously if you are making payments). If it worked in my case for Mercedes it certainly should work for Ferrari. Best of luck.

 

Is this the car in question? It is a tremendous spec.

Ferrari FF | eBay

 

Probably useful to identify the VIN, so a VIN Search identifies this thread.

2014 Ferrari FF
VIN: ZFF73SKA8E0196558

 

I'm still a couple months out from buying. It really is gorgeous and very close to what I would like but I have a bit more research to do. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

and here it is again :

Ferrari FF Base Hatchback 2 Door | eBay

 

That's a nice one. Some real extras in that build, from the full carbon to the Analina. 375 new and will be beautiful for a long time. 2014 with 10k miles means it's been driven enough to be past the beta stage and has a full warranty still.

 

Sold at $190k, guess thats the price to move a 2014 fast these days...

 

and back up for $245 :

http://www.rdsautomotivegroup.com/inventory/details/ZFF73SKA8E0196558/2014-Ferrari-FF-for-sale-in-Newtown-Square-PA-19073/